January, 2016 Monthly Performance Report

[Bjartmarr]

The fresh wraps, etc. have a short shelf life and can't take a western LD roundtrip...it's apparently only good for the 3 day r/t to Miami on the Star. On the other one-night trains, not a bad idea, though.

I do not understand this. Is there no one west of the Mississippi who knows how to put things into a tortilla?

Amtrak seems to treat mid-route (or, apparently, far-end-of-route) restocking as some sort of highly technical maneuver that necessarily involves gravitational slingshots and wizard spells.

Somewhere in Seattle, there is a business which can deliver an assortment of fresh-baked pastries, salads and sandwiches to the trackside reliably by 4:30pm every day. Amtrak travels through a number of cities en-route, each of which I guarantee you has a business which can provide restocks of fresh food. Why can't Amtrak hire them to do so?

 

[lo2e]

The fresh wraps, etc. have a short shelf life and can't take a western LD roundtrip...it's apparently only good for the 3 day r/t to Miami on the Star. On the other one-night trains, not a bad idea, though.

I do not understand this. Is there no one west of the Mississippi who knows how to put things into a tortilla?

Amtrak seems to treat mid-route (or, apparently, far-end-of-route) restocking as some sort of highly technical maneuver that necessarily involves gravitational slingshots and wizard spells.

Somewhere in Seattle, there is a business which can deliver an assortment of fresh-baked pastries, salads and sandwiches to the trackside reliably by 4:30pm every day. Amtrak travels through a number of cities en-route, each of which I guarantee you has a business which can provide restocks of fresh food. Why can't Amtrak hire them to do so?

I'm no expert, but off the top of my head:

• On a lot of LD lines, the train needs to fit in a specific time window to not interfere with (or be interfered by) freight traffic. Restocking mid-route could put them out of this window.
  
• What if the train is several hours late arriving at the restocking stop? Are the workers supposed to just sit there on the clock while waiting for the train to arrive?
  
• $$$$$ - I'd imagine if there were a cheaper way to provide better food options, Amtrak would already be doing it.

 

[Eric S]

• On a lot of LD lines, the train needs to fit in a specific time window to not interfere with (or be interfered by) freight traffic. Restocking mid-route could put them out of this window.
  
• What if the train is several hours late arriving at the restocking stop? Are the workers supposed to just sit there on the clock while waiting for the train to arrive?
  
• $$$$$ - I'd imagine if there were a cheaper way to provide better food options, Amtrak would already be doing it.

Your second point is certainly a problem, particularly given that we're usually only talking about two trains a day (one each way).

But I think you give Amtrak too much credit with your third point.

 

[Bjartmarr]

• On a lot of LD lines, the train needs to fit in a specific time window to not interfere with (or be interfered by) freight traffic. Restocking mid-route could put them out of this window.
  
• What if the train is several hours late arriving at the restocking stop? Are the workers supposed to just sit there on the clock while waiting for the train to arrive?
  
• $$$$$ - I'd imagine if there were a cheaper way to provide better food options, Amtrak would already be doing it.

• Again, I do not understand. Does it take longer to load a box of salads onto the train than it does to load passengers and bags? (This is what I mean by "gravity slingshots and wizard spells". There are aspects of railroading that are difficult and highly technical; loading croissants is not one of them.)
• If the train is several hours late, the caterer would simply prepare the food later, and send out the delivery driver later. In the rare case where there is no warning of the delay or ETA of the train, then yes, the delivery person would wait on the platform. A two hour delay could result in as much as $25 worth of extra salary, which is the sort of thing that Amtrak should be able to absorb every once in a while.
• The point isn't to be cheaper, the point is to provide food that passengers actually want to buy. Other than a cup of coffee, I buy nothing from the AmCafe because the food there is just so gross. If they could stock something that I actually want to eat, they could manage to wring some money out of me and I wouldn't have to plan for my train trips the same way I plan to go camping.

