Silver Star has new Café menu and no diner

[WoodyinNYC]

[Will] the Silver Star will get a Diner back within three years?

Not me. Cost savings are too significant to ignore.

Yeah, unless I missed an update, the Star's costs go down about $6 million a year, right? Meanwhile Amtrak figures show the Star's losses were about $6 million a year more than the Meteor's. Now they are both gonna be very close to break even (before much overhead and numerous costs).
The two Silvers overlap for most of the way, and for most of the riders, it's OK if one has diners and the other goes sans diner. And since the diners do not leave the CAF plant with "Silver Star" in big letters on the side, I'm ready for another train to use them, like a revived Broadway Ltd. serving PGH-CLE-TOR-Waterloo (Ft Wayne) in daylight.

Edit: I made some ]mistake[ typing in the command for italic and can't edit it out.

 

[me_little_me]

Darn, I was hoping for pre-paid convection ovens (you put in your credit card, select your cooking time, and are billed by the minute until you remove your item) so I can put my Swanson TV Dinner in my backpack. Mmmmm!

 

[Carolina Special]

At least we know the Amtrak marketing department can produce fancy descriptions for frozen dinners.

Personally, I'd go for a hot dog from the cafe car ahead of these selections. But I'm not really the target audience.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

At least we know the Amtrak marketing department can produce fancy descriptions for frozen dinners.

Personally, I'd go for a hot dog from the cafe car ahead of these selections. But I'm not really the target audience.

Don't give them too much credit... they probably copied the wording from the back of the box!

I'd give one of these dishes a try. It's a step in the right direction to serve something that at least resembles a meal.

 

[Train2104]

I wonder what gave in order for there to be sufficient refrigeration capacity to store these.

 

[Palmland]

I'm not a fan of the somewhat tubular feel of AmCafes with their small windows, and sometimes boisterous lounge passengers, But it is good to see something offered that is a step up from hot dogs or subs.

I wonder if there are any rules about taking the expandied menu items back to your room. Might not be too bad to enjoy with a bottle of wine in a Viewliner bedroom.

 

[AmtrakLKL]

I wonder what gave in order for there to be sufficient refrigeration capacity to store these.

As has been discussed before, the Amfleet II lounges have ample storage space.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

I wonder if these pre-plated meals are something that can be bought in the grocery freezer or are they custom made by Aramark (or whoever is the contractor)?

 

[Triley]

I wonder if these pre-plated meals are something that can be bought in the grocery freezer or are they custom made by Aramark (or whoever is the contractor)?

Doesn't really pertain to the topic, but to clarify the side thought... As far as I know, Aramark has nothing to do with actual food prep (other than building the cheese trays). I'm not sure about for long hauls, but for the First Class meals, I believe they're actually made at the local airports and brought over to the commissary. Boston is obviously sourced from Logan, New York is from La Guardia, and to be honest, I'm not quite sure where DC's is sourced from. I've seen BOS, LGA, and WAS as the codes for where the meals come from.

 

[neroden]

Jim Matthews spoke a bit about the proposed frozen dinners on the Silver Star. They have one huge advantage over the dining cars....

...according to him, they have INGREDIENT LISTS. As such, I would like to see them on all the trains because I could probably actually eat some of them. I can't eat anything but breakfast and salads in the dining car now because Amtrak refuses to find out the ingredients.

I hope someone can verify that the ingredient lists are actually available for the frozen dinners. If Amtrak refuses to provide them, it's time to make an even bigger stink.

 

[neroden]

On April 23, pre-plated meals will be added to the cafe menu in the Silver Star. These are vacuum packed entrees microwaved to order. It's basically the same as the Cardinal Diner-lite meals, just without the sit-down table service or dinner rolls.

