That brought back memories of my time riding trains in India.
Maharaja and Deccan Odyssey and half a dozen similar operations in various parts of India are tourist operations, not regular commercial trains. They are run to impress mostly foreigners. Most Indian cannot afford them. They should not be compared with Amtrak, or even with the premium commercial trains on Indian Railways like the Rajdhanis, Shatabdis and Vande Bharat trains. Yes, food in standard premium commercial operation on Indian Railways is more than adequate which in my opinion is better than anything served on Amtrak both in quantity and quality keeping in mind what the eating habits of the local riders are. On the rest of IR trains food service varies between adequate through abysmal to non-existent.
Any particular reason why Acela gets real plates and silverware but LD trains aren't doing that yet (unless there is new information to me).
LD trains do have silverware and glassware. There was originally talk of them ordering china when traditional dining returned, whether they ceased that plan or if its just taken them forever to receive an order I do not know. As for Acela, its an entirely different product, service format that's really modeled directly off airline first class, and has been using plates all along. I'd add that while Acela might have plates, generally the food on LD trains in the diner is better from my experiences.
Acela served on plastic plates for the majority of COVID times - much like LD traditional dining.
They never permanently moved away from it on Acela however and retained their stock of real dishware as the covid cutbacks weren't intended to be permanent. On LD trains they moved away from china quite a few years ago now and sold and disposed of all of their stock well before the pandemic. It's a worthwhile question to ask if they are still planning on bringing it back since they claimed they were in 2021, but I honestly don't know the answer to that. However I usually attend the RPA events and if I get a chance to ask someone about that I will do so. While I'd appreciate the waste reduction that going back to china would bring, I do not find the plastic dishware they are presently using to be particularly offensive or degrading to the experience - but of course that's just one person's opinion. The presentation is pretty decent as the current plastic dishware is designed to look like it's real even though it isn't.
Yes to your question. Brownie and butter cake at lunch. Some crews will take it out of the wrapping,
Based on your comment about waste reduction, does this mean the plastic plates are single use and don't get washed? If so I assume they have to have a dishwasher anyway for the glassware and silverware so it seems it would make sense to have reusable plates also.
I would assume so but don’t know 100%.
Usually you'll get a real glass at dinner for beer or other alcoholic beverages too. For the soft drinks its a little bit less consistent - I have gotten glasses before when I get my sparkling water but it's often plastic as well. I have gotten real silverware and glasses at the other meals on occasion, but it is definitely most consistently used at dinner.
What about the Capitol Limited, doesn't that count, too?
The sandwiches served in the cafe car are pretty good. Why can’t they be served as a substitute for the TV dinners? If you are going from San Antonio to New York in a sleeper, that’s three days of flex crap. Why doesn’t Amtrak allow substitutions from the cafe car. It’s actually a step up.
The huge problem with ingredient labeling (especially with prepared foods) on non statutory items is that common items are often components pf other ingredients, or may be present in a prep facility. Oat has to be really tough for you, it's everywhere...
