lyke99
Service Attendant
Mrs. lyke99 and I will be traveling to Boston on the Lake Shore Limited in a few months and I was wondering what the meals for sleeping car passengers are like east of Albany.
Thanks in advance!
Thanks in advance!
Well all of the Amfleet II cafe cars have now been converted into diner-lite cars, so there is no choice but to use such a car. However, I've not heard that the car is indeed functioning in its diner-lite capacity and therefore able to provide hot cooked meals to the sleeping car passengers.Aren't they using a diner-lite on this segment now (with the full diner going to NYP?)
Thanks for all the details. Nice to know the meals on the Albany-Boston segment are more than a snack. We are heading east from Chicago on Saturday (arriving Sunday) and depart westbound on the following Friday. I will add the earplugs to my "train kit" of duct tape, string, and a few binder clips for the curtains. On our recent trip on the Empire Builder we were in the 830 car, just ahead of the dining car and heard the horn quite well at night with a baggage car and two other Superliners between our car and the engines.I took the LSL from Chicago to Springfield, MA just over a week ago. (If possible, I recommend scheduling for a weekend. On time performance seems to be much better on Sat. and Sun. lately.)
Was in a roomette, so meals were included. It is a long walk back from the Boston bound sleeper car. 2 coaches, Diner Lite, 4 more coaches, then the dining car. Had the wine, cheese & crackers plus grapes reception upon departure. Next morning I had their morning special, but I forgot what it was. For lunch I also had their market special which was pork with gravy over rice. (It was better than my description. I should have taken pictures.) I wasn't expecting dinner since the train was very close to being on time, and my stop in Springfield was 5:48. However our attendant offered to have us served at 5:00 in the Lite car. I was expecting only a sandwich or a wrap. The choices were chicken salad or beef fillet. The people at our table who ordered the chicken were expecting chicken salad. It was actually chicken {comma} salad. A chicken breast fillet over salad. I got the beef, and it was two tenderloin fillets with red potatoes and green beans. Really an excellent meal, and a very nice surprise. There was dessert offered too, but I couldn't eat any more, so I don't know what it was.
I think the dining car may have been short one waiter on this trip. The Heritage dining car seems designed to have the kitchen take up quite a bit of the car. There was quite a wait for a table, and they didn't take reservations on this trip. The kitchen staff had the meals prepared quickly, so there was little wait after ordering.
Overall, I was very pleased with the service. If they could only get the dispatching reliable so the padding could be eliminated, it could be a real competitor to the airlines since you sleep for 8 hours anyway. Allocating an hour and a half to go the 20 miles from Framingham to Boston Back Bay sure must help the on time performance. It's only 28 minutes westbound.
I almost forgot...The pillows need to be fluffier. Don't forget earplugs if you're in the Boston sleeper. Only the one baggage car is between you and the engines, and the engineer has to be on that horn almost continuously through Ohio.
As noted here today's delay would be thanks to CSX.For Eastbound, today (Monday)they lost about 6 hours between Elyria, OH and Erie, PA.
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