Amtrak Dining and Cafe service 2023 H2

[MccfamschoolMom]

Would also be really easy to offer a turkey club sandwich - something that is more like regular food and less like the discount aisle in the frozen foods section.

Agreed. Gas-station convenience stores are able to offer pre-packaged cold sandwiches, so Amtrak should be able to also. My local Casey's keeps their prepackaged cold sandwiches in a refrigerated display. If such sandwiches were delivered frozen to a train pre-boarding at the origin point, they could thaw in a mini-fridge in the diner's galley. Such sandwiches would at least be as good as current cold entrees in the Cafe car, and certainly an improvement over a lot of the nuked hot entrees in the Cafe car!

 

[crescent-zephyr]

When I rode the Broadway Limited in 1994 from Chicago to Greensburg, we had the equivalent of Flex Dining. Amtrak has a long history of trying to shed dining service.

They also have a long history of trying to improve dining service. Would be interesting to see how much money has been wasted with consulting, crew training, new applicances, new dishes each time a "new" idea comes along. Would be MUCH cheaper to just have a consistently good product.

The back and forth has cost millions in hard costs alone, let alone the costs of providing such inconsistent services.

 

[lordsigma]

Agreed. Gas-station convenience stores are able to offer pre-packaged cold sandwiches, so Amtrak should be able to also. My local Casey's keeps their prepackaged cold sandwiches in a refrigerated display. If such sandwiches were delivered frozen to a train pre-boarding at the origin point, they could thaw in a mini-fridge in the diner's galley. Such sandwiches would at least be as good as current cold entrees in the Cafe car, and certainly an improvement over a lot of the nuked hot entrees in the Cafe car!

They do offer such sandwiches in the cafe car. The ham pretzel roll one is quite good.

 

[Sidney]

Amy's Frozen foods are much better tasting (my opinion) and also much healthier (fact) - Amtrak at one time would offer an Amy's meal as the Healthy / Vegan option I think.

For lunch and dinner they should offer a good quality entree salad as an option. Would also be really easy to offer a turkey club sandwich - something that is more like regular food and less like the discount aisle in the frozen foods section.

Amtrak has two decent sandwiches in the cafe car. Would be nice if they offered those as an alternative to the flex dinners,being you are getting the same food for lunch and dinner.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

Amtrak has two decent sandwiches in the cafe car. Would be nice if they offered those as an alternative to the flex dinners,being you are getting the same food for lunch and dinner.

Indeed! I've had some pretty good salads from cafe cars as well.

I'd take the cheese and cracker tray from cafe car over those flex entrees any time.

 

[lordsigma]

Amtrak has two decent sandwiches in the cafe car. Would be nice if they offered those as an alternative to the flex dinners,being you are getting the same food for lunch and dinner.

Ironically on the CONO the cafe car and flex dining are one and the same at the moment. Frankly I’d prefer the option of both. A couple of the flex meals are decent and I’d rather something substantial at least at dinner, but a sandwich salad or burger would be a nice choice at lunch. No reason to have a “cafe voucher” just add it to the flex menu

 

[dlagrua]

If Amtrak offered "organic", Preservative, MSG, Sulfite, and Nitrite free flex meals I believe that more passengers would be happy. I don't understand why so many unhealthy caustic chemicals, w high salt and sugar content are used in those meals. Sodium Nitrite is actually a toxic substance.

 

[drdumont]

Not the Texas Eagle. There was traditional dining on a trip I took in October 2019. The Capitol Limited and Cardinal had flex at that point. I'm not sure when the Silvers and the Crescents got downgraded, but the Lakeshore Limited was the first to receive the treatment.

By the way, there were some duds with traditional dining back in the "good old days." I had a "Special" which was supposed to be a braised beef on the Southwest Chief in 2015 in which the beef was clearly undercooked for its cut, but the veggies were overcooked and cried out. The beef was dried out too, undercooked and dried out, kind of weird. But the breakfast was good, and I had a nice steak on the return trip.

The Texas Eagle is still FLEX garbage between Chicago and San Antonio. If you are riding the Eagle through to Los Angeles, the Sunset Diner is Diner service and is quite good.

 

[drdumont]

<SNIP> With a ready to serve meal like flexible dining or the cafe car items that is all done in advance and you have a complete meal in a package.

