Meals on the Lake Shore Limited

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6

65Imperial

Train Attendant
Joined
Jun 9, 2005
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16
Hello All, Now I know this has been discussed before but even my mind at the ripe old age of 29 has its good days and bad. After last summer great trip on the Chief for Chicago to LA i'm ready to plan this summers rail journey. I want to go to Boston but I remember a discussion about sit-down meals not available on that train to Boston. As I'm planning on a roomette I would like the same type of meals I got on the Chief. As an alternative I'm looking at the Capital Limited to DC too. I like the fact that that train uses superliner equipment. Any help to sort this out would be great. Thanks, David
 
If you choose the Lake Shore Limited you be served three sit down meals in the diner: Dinner as you leave Chicago Union Station, breakfast, and lunch right before you arrive into Albany. Most likely the train will be late and there will be no problem for you to have lunch. You transfer to an amfleet equipped train at the Albany platform. It typically consists of amfleet coaches, amfleet cafe, and an amfleet business class car. If you're booked as a sleeper passenger, you'll probably sit in the business class car. I'm unaware if you receive any credit towards purchases in the cafe car for the Albany-Boston section of the Lake Shore Limited. All the food in the amfleet cafe is microwaved. The diner in the Chicago-Albany section will serve meals much like your Chief experience. Many forum members will be able to warn that Amtrak is considering a "diner-lite" concept for east coast trains. I haven't heard of a timeframe for implementation on the Lake Shore Limited.

The Capitol Limited will serve dinner after leaving Chicago Union Station and breakfast in the morning. If the train arrives on time into Washington DC you will not receive lunch. If it is 2-3 hours late you will most likely be served lunch. There is talk at many boards and at this website that the Capitol Limited will have modified food service, meaning that the meals will be different than your SW Chief experience.

I do enjoy the Superliner experience more than than the Single level east coast equipment. I would say that if you enjoy train travel that mixing it up and trying the Lake Shore Limited with it's Viewliner sleeper is definetly worth it.

Cheers,

David
 
Actually the LSL Boston side has a P-42, Bag Car, Amfleet I Cafe/Business Class, and three Amfleet II Coaches. The bonus to having the Amfleet I Combo Car is that the seating is 2-1 which provides more room than a normal Amfleet I Business Class car that many Regionals use. Many of these cars are also recieving upgrades to Leather Seats which are very comfortable. I also believe that Business Class on this train (and many others) allow you to recieve complimentary non alcoholic beverages from the counter.
 
If I'm not mistaken, you don't get the full 12 oz. (330 ml) cans of soda pop in business class.

I saw a number of the half-size cans in the lounge part on #42/43 last week. BTW, hope you like Pepsi products; Amtrak has a deal with them. This means Pepsi, Sierra Mist, MUG Root Beer, etc. I do think the attendent would give you the full-size bottle of bottled water, though.
 
They did switch over to the half cans sometime after July. I believe they have 8 oz in them, rather than the 12 oz a normal can contains. They used to have 10 oz glass bottles, but I guess Pepsi decided to switch.
 
CHI_Amtrak_Fan said:
The Capitol Limited will serve dinner after leaving Chicago Union Station and breakfast in the morning. If the train arrives on time into Washington DC you will not receive lunch. If it is 2-3 hours late you will most likely be served lunch. There is talk at many boards and at this website that the Capitol Limited will have modified food service, meaning that the meals will be different than your SW Chief experience.
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As of this past week, #29/30 still had the typical Superliner dining fare.

I talked to a pal who made the trip over the MLK holiday weekend. The thing which irked him most about the dining experience (he was in a sleeper) was the size of the dessert portions. He described the slices of pie and cake as "slivers", compared to how they used to be (a generous portion).

He said if he'd paid $5.00 for dessert, he'd be pretty cheesed off.

<ducking and running after that one>
 
Who is Amtrak using for the standard dining car menu desserts? Being out of NOL, I haven't seen regular food service since Katrina and we were using the GGI Sweet Street dessert products. The portions, as stated, were huge, especially the chocolate cake.

