How long would congress put up with amtrak meals?

Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum

Help Support Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.

Larry H.

Conductor
Joined
Dec 22, 2006
Messages
1,045
I have complained for a long time of the emimination of most all perks usually provided to sleeper passengers. In fact its one reason I haven't bothered to travel on Amtrak for several years now. Reading the recent menus and lack of diner service on several long distance trains, one of which is the one that seves me, I got to wondering about the congress and its perks. I have seen the stories of the famed Senate and House dining rooms. I just read a report of the fine quality, matching nearly any high quality washington resturant. With prices far below those of fine resturants. It made me wonder if they would be willing to adapt the food provided on Amtrak for thier dining rooms? We should write our congress people with that suggestion.

One qualification for lowering or raising cost of passengers should require a yearly long distance trip aboard Amtrak for each congressman who is going to vote for the reductions while increasing the fares. In fact I think every congress man should travel by Amtrak instead of plane due to the climate change and findings that airplanes are among the most siginicant of all the various sources.
 
They would put up with it as long as they would put up with using the average person's access to medical care.

They would put up with it as long as they would put up with the average person's perks.

They would put up with it as long as they would put up with the average person's pay.

They would put up with it as long as they would put up with term limits

They would put up with it as long as they would put up with having the public vote directly on their pay.
 
I have seen the stories of the famed Senate and House dining rooms. I just read a report of the fine quality, matching nearly any high quality washington resturant. With prices far below those of fine resturants. It made me wonder if they would be willing to adapt the food provided on Amtrak for thier dining rooms? We should write our congress people with that suggestion.
So, Amtrak should serve no more meals per day(number wise), than the House and Senate dining rooms serve per day? Or is it, Amtrak should not spend one penny more, total, on meals in a day, than what the House and Senate dining rooms spend on the same day?

PS: You got me curious enough to do some basic research. I did find out that the "Senate restaurant operation isn’t subsidized by the Senate and has to show a profit like any commercial restaurant." Maybe Congress should require Amtrak's dining and café cars to show a profit too?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Count me as a satisfied sleeper passenger with the meals. In fact, I tend to overeat while traveling on Amtrak. Lunch time and dinner time are too close in time for me to eat the full meals I do while riding Amtrak LD trains. Granted the CONO meals are no longer chef cooked on board but I generally enjoyed the dinner and continental breakfast.
 
Maybe its me but I don't know exactly what the point or question of the original post is. As far as the food on the train I like breakfast, lunch is ok and dinner is not so good in my opinion.
 
The funny thing about this is I plan on running for US House and Senate eventually in a few years. And my plan is to buy an Amtrak certified Private Car and park it at Union Station. It would be cheeper then buying house up there. And it would also serve as my method to come back to my constituents.

And I'm sure as you know majorly funding Increase For Amtrak. Of course I would look after my people first so the Star gets its diner back if I get elected.
 
Nice plan Seaboard!

Just hope that the Democrats are in the Majority, and that there is a Democratic President, since the current Republican Congress refuses to do anything but hold fake "hearings", conduct witch hunts and vote to repeal Obama care for the hundredth time!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The article I read on the Dining for the Congress said they loose about 1 million a year and that the cost don't cover the food. And they have first class service. My point is that for some reason Amtrak has to make money on food when food service on trains according to the rail passenger associations never made a real profit nor was it an idea to make a profit. The idea was to encourage ridership and provide meals equal to those in major cities. Granted toward the last of passenger service only a couple of roads were still holding to those standards. But the idea here is that I doubt anyone of them would be so calvalier about contant cutting if they them selves were passengers. In order for them to know what its like to have a beat up sleeper, rattling doors, often unworking restrooms, they should have to take a several day trip and then they might change thier tune on how much luxury they think passengers are getting.
 
Amen Larry H I believe if they saw what was going on after let's say a CZ trip or better yet a Texas Eagle/Sunset Limited trip they might realize things aren't great.

And Bob Dylan I agree so much with that statement. Amtrak PV parking currently is 136 a night including power. That's practically a steal in DC. And I could use the car in a bigger campaign's whistle stop. Hint hint hint.
 
Amen Larry H I believe if they saw what was going on after let's say a CZ trip or better yet a Texas Eagle/Sunset Limited trip they might realize things aren't great.

And Bob Dylan I agree so much with that statement. Amtrak PV parking currently is 136 a night including power. That's practically a steal in DC. And I could use the car in a bigger campaign's whistle stop. Hint hint hint.
Thumbs up!
 
Any further cuts in the LD sleeper class amenities and it will be no longer be worth it for us to ride. The menu seems to be shifting towards cheaper and cheaper food and some deserts are no longer offered. The biggest insult was the removal of ice in the sleeping cars. They still have the juice but many times if you want it you must drink it warm . Ice is just frozen tap water and the use by passengers amounted to pennies. A great way to say thank you for the passengers that pay the highest prices for tickets.
 
For about the 8,849th time, they DID NOT remove ice from the sleepers! In most cases it is just not in the open; you have to ask your SCA for it. I took several trips this year and not one time was ice unavailable. If you are drinking warm juice that's your problem.
 