The neat thing is, this wouldn't have to be deployed system-wide. They could do a trial run with just one restock for one train in one direction, and see if they can turn a profit or at least break even on the fresh stuff. If not, their investment woudl be small enough that they could tweak the program and try again.

 

[neroden]

One problem is that the cafes and dining cars apparently have inefficient layouts.

The new dining cars are designed for "roll on" stocking, where the food is rolled onboard and shoved in pallets directly into the appropriate cabinets or freezers, taking maybe a minute or two to stock. Amtrak made a point of advertising this...

This, unfortunately, implies that the old dining cars are NOT designed this way and may be particularly tedious to load food into.

----

Now, Amtrak can clearly get its New Jersey vendor to load fresh salads on trains departing from New York City. There is no reason why this should not include ALL trains departing from New York City.

It should be easy enough to find a Chicago vendor who can supply all trains departing from Chicago with similar product.

Apparently the Silver Star is managing to take its cafe salads all the way to Miami *and back*.

If you don't want to even try midroute expiration and restocking, and you think that the double-overnight routes are too long to supply from one end, expanding the cafe menu on more trains to match this level would still improve the cafe food quality and selection on the Meteor, Crescent, Cardinal, CL, LSL, CONO, TE, and Chicago-based corridor trains, which is honestly most of the Amtrak national system. And it sure doesn't seem like rocket science.

 

[Train2104]

• Again, I do not understand. Does it take longer to load a box of salads onto the train than it does to load passengers and bags? (This is what I mean by "gravity slingshots and wizard spells". There are aspects of railroading that are difficult and highly technical; loading croissants is not one of them.)

Inventory and paperwork.

 

[neroden]

• Again, I do not understand. Does it take longer to load a box of salads onto the train than it does to load passengers and bags? (This is what I mean by "gravity slingshots and wizard spells". There are aspects of railroading that are difficult and highly technical; loading croissants is not one of them.)

Inventory and paperwork.

I see your inventory and paperwork and I raise with "Point of sale inventory tracking". ;-) I guess Amtrak has a new bid out; hopefully this will work out better than the previous *three* screwed-up bids.

 

[Ryan]

The neat thing is, this wouldn't have to be deployed system-wide. They could do a trial run with just one restock for one train in one direction, and see if they can turn a profit or at least break even on the fresh stuff. If not, their investment woudl be small enough that they could tweak the program and try again.

They sort-of do this on the Empire Builder with the chicken dinners in Havre. Not sure how the economics of it works out for Amtrak. Seems like a reasonable model to try.

 

[afigg]

One problem is that the cafes and dining cars apparently have inefficient layouts.

The new dining cars are designed for "roll on" stocking, where the food is rolled onboard and shoved in pallets directly into the appropriate cabinets or freezers, taking maybe a minute or two to stock. Amtrak made a point of advertising this...

This, unfortunately, implies that the old dining cars are NOT designed this way and may be particularly tedious to load food into.

----

Apparently the Silver Star is managing to take its cafe salads all the way to Miami *and back*.

I think much of this discussion about having local vendors supply food mid-route overlooks that Amtrak needs vendors who can supply pre-packaged food in compliance with regulations and Amtrak's packaging & menu requirements. And can do so reliably. In short, not from local restaurants or caterers, but companies and facilities that specialize in providing prepared food and supplies to commercial operations, ie airlines. And those suppliers are likely national operations, who may be consolidated to food prep facilities that are near the major cities and airports. Aramark being the best known name that I am familiar with.

Anyway, with regard to Miami, with 2 LD trains to service and the close proximity to Miami airport, one would think that there would be vendors that could or do supply food and beverage to Hialeah for stocking the Silvers.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

• Again, I do not understand. Does it take longer to load a box of salads onto the train than it does to load passengers and bags? (This is what I mean by "gravity slingshots and wizard spells". There are aspects of railroading that are difficult and highly technical; loading croissants is not one of them.)

Inventory and paperwork.

