I rode the westbound Lake Shore a lot in the mid- to late 1980s and certainly agree with Johnston that the experience in that era was superb. As a coach passenger heading back upstate, I always planned on dinner in the diner in those years when the LSL still left from Grand Central, and the diner was a reason to take the Lake Shore rather than one of the other Empire corridor trains, even if the Turboliners were faster. As Johnston says, on most trips the food and service still had echoes of the distinguished trains that had plied the same route in the past.
I suspect that it doesn't have much effect on coach ridership because many coach passengers by now have been educated to have very low expectations.
That is correct. Often 448 does okay. Looking at the arrival data for the last month I see that only twice did 448 arrive so late that passengers would have missed the last Concord bus for Maine at 11:15 P.M. The last time my wife and I came back on 448 we did okay and were able to make the bus without difficulty. The two times that she was with me before that, 448 was seriously late and we spent the night on a bench in South Station. Fortunately it was not crowded and we each had our own bench for the night.
It's hard to sort out how many coach travelers opted to stay away because of Covid concerns vs. dining concerns. But in the winter of 2019-20 I started seeing the Lake Shore coming into Rensselaer from the west with just three coaches -- one for Boston and two for New York. Previously I don't ever recall seeing fewer than two coaches for Boston and three for New York, even in winter. But I am pretty sure I started seeing these shortened consists in January or February 2020 -- i.e., before Covid started keeping everyone home -- so I suspect coach travel was already down when the pandemic hit. By this point it had already been a year and half since regular dining service went away and was replaced by the sleeper-only contemporary/flex meals. Of course, there were always fewer travelers in the depth of winter in any case.
There might have been an immediate reactionary effect. Unfortunately with the Lake Shore it was difficult to measure because at the same exact time "Contemporary dining" was introduced there was a Sputyn Duyvil construction project that resulted in the train not running to New York and ran strictly Chicago - Boston - and during that period there was also days when Boston was bussed due to the annual CSX work blitz on the B&A so the train simply ran Albany - Chicago. Additionally they were also tinkering with the eastern consists at the same time as part of Anderson's "break even" quest. This year is the first year since Anderson was around that they have not cut the Lake Shore down to 3 coaches in the winter. Given how long its been since the train went to contemporary and later flexible dining any initial impact is probably gone. They've also been running the train with an additional sleeper line during busy season. I think probably a big factor in the more recent performance improvement on this train is the improvement in on time performance on CSX. Also the manner in which the flex dining is done on the Lake Shore within a VL2 diner and with a dedicated attendant is far superior to whats being done on the Crescent for instance. Having said that we all do hope for a dining improvement.
Coach passengers are not able to purchase meals on the Silvers as of now, unlike the Western trains.
Yes, you will get dinner included in a bedroom or roomette. They will dictate the time you will be served in your room. The down side is their flex meals are really bad. I have had them all and none of them are enjoyable. Here is a picture of the chicken parmesan.
This is Amtrak. When it comes to dining on the Crescent, Lake Shore and City of New Orleans they are specialists in disappointment.I want to go from ATL to WAS by train but not until there is a dining car. Everyday I pass the Amtrak station on the interstate and look to see if there is a dining car. Everyday I am disappointed.
Realistically you can do 5 seatings of 44 per seating in current Diners which is 220. So to serve a train with 1650 or so would require a very large number of Dining Cars in the train.
I believe @west point is talking about expanding the dinner period (4:30 pm - 9:00 pm) rather than passenger numbers.
That is correct. That time line using 45 meal times would allow in a perfect world 7 seatings. So, serve about 300 riders. If needed then use part of lounge for meals. However, cannot imagine 300 riders wanting to eat in diner as many coach passengers are shorts or on budgets.
