LSL food service

[amtrakmichigan]

Hi everyone,

Sorry I have not posted lately, I have been real busy trying to get my new garage built before the snow flies, not much time much time for hobbies lately.

I asked this question a while back, but wanted to get a little more info. Oct. 16 I will be departing TOL for NYP in a STD sleeper. As the timetable notes, dining car service is not available east of ALB. So the question of the day is this...... Is vouchers handed out to sleeper passengers for lounge food for lunch on the LSL ?

 

[Trogdor]

If you are traveling to New York, you will have the dining car. "East of Albany" refers to the train to Boston (which, effective 01NOV, will be a separate train anyway).

 

[P40Power]

Ahh yes the Dining car will be still on the train but it will shut service down before Albany and not open it back up the rest of the way to New York. Its been this way for a few years now. Cost cutting measure . . . I dont even think they serve lunch at all which seems foolish to me.

 

[AlanB]

The diner is indeed shut from Albany south to NY. No food is served at all. If the train is on time, they will do a one seating very early lunch at around 11:00 AM. If the train is running late, then lunch may last longer and/or start later, but no matter what, they will close the diner before arrival into Albany.

Since the cafe/lounge car from the combined consist goes to Boston, at least for the rest of this month, there is no point in handing out vouchers for free food in a car that's not attached to the train.

That means no food service at all south of Albany on the NY section for over three hours. So either have the early lunch, get the early lunch to go, or buy something in the cafe car before it shuts down for its arrival into Albany.

Diner service northbound to Albany does start after Poughkeepsie, even though the train doesn't actually stop there. But again there is no cafe car on this train, at least for now, until it reaches Albany.

 

[Trogdor]

I've never ridden the LSL to NYP (have ridden it to SYR and from BOS), so I don't really know how the dining car service works. However, it seems that Amtrak might be better served by having the dining car run to Boston and the lounge car to New York.

Maybe they can consider this change (yeah, right!) for the April timetable change, when the trains supposedly will run through again.

 

[AlanB]

Well for years the train ran on a later schedule and lunch was always served to the Boston customers only prior to arrival into ALB. Then NY customers were served after departure from ALB, with all service stopping around Poughkeepsie.

Additionally the NY section ran both ways with a cafe car.

The Boston section also ran with a cafe car, which was removed at Albany. Then when they started running the train on its earlier schedule, for some reason it became to hard to whack off that Boston cafe in Albany or add it on to the Boston section leaving from ALB. I'm not quite sure why that changed, other than to save money. It certainly doesn't save any time in Albany to combine or split the train, by not having to deal with the Boston cafe.

If one wants to save time in ALB, then one must get better yard crews. The crews in ALB seem to feel that its an inconvienence to have to come out and work on the trains. I've been in that station and seen it take a half hour befor 2 guys coming strolling out of the building to start cutting/linking up the LSL.

Of course the complete end of freight will also now help the time situation in ALB, since they won't have to make that cut or add. Now they only have to deal with passenger cars & motors.

 

[amtrakmichigan]

I am now under the impression from everyones thoughts that train #48 does not have any food service between ALB and NYC. However the national timetable does state that there is a lounge on both the NYP and BOS leg of this train. See the National timetable under services for the LSL.

So I guess i am now back to my original question. Are sleeper passengers fed Cafe' food at no charge after the ALB departure to NYC?

 

[P40Power]

Im pretty sure there is no lounge service ALB-NYP, there will be come November 1st though when the whole "Boston Shuttle" goes in effect. I do recall reading a trip report somewhere that the Diner served beverages and a few snacks to passengers between New York and Albany, maybe Im just imagining things though haha.

 

[battalion51]

P40 is correct, there is no Cafe on the NYP side until ALB before Nov 1.

As for the switching and all that fun stuff, it's the Road Crews that do the power changes and additions in ALB. The Yard crew did have to attach the now nonexsistent RoadRailers, but the NYP-ALB crew whacked the AC-DM, while the ALB-SYR Engineer and ALB-CLE Conductors take the Boston side and attach it to the NYP side. After the schedule change the ALB-SYR and ALB-CLE crew will probably just bring Road Power down from the yard and put it on.

 

[AlanB]

As for the switching and all that fun stuff, it's the Road Crews that do the power changes and additions in ALB. The Yard crew did have to attach the now nonexsistent RoadRailers, but the NYP-ALB crew whacked the AC-DM, while the ALB-SYR Engineer and ALB-CLE Conductors take the Boston side and attach it to the NYP side. After the schedule change the ALB-SYR and ALB-CLE crew will probably just bring Road Power down from the yard and put it on.

The road crews are indeed moving the equipment around as needed at ALB, however knocking the various cables off and the actual uncoupling (as in pulling the coupler release lever) along with reattaching the same, is done by a ground crew assigned to ALB.

I've watched this procedure happen many times at ALB, so I'm quite familiar with it. I'm not sure why the conductor or A/C doesn't cut the train, but unless there has been a recent change (since Feb), I can assure you that the road crew does not perform that function. They only perform the equipment positioning moves. This applies to all cuts/couplings be it passenger equipment, motors, or RoadRailers and boxes.