Maybe read HenryK's book, "Zephyr: Tracking a Dream Across America". http://www.henrykisor.com/zephyr.htm

As I recall, he talked to LSA's about their jobs for this book.

 

[Ryan]

In short, not from local restaurants or caterers, but companies and facilities that specialize in providing prepared food and supplies to commercial operations, ie airlines.

The previously mentioned chicken dinner, plus the breakfast/dinners on the PDX section of the train show that the local guys can do just fine if given the chance.

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

There is plenty of opportunities, just need someone to put the time and energy into the problem.

 

[Bjartmarr]

I think much of this discussion about having local vendors supply food mid-route overlooks that Amtrak needs vendors who can supply pre-packaged food in compliance with regulations and Amtrak's packaging & menu requirements. And can do so reliably. In short, not from local restaurants or caterers, but companies and facilities that specialize in providing prepared food and supplies to commercial operations, ie airlines.

If Amtrak's regulations require airline food, then Amtrak's regulations can be changed.

 

[IndyRacingNut]

I think much of this discussion about having local vendors supply food mid-route overlooks that Amtrak needs vendors who can supply pre-packaged food in compliance with regulations and Amtrak's packaging & menu requirements. And can do so reliably. In short, not from local restaurants or caterers, but companies and facilities that specialize in providing prepared food and supplies to commercial operations, ie airlines.

If Amtrak's regulations require airline food, then Amtrak's regulations can be changed.

"Airline food" *shudders* Please don't mention those dirty words again.....

 

[lo2e]

I think much of this discussion about having local vendors supply food mid-route overlooks that Amtrak needs vendors who can supply pre-packaged food in compliance with regulations and Amtrak's packaging & menu requirements. And can do so reliably. In short, not from local restaurants or caterers, but companies and facilities that specialize in providing prepared food and supplies to commercial operations, ie airlines.

If Amtrak's regulations require airline food, then Amtrak's regulations can be changed.

"Airline food" *shudders* Please don't mention those dirty words again.....

This - is this actually what someone would WANT on Amtrak? :huh: :blink:

 

[jebr]

Honestly, it probably wouldn't be much worse (and might actually be better) than many entrees that Amtrak has today.

 

[Acela150]

I'm going to guess that numbers will turn around in March. Spring break, Easter, and gas prices slowly going back up. Case in point is that gas at a local Sunoco was $1.80 last Monday today $2.05. A major jump.

Time will tell.

 

[neroden]

There were disruptions to the CONO in both February and March; it'll probably still have problems. The Sunset Limited just got severed by floods. The SWC derailment won't help ridership there. The Texas Eagle got disrupted too IIRC. The Cascades to Vancouver is being shut by mudslides on a routine basis. The crash of 188 is still in the newspapers in Philadelphia and probably suppressing ridership.

But apart from those routes, yeah, ridership will probably pick back up somewhat in March. The "oh, the trains are running on time again?" effect should help most of the other routes. The CL and LSL and Michigan Services were savaged by October 2014's disaster on NS, while the EB is only now recovering from *years* of oil-train-induced delays on BNSF.

It's hard for me to predict gasoline prices, but they should be crawling back up for a while as the frackers and tar sands and deepwater companies go bankrupt and shut in their wells. Of course cheaper electric cars are coming circa 2018-2020, which will crash the price of driving well below today's price. But there is a general underlying trend in favor of trains, separate from the effect of the price of competing modes. Gas has collapsed to half its previous price, but ridership is merely... flat, off by 2%. So I see no reason to expect a return to Amtrak's 1980-1996 ridership doldrums, even with very cheap-to-operate electric cars.

 

[lo2e]

There have also been some disruptions causing delays in the Southeast, albeit less severe than the others ones mentioned. It wouldn't surprise me if this led to a ridership drop (especially on the Star which has been struggling lately anyway), but obviously I hope I'm wrong.

 

[Acela150]

Take away a full service diner and you'd be right on the star.. Oh wait...

 

[neroden]

Barring further disasters (ugh) I think we'll start to see ridership pick up end of March, April.