The option will be:

• $12 Spinach Lasagna with Mixed Vegetables: Layered pasta sheet with spinach, parmesan and ricotta and mozzarella cheese, green beans, carrots, yellow carrots, pearl onions and red pepper with Roma tomato marinara sauce
• $12 Beef Stroganoff: Slow braised boneless beef with Fusili pasta roasted mushrooms all smothered in natural beef demi glace
• $12 Turkey Meatloaf: Turkey meatloaf with red skin mashed potatoes, honey glazed carrots. green beans with turkey gravy
• $12 Rigatoni with Sausage & Peppers: Rigatoni pasta, red peppers, sweet Italian sausage, crushed red pepper flakes tossed in a creamy tomato sauce
• $7.50 French Toast Bites: Griddled French toast cut into bit size pieces tossed with maple syrup

Obviously I have no way of knowing whether I can eat any of these without the full ingredients list (because I'm allergic to annoying additives), but I'd happily try any of them if the ingredients were safe. Hopefully at least one would be.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Everything on the New Silver Starvation Menu sounds pretty good,( nice prices too!) but based on the French Toast "Sticks" that are served on the Cardinal and that I found to be terrible, it will be interesting to hear from members who actually ride this train and try the items!

 

[CSXfoamer1997]

I've been hearing different rumors about the diner, but when the new Viewliner diners enter service, what are the chances of whether the Silver Star diner will return or not?

 

[Philly Amtrak Fan]

Obviously those willing to pay for it should have diner service. But I like the idea of the ability to get a room without paying for the meals too.

I'd want to make it roomettes come without meals and bedrooms with meals. Roomette passengers can still use (and pay for) the diner car but can also choose the lounge car for cheaper meals. I'd probably at least consider getting a roomette if the prices were similar to the SS prices I saw. I'd have a feeling though the bedrooms would skyrocket in price in this case to make up for it. You can say the normal approach works but you've priced a lot of people out of roomettes/bedrooms and they're stuck going coach.

 

[jis]

Why not sell either bare accommodation or accommodation plus service pack, the latter including meals. Then one can either choose just transportation/accommodation, or the full service. My suspicion would be that for people who are traveling two to a roomette might find the service pack more suitable whereas single travelers in roomettes might find the bare accommodation more suitable.

 

[JoeBas]

Because without the sleeper transfer of funds, on a mandatory basis, the Diners become economically untenable, and go away, whether you want them yourself or not.

I'm entirely NOT in favor of turning Amtrak into Spirit Trainlines.

 

[Cho Cho Charlie]

Because without the sleeper transfer of funds, on a mandatory basis, the Diners become economically untenable, and go away, whether you want them yourself or not.

I'm entirely NOT in favor of turning Amtrak into Spirit Trainlines.

Good point. What if just one Sleeper Class passenger opt'ed for the $60 meal package. Amtrak would need to run the dining car, and staff it, for just that one person?

 

[Cho Cho Charlie]

However, I wish they could take the bun out of the wrap and toast it seperately. Microwaved bread is digusting.

That's what I do at home.

Microwaving the bread/bun too, just makes it awful. If its cold, I toss it into the toaster/oven.

PS: I take the mustard packet out too, before microwaving.

 

[CSXfoamer1997]

Because without the sleeper transfer of funds, on a mandatory basis, the Diners become economically untenable, and go away, whether you want them yourself or not.

I'm entirely NOT in favor of turning Amtrak into Spirit Trainlines.

Good point. What if just one Sleeper Class passenger opt'ed for the $60 meal package. Amtrak would need to run the dining car, and staff it, for just that one person?

Certainly not! There may be others that would, perhaps, want fresh meals rather than microwaved meals.

 

[jis]

Because without the sleeper transfer of funds, on a mandatory basis, the Diners become economically untenable, and go away, whether you want them yourself or not.

I'm entirely NOT in favor of turning Amtrak into Spirit Trainlines.

But remember, only food that is consumed is paid into the Diner fund from the Sleeper. The rest appears as earnings for Sleeper transportation. So when I travel by Sleeper, only two meals worth per day on an average is transferred, since I seldom eat the third meal. The rest remains in transportation. So even if I was traveling on a transport ticket and partaking in the usual two meals that I do take, the amount of money that gets into the Diner fund will be exactly the same. Only the transport side will lose out on the extra money that they pocket now.

 

[JoeBas]

But without the meals being "included", a lot of people will just decide to "rough it" and/or deal with the lack of food. People are much more likely to partake if it's "included" than if it's a separate charge and/or a la carte.

 

[jis]

But without the meals being "included", a lot of people will just decide to "rough it" and/or deal with the lack of food. People are much more likely to partake if it's "included" than if it's a separate charge and/or a la carte.