If they're still using Sweet Street, it may be possible that the staff is cutting the preportioned cuts in half to raise revenue. I can see that for the chocolate cake, but difficult with the "fruit pies" and Kraft cheesecakes. These have paper dividers and are ready for plating without cutting. Of course, the "fresh cut fruit" and ice cream are individually wrapped items placed directly into a cup or bowl and served with garnish.

Another thing about staff altering a preportioned desserts into smaller pieces won't help the staff any as an LSA is debted for any errors, either short or extra. Believe it or not, if you remit more money than you have reciepts for, you will be disciplined for stealing company funds and from the passengers, subject to audit and placed on administrative leave if found guilty in a union hearing. If there aren't any changes in the official portion sizes of the desserts, and your only getting "slivers", somethings fishy on the Capitol and with the dining car crew!
 
AlanB said:
AmtrakFan said:
Folks,3/4 might get the Modified Meal Service as early as 2/1/06 just found this out yesterday.
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Source? :unsure:
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Alan,

It was menchioned in this week in Amtrak. Here's the passage from the thing.

Now, what about the Diner Lite program?

We breathlessly await good news that perhaps this disaster-in-the-making program may never get off the ground, as it was allegedly slated to begin in February. Word has already come that 100 dining car employees from the Los Angeles crew base have already lost their jobs in preparation for Diner Lite on the Southwest Chief and Sunset Limited.
 
To backup AmtrakFan, we've heard the same thing from LAX crews laying over here in NOL from the Sunset. They're getting furlough letters too as the traditional diners come off 1/2 and 3/4. Also talk of eliminating some food service jobs on California sponsored trains but not actually cutting the services to accomodate rising labor cost and fixed subsidies from the state. This was just rumor by the LAX crew members and they had no sources to back the "rumor." If it is true, then Surfliners, Capitol Corridors and San Joaquins may be using outsourced food service vendors, like the Downeastern, in the coming months eliminating the Amtrak food service subsidies as required in the FY2006 operating budget.

Those crew members have a sense that the diner-lite system would be great compared to the idea being floated in LAX of just eliminating the diner all together and only having a lounge car and kill the sleepers too. Although its just "talk" from the LAX crew members, I don't want to write them off as major changes are coming and anything heard from management by anyone, employee or not, is fair game to take seriously as speaking the truth. If Amtrak Fan's source is saying about 100 LAX jobs are on the line, it has to be more than diners in the scope of the hatchet man as, even with 11/14 diners having a full diner staff, it doesn't add up near 100. It has to be sleepers and second coach attendants in the mix too. I have no contacts in LAX and have no idea what's happening there. We'll see what comes soon unless someone in California has more contact with the people involved with those trains can provide us some detail of service cuts or dispell the subject as rumor and assume nothing is going to change. That, quite frankly, I doubt as everything is changing for the worse nationally. :unsure: :angry:
 
Mr. Henderson,

Thanks for that info.

3/4 Diner Crews are like

1 Dining Car-Stweart

1 Chef

1 Food Specialist

2-3 Servers

11/14

1 Dining Car-Stweart

1 Chef

1-2 Food Specalist

3-4 Servers

1 Parlor Car Attendent

1/2

1 Dining Car-Stweart

1 Chef

1 Food Specialist

2-3 Servers 1 runs to SAS

The Numbers don't really add up with the 100 I believe.
 
Not that I totally distrust LAX, but I've heard a lot of rumors come out of there that are unsubstantiated. The only rumor that's even quasi come true from that case was the cutbacks after Katrina, but that was a little different situation, and service did return to normal. My guess with the Sunset going Diner-Lite is that it'll coincide with the train's return to ORL, since rebids will be required at that time anyway.

On a seperate note, I have been hearing a lot more traffic through the Tallahassee area. I hear stuff now when I'm walking around campus that I didn't hear last semester. I'll also ocassionally hear one in the middle of the night while I'm in bed, which is impressive since I'm about a mile from the main line, and facing the wrong way.
 