Cryovacing, par cooking, and some other shortcuts are more prevalent in the food industry than you might think. Some of the items done properly in that fashion can be tasty. Powdered eggs, powdered milk, no. The precooked bacon must be heated properly or you get jerky. Instant grits - well, that is heresy, but they are edible. I am sure waffles, pancakes and french toast aboard AMTRAK are precooked. But they are not bad. However, comma:
Sorry ... With a "ready to serve meal" anything like "flexible dining", you have a complete mess of what MIGHT have been edible food at one time. Since my first experience with that stuff on a Chicago - Washington trip years ago, and it's current iteration, the food is either overcooked, overcooked on the outside and undercooked in the inside, stuff piled willy nilly, juices commingled, utterly inedible. The worst Swanson's TV dinners were never tihs bad.
The "salads" are a few pieces of lettuce stems, hardly any green, a couple of 1" carrot strips and two miniature tomatoes. At least there aren't cucumbers.
Frankly, I would welcome almost any of the Marie Callender's frozen meals, or even a "Hungry Man" dinner.
When we travel on the Eagle, we just bring our own in an electric cooler, and a Keurig One Cup machine.
On a positive note, the Hebrew National hot dogs are quite good.

 

[drdumont]

If Amtrak offered "organic", Preservative, MSG, Sulfite, and Nitrite free flex meals I believe that more passengers would be happy. I don't understand why so many unhealthy caustic chemicals, w high salt and sugar content are used in those meals. Sodium Nitrite is actually a toxic substance.

Salt and other ingredients are an attempt to "enhance" the flavors lost in the freezing, and an attempt to make the cheap ingredients seem to taste better. Lots of chemicals are toxic in large quantities but salubrious when used in very small quantities - even salt.

 

[uncleboots]

Amtrak has two decent sandwiches in the cafe car. Would be nice if they offered those as an alternative to the flex dinners,being you are getting the same food for lunch and dinner.

You can always ask, I remember when the SWC was doing flex dining, they let us order lunch from the Cafe Menu.

The Texas Eagle is still FLEX garbage between Chicago and San Antonio. If you are riding the Eagle through to Los Angeles, the Sunset Diner is Diner service and is quite good.

Now I asked a Amtrak Agent in St Louis last Month if the Texas Eagle would eventually return to Traditional Dining, she seemed optimistic it would., but not sure when.

 

[MccfamschoolMom]

You can always ask, I remember when the SWC was doing flex dining, they let us order lunch from the Cafe Menu.

The vegan Blue Corn Tamales on the Cafe menu are a pretty decent meatless option (and a LOT more digestible than the Angus cheeseburger!).

 

[daybeers]

Does anyone know the switchover times of Acela FC, ex. does 2152 have lunch options north of NYP?

 

[OBS]

Does anyone know the switchover times of Acela FC, ex. does 2152 have lunch options north of NYP?

2152 is Breakfast all the way

 

[xzperu42]

On Acela 2164 today traveling from Metropark to Boston. Enjoyed a Pommery Champagne with the cheese plate into NYC, and the the Black Pepper Beef leaving Stamford. Both very good. Excellent service today.

 

[Amtrakfflyer]

Another example of what could easily be served instead of Flexible dining on LD routes. Again, why not even after all these years, do they refuse to even try it.

 

[jis]

Another example of what could easily be served instead of Flexible dining on LD routes. Again, why not even after all these years do they refuse to even try doing it.

The answer to that question which presumably is rhetorical is that it takes 2 SAs to serve a single First Class Car with that level of service. If the reason you cut down food service is to reduce the number of SAs down to one, this level of service cannot be provided. At this point with traditional dining just around the corner using 2-3 SAs (1 LSA +1-2 SAs) it seems pointless to try to do this for a few months.

 

[Rasputin]

I think we need a separate thread for posting Amtrak employee rumors that traditional dining is about to return or will eventually return on those trains that have flex dining. If someone has a specific date for action on these items, please let us know.

 

[jis]

I think we need a separate thread for posting Amtrak employee rumors that traditional dining is about to return or will eventually return on those trains that have flex dining. If someone has a specific date for action on these items, please let us know.

