Since this thread is ostensibly about the cars being rebuilt, I'll mention that a lot of the Amfleets being rebuilt are actually Cafe cars (currently stored due to various incompatible interior configurations) that will be rebuilt as coaches.
You must have mis-understood. They are not going to convert food service cars to coaches. It would be stupid on so many levels, I don't know where to begin.
So you must be calling an Amtrak spokesman a liar. That, or you're calling me a liar. Either way, be careful what you say.
Stored Amfleet food service cars do nobody any good. Coaches that can earn revenue to improve short-distance corridor service (given the lack of anything else available) are what Amtrak needs.
I suppose you have a better idea on where Amtrak can get a bunch of coaches on short notice.
I am not calling you a liar. I said specifically, "you must have misunderstood", and telling the truth is only laying out information as it occurs in your mind. Lying is stating information you know to be untrue.
There are several reasons why the Amfleet I cafe cars can not be full coaches. They have mechanical equipment, reinforcements, and so on that would make the conversion extraordinarily expensive and downright silly.
Now, here is what I think is actually the plan, and what I think Magliari was saying, is that they were planning on converting these cars to a layout similar to the original AmCafe layout- coach seats on both sides of the snack bar. I guess you could call that a "coach", and it would make more sense. After all, the snack bar doesn't take that much space, when you get down to it.
There are trains on the system running with Club-Dinettes and full-dinettes that really don't need them. For example, the Downeaster is a short run. There isn't much need for table seating on that train. Running it with a club-snack-coach car that has the BC section in one end, the snack bar, and coach seats in the other would increase capacity significantly.
Likewise, people have mentioned the Hiawatha. Yeah, Wisconsin doesn't pay for a food service car. But Amtrak runs the at-seat carts anyway. Perhaps they could (and will) experiment with the idea of a mid-train snack-coach instead. All you give up is a few seats, while greatly improving the selection and types of food available.
Another place it might work is providing a second snack car on long regional trains.
Honestly, I've never understood why they got rid of the the snack-coach configuration. Its not great railroading, but NEC regional trains have never been about that.