That's encouraging about rail traffic past TLH, Bat. I haven't been able to find much on the "Net about just what CSX is doing expecially in the Mississippi area. I did read that the raised embankment that the tracks provided apparently was responsible for saving hundreds or even thousands of homes because it acted like a dike in some areas. Of course it also made the damege worse on the south side of it, but most folks apparently believe there would have been major damage there with or without the raised roadbed. There was talk of moving the whole So. Miss. trackage system a few miles north, but I 've seen no indication that it's actually being attempted. Seems like acquiring all that land would be a major expensive and time-consuming undertaking.
 
battalion51 said:
I'll also ocassionally hear one in the middle of the night while I'm in bed, which is impressive since I'm about a mile from the main line, and facing the wrong way.
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Bat51, that is just the "ghost of the Sunset Limited" running twenty hours late passing through while you sleep! <_< :lol: :D OBS...
 
right now here's how the staffing looks like :

11/14

1 Diner LSA

1Parlour

1Lounge

1Chef

2 Food Specialist

3 service attend

2 coaches att

2 sleepers att

3/4

1diner lsa

1lounge lsa

1waiter

2 sleepers

1 coach atted

1/2

1diner lsa

1lounge

no waiters or food specialist (as the end of month, bids are up)

1 coach attend

1sleeper that turns at SAS.

as I know right (I work as extra board employee out of LAX) they are layoff 13 more this week but it all change.
 
Does 1/2 and 3/4 have a chef with their diners, or is the diner-lite setup a one man LSA job? With your 11/14 jobs still there, you might keep the FS craft. I think that in the coming months, LAX will loose the some diner jobs and the Parlour Car LSA as they'll pull that car off the consist. I'll be surprised if it stays when the company is abandoning the traditional dining car and the funding legislation also included "entertainment" cuts. Good luck.

They're furloughing in NOL (I'm one of them), so don't come here. Management suspects the crew base to be closed soon. They aren't getting support from the Division managers in JAX. MIA has no real extraboard until the diner-lites come to the Silver Star. They could really use some help; you have to deal with the crazy managers and they do give labor hell. Just a thought if you want to "retire" in Florida and get some relocation money. :D
 
I'll never get this company. Hurry up and wait, fix first class lounges, cut sleeper service, cut dining car service, hire more managers to manage the shutdown, hire a firm to fire the CEO, hire a CEO to fix the company, fire the CEO because he did his job. :blink:
 
trainboy325 said:
I'll never get this company. Hurry up and wait, fix first class lounges, cut sleeper service, cut dining car service, hire more managers to manage the shutdown, hire a firm to fire the CEO, hire a CEO to fix the company, fire the CEO because he did his job. :blink:
Click to expand...
I fully agree with you I have never been able to figure out what's going on with there top executives. In normal world you don't fire a CEO for doin his JOB!!!!!!!!!! This is gonna get uglier I think.
 
AmtrakFan said:
Mr. Henderson,Oddly enough they just sent a Parlor Car to be overhauled
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Aloha

Why Overhaul in your picture it looks Good, as it does in mine
9440184-M.jpg
and the interior
9440186-M.jpg
 
that is very weird that they are layoff in NOL when Ijust a posting asking for TA and LSA . They cant be layoffing............they getting ready to hire 15 more LSAs in NOL.
 
I don't have LSA time, nor do I want to be one. They do need LSAs very bad as many didn't return after Katrina, but no need for SA and TA. Strange you still have requests for these crafts. Oh well, I can't dispute the letter I got from my crew base manager that's now in my filing cabinet. CMC says I can go to LAX, WAS or back to MIA, but I personally am going to take the furlough and see what happens. I've got another job that has a better future, but doesn't pay as well. I expect a recall soon from NOL if they undo some of the service cuts they're planning. I just don't know what else they can cut other than the 58/59 sleeper. I just don't see that right now to happen. Your requests for transfers to NOL means recall is coming. I can remember when I got a furlough letter and a recending letter and recall the same day in the mail. Who knows! :huh:
 
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