What I post are not employee rumors. They are heard in person from Amtrak officials. The dates are not certain at present but the steps necessary are being taken. When it is from an employee I specifically state so. If someone does not wish to be thus informed they are free to skip over those posts

 

[crescent-zephyr]

The answer to that question which presumably is rhetorical is that it takes 2 SAs to serve a single First Class Car with that level of service. If the reason you cut down food service is to reduce the number of SAs down to one, this level of service cannot be provided. At this point with traditional dining just around the corner using 2-3 SAs (1 LSA +1-2 SAs) it seems pointless to try to do this for a few months.

I'm not sure if @Amtrakfflyer was referring to the choices or the style of service or both but for me the biggest issue with Flex dining is the choices. It wouldn't take extra SA's to have an entree salad or cheese plate, etc. in fact having those items could reduce the workload since the sleeper attendants could just grab them from the fridge and serve them directly while the LSA was heating up the other meals.

 

[drdumont]

What I post are not employee rumors. They are heard in person from Amtrak officials. The dates are not certain at present but the steps necessary are being taken. When it is from an employee I specifically state so. If someone does not wish to be thus informed they are free to skip over those posts

I look forward to your posts - it is refreshing to hear something with SOME authority. I really look forward to the banishing of FLEX meals and some semblance of real dining as a man in the desert looks forward to a glass of ice water.
Pardon me if I missed earlier posts - are you saying there ARE plans to restore dining to ALL LD trains, even the poor rented mules such as the Eagle and the Crescent? Light at the end of a very long tunnel?

 

[jis]

I look forward to your posts - it is refreshing to hear something with SOME authority. I really look forward to the banishing of FLEX meals and some semblance of real dining as a man in the desert looks forward to a glass of ice water.
Pardon me if I missed earlier posts - are you saying there ARE plans to restore dining to ALL LD trains, even the poor rented mules such as the Eagle and the Crescent? Light at the end of a very long tunnel?

I specifically track the single level trains and bug the Amtrak bosses about it at every opportunity. That is why I know that tentatively LSL is slated for late this year or early next year, and the 5 Diners that need to come out of mothballs for restoring Diner service to the Crescent are now in restoration backlog, slated to be back in service by coming summer. Details for restoring traditional dining on the Crescent are till being worked, but Amtrak is required to restore such under instructions from Congress, so they can at best delay it some, but they have to do it. Unfortunately for now I have not heard any plans to restore anything on the Cardinal beyond what it had before the dining service went to hell in a hand basket under the tender loving care of Mr. Mica and Mr. Anderson.

I don't specifically know what is with the Eaglet and the CONO. But can probably dig down and find out from the TexARP folks if push comes to shove. They would know since I know they have talked to Mr. Chestler about it back in Meridian.

 

[PaTrainFan]

I specifically track the single level trains and bug the Amtrak bosses about it at every opportunity. That is why I know that tentatively LSL is slated for late this year or early next year, and the 5 Diners that need to come out of mothballs for restoring Diner service to the Crescent are now in restoration backlog, slated to be back in service by coming summer. Details for restoring traditional dining on the Crescent are till being worked, but Amtrak is required to restore such under instructions from Congress, so they can at best delay it some, but they have to do it. Unfortunately for now I have not heard any plans to restore anything on the Cardinal beyond what it had before the dining service went to hell in a hand basket under the tender loving care of Mr. Mica and Mr. Anderson.

I don't specifically know what is with the Eaglet and the CONO. But can probably dig down and find out from the TexARP folks if push comes to shove. They would know since I know they have talked to Mr. Chestler about it back in Meridian.

I am presuming the Capitol Limited will never see traditional dining again.

 

[jis]

I am presuming the Capitol Limited will never see traditional dining again.

It most likely will as Congress has instructed Amtrak to restore traditional dining to all LD trains. I just have not been following what is the plan for the Cap.

 

[Sidney]

It most likely will as Congress has instructed Amtrak to restore traditional dining to all LD trains. I just have not been following what is the plan for the Cap.

If any train should be the next to return to traditional dining,it should be the Eagle, mainly because it’s a 32 hour run. Would be nice to get a Sightseer on that train,too.

However,Amtrak considers that train as an afterthought. Of course, it travels through some of the largest cities in the US like St Louis,Dallas and Austin. Guess that doesn’t matter.