True. That is why I am preferentially using the Silver Star now for travel in Sleeper along the Atlantic Coast. I am glad that they will make some reasonable choices available in the cafe. If I need to spend large sums of money on gourmet meals I'd rather do so at places like Morton's and the Chart House.

I think equipment-wise they should replace the Cafe in the Silver Star with a new Diner, but use it as a Buffet cum Lounge car serving the enhanced cafe menu with no additional staff needed for table service.

Even back when Amtrak started this stuff about including meals in the ticket, I avoided full Sleeper and chose to travel by Slumbercoaches where the meals were not included in the ticket, but of course one was able to use the Diner when one chose to. For single travelers like me who does not even eat all three meals, in roomettes the up-charge for meals is way larger than anything that one can reasonably recover..

 

[AmtrakBlue]

But without the meals being "included", a lot of people will just decide to "rough it" and/or deal with the lack of food. People are much more likely to partake if it's "included" than if it's a separate charge and/or a la carte.

True. That is why I am preferentially using the Silver Star now for travel in Sleeper along the Atlantic Coast. I am glad that they will make some reasonable choices available in the cafe. If I need to spend large sums of money on gourmet meals I'd rather do so at places like Morton's and the Chart House.

I think equipment-wise they should replace the Cafe in the Silver Star with a new Diner, but use it as a Buffet cum Lounge car serving the enhanced cafe menu with no additional staff needed for table service.

Even back when Amtrak started this stuff about including meals in the ticket, I avoided full Sleeper and chose to travel by Slumbercoaches where the meals were not included in the ticket, but of course one was able to use the Diner when one chose to. For single travelers like me who does not even eat all three meals, in roomettes the up-charge for meals is way larger than anything that one can reasonably recover..

Ditto (though I've never seen a slumbercoach). I usually skip lunch if I'm on long enough for 3 meals.

 

[JoeBas]

But without the meals being "included", a lot of people will just decide to "rough it" and/or deal with the lack of food. People are much more likely to partake if it's "included" than if it's a separate charge and/or a la carte.

True. That is why I am preferentially using the Silver Star now for travel in Sleeper along the Atlantic Coast. I am glad that they will make some reasonable choices available in the cafe. If I need to spend large sums of money on gourmet meals I'd rather do so at places like Morton's and the Chart House.
I think equipment-wise they should replace the Cafe in the Silver Star with a new Diner, but use it as a Buffet cum Lounge car serving the enhanced cafe menu with no additional staff needed for table service.

Even back when Amtrak started this stuff about including meals in the ticket, I avoided full Sleeper and chose to travel by Slumbercoaches where the meals were not included in the ticket, but of course one was able to use the Diner when one chose to. For single travelers like me who does not even eat all three meals, in roomettes the up-charge for meals is way larger than anything that one can reasonably recover..

But without that recovery spread over as many people as possible, the diner just goes away. Buh bye.

 

[jis]

Because without the sleeper transfer of funds, on a mandatory basis, the Diners become economically untenable, and go away, whether you want them yourself or not.

I'm entirely NOT in favor of turning Amtrak into Spirit Trainlines.

Good point. What if just one Sleeper Class passenger opt'ed for the $60 meal package. Amtrak would need to run the dining car, and staff it, for just that one person?

This is pure setting up a strawman and knocking it down with much elegance. Amtrak ran without the mandatory food charge until about the late 80s or mid 90s and it is not like the Diners were running empty. There is significant evidence that they are currently unable to serve all Coach passengers that wish to use the Diner either.

The problem is considering F&B as a separate P&L item. That is just stupid. The second legitimate problem is labor cost as a proportion of the total cost of service. Unfortunately that has been trending in an unfavorable direction, so it has to be addressed anyway to some extent. Back in the '80s it was believed that by forcing Sleeper passengers to use the Diner the labor cost problem could be punted upon. That has proved to be untenable, so it needs to be addressed to some extent. But trying to simultaneously make the F&B independently profitable or zero loss is what is causing all the big problems, and I don't think mandatory inclusion of food charges necessarily makes a huge difference in solving the problem when many passengers are looking for Diner service and Diner capacity on trains are unable to accommodate all.