Two Meal Questions

[denmarks]

Is dinner served on the CONO after leaving Chicago at 8pm?

When a train is very late are there contingencies to serve the extra meals in the dining car? For example, I have seen the CZ 4 hours late into Chicago. Would dinner be served?

 

[Amfleet]

Mostly likely yes, but the entrees availible may be limited. The Dining Car will just use up items that did not get eaten throughout the trip and won't stock up en route for more food. Mostly likely the limited service will include vegetarian and poultry entrees. Worst comes to worst, however, the crew will call ahead to a KFC up the line and order chicken dinners for everyone.

 

[Steve4031]

Dinner was served on 59 when I rode in March. It was a full meal service.

When trains run late, I have expreinced three scenarios. The best is that the dining car serves a standard free meal service to coach and sleeper passengers. I have experienced this on the CZ when it was detoured because of flooding. Also, I think I expereinced it on the Capitol Limited once too. Another scenario is that the entire train gets box meals, usually chicken. This happens if the diner does not have food, or if something is inoperable in the diner. Once, on the Late shore Limited, we got no dinner at all. When I asked the conductor why not, he yelled at me. The reasoning was that the conditons in the kitchen were too hazardous for the crew to work. It was a heritage diner and the trip occured in January after a blizzard.

 

[Amtrak OBS Employee]

Is dinner served on the CONO after leaving Chicago at 8pm?
When a train is very late are there contingencies to serve the extra meals in the dining car? For example, I have seen the CZ 4 hours late into Chicago. Would dinner be served?

As far as the answer to your question in regard to "The City," I am unsure, but I would have to say yes they would serve at least those passengers who boarded in CHI (at least a limited menu selection). We always served a short dinner out of NYP on "The Meteor" even though we left at 19:00:00, thus giving us that extra hour to do so in comparison to this. But we had to serve until 21:00:00 (the end of dinner hours) as per our supervisor.

As far as your question in regard to late trains, they make decisions mostly on a case by case basis! If there is ample food left in both the diner and lounge cars, and there is enough time left to perform a dinner in the dining car, then food service goes on as normal, but as an "unsheduled" meal period. Amtrak has gotten away from putting on "free" food because the train is late. However, in cases where there is no food left in the food service cars, then food has to be brought on from an outside source such as KFC. Well charging for that would be a bit too much for the circumstance which Amtrak is having to do this. Usually (at least on th Florida trains) Amtrak tries to feed the sleeper passengers out of the diner (being their meals are included in their ticket price), and only puts chicken boxes on for the coach passengers in situations where the train is absurdly late, but they sometimes force the coach passengers to pay regular prices if there is enough food in both food cars and the other varibles are in place. Sometimes they will "comp" lounge car food to the coach passengers, but as previously noted, it is all on a case by case basis.

 

[Amtrak OBS Employee]

The best is that the dining car serves a standard free meal service to coach and sleeper passengers. Another scenario is that the entire train gets box meals, usually chicken. This happens if the diner does not have food, or if something is inoperable in the diner. Once, on the Late shore Limited, we got no dinner at all. When I asked the conductor why not, he yelled at me. The reasoning was that the conditons in the kitchen were too hazardous for the crew to work. It was a heritage diner and the trip occured in January after a blizzard.

Amtrak tries not to serve a standard free meal service anymore! There used to be a policy in place which guaranteed that, but it has since been removed. They will still do so on a case by case basis, though.

In certain situations as you have noted, yes Amtrak will stock box meals either sandwiches or chicken for the whole train or sometimes just the coach passengers when a dining car is able to handle sleeper passengers.

Ahh yes, and that last situation has occured many times before in my observations. I am not aware of the varibles in place that day on the "Lake Shore Limited," however the conductor had no business yelling at you regardless of the reason(s) the diner was not operating.