Any further cuts in the LD sleeper class amenities and it will be no longer be worth it for us to ride.
You've been saying that for nearly the entire time you've been posting here, yet you're still around...

The biggest insult was the removal of ice in the sleeping cars. They still have the juice but many times if you want it you must drink it warm . Ice is just frozen tap water and the use by passengers amounted to pennies. A great way to say thank you for the passengers that pay the highest prices for tickets.
As was previously mentioned, this is unhinged from factual reality. Public access to ice has *always* been a health issue, changes in enforcement of the existing rules have nothing to do with "pennies".
 
How many restaurants that pay the staff what Amtrak pays their staff could EVER make any profit.
 
Never had a bad meal on the train. Have been seated with a small number of boring passengers, probably they thought the same of me.

The last number of years congress hasn't approved or done a dammed thing so I'm not too interested in them screwing with Amtraks menu
 
The previous link is to the dining facility in the visitors center that is open to the public. Here is a link to the dining services for members and staff on the Senate side of the world (the House and Senate each do their own thing in their own ways). http://radining.compass-usa.com/ussenate/Pages/Menu.aspx?Type=Menu

To some extent this should be seen as an employment benefit that may be slightly underwritten in cost by the Senate, but which is probably worth doing given the size of the U.S. Capitol complex and the time that would be lost to having to go off-campus to take meals, and even then the ever rising cost of real estate keeps the restaurant prices rising and rising as well. Union Station is about the best alternative - in terms of variety and price, but it's not really an option for those on the House side. It isn't really any different than the dining situation at any large corporate campus.
 
Yes, I have been to Dirksen North Cafe several times. It is incredibly crowded. Mostly it is staff and guests of Senators. If we had that many Senators we would be in real trouble. :) I have been there during the NARP Day on the Hill in Spring (April) when we go and bend the ears of our Senators and Congresspeople about passenger railroad funding, and trust me, they have heard a lot from us about the Dining Car situation. But usually we are fighting more fundamental issues like maintaining or raising the top line for the Amtrak grant, finding other means of funding capital for infrastructure etc.

But still the fact remains that a static dining facility is a different ball game from one on wheels. Making the argument apparently being made by the OP will not get us too far at all, and is useful only among friends who think alike. The point to be made to the Congresspeople and Senators is that the entire train journey should be viewed as a single package. If taking a slight loss in food service raises the overall top line and either reduces the overall loss or converts the overall loss into profit, it makes sense to do so. Such business optimization should be left to the managers of the business while Congress should give them overall realistic P/L goals and keep their end of the bargain regarding funding, which they never have, and not fiddle around in individual items. That is a waste of Congress's time and taxpayer money. One good thing is, as long as you maintain parliamentary decorum and refrain from personal attacks and rants, they cannot really kick you out of their office just for firmly disagreeing with them on matters or principle, without generating very bad publicity.
 
Count me in the group who is generally happy with Amtrak meals; I've eaten plenty of them and never have been served anything I consider outright nasty. But then I'm one who prefers basic, decently cooked food in decent portions and that is what you get on board. I'd much rather have anything on the Amtrak menu than some grossly overpriced offering that first of all I don't know what it is and second it takes up about 2 square inches of plate with food coloring and sprinklings covering the rest.
 
I have had a small handful of pretty bad meals on Amtrak, but most have been just fine to me. The two things that I have more problems with are 1) the service. The service I have had over the years in the diner has for the most part been all right but I have experienced far more bad/rude/indifferent service in the diners than I have poor meals. And 2) the people who don't care for AmChow and question everyone who dares mention they like dining car food. I shouldn't have to defend the fact that I like Amchow. And that of course has nothing to do with Amtrak itself and everything to do with the busybodies who think they have a right to tell everyone else how to think. ;)
 
My complaint about Amtrak food is not so much the quality of it (I'm happy with it) as it is the consistency in the quality of service and, more importantly, the lack of changes. There is no reason IMHO, considering the size of Amtrak and number of meals served, that they could not vary the meals more having at least two different menus (eastbound/westbound, one on half the trains and the other on the remainder, or other alternative). There is virtually no meaningful cost increase to doing this as they order enough food of each type and their cooks can easily learn to handle two menus.

It's bad enough for the passengers but I pity the poor crew who have to eat the same meals on six day round trips for months on end. Unlike the local taco place employees who get free Mexican food, they can't trade out with the local pizza or burger place as they often do. And the taco place employee only has to eat that food once or twice a day!
 
I've always thought that members of the Transportation Committee should be required to use Amtrak to/from their home state.

When Congress imposed that silly 55mph speed limit during the oil issue, I figured they should be required to drive to/from their home districts at the speed limit.

Alas, I'm not king in chief.
 
I've always thought that members of the Transportation Committee should be required to use Amtrak to/from their home state.
The House Transportation Committee (Schuster (R-PA)/DeFazio (D-OR)), yes. We have found much more sympathetic hearing from the Senate side from the Committee chaired by Sen Thune (R-SD). And of course one of my Senators Nelson (D-FL) who is the ranking member has generally be supportive of Amtrak.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top