Without additional funding, how can Amtrak improve the LD trains?

[railiner]

As of a couple of years ago, WiFi on trains used the cafe car as a “brain car” (with the modem) with the coaches having WiFi routers/repeaters that spread the connectivity to the rest of the train. Not sure if that has changed since then.

Thanks for that...I didn't know about how it worked, other than some cars seemed to have wifi, and other's did not, for whatever reason.
My Verizon data seems to work most places, as a backup....

 

[Bjartmarr]

Reduce announcements on the PA. A quiet ride is one of the few luxuries Amtrak can still provide, but the constant stream of announcements makes it feel more like a subway train. In particular, diners should be called to dinner with a pager, like they do at restaurants that don't have table service, rather than by a PA announcement that all 300 people on the train have to listen to. Snack bar closures could be advertised via a light-up sign, similar to the lavatory sign on an airplane. The PA should be able to be switched to address just the sleepers, or just coach.

 

[Seaboard92]

There's clearly a demand for a luxury food product and a less crowded lounge.

How feasible do you think it would be to demonstrate this market with a refurbished transition sleeper and a private dining/lounge/some sleeper car?

I strongly doubt any owner would be interested in doing something like that. Now do I think there is a market for something above an Amtrak sleeper definitely. Iowa Pacific did prove that theory on one of the lines with cheaper sleepers the City of New Orleans. However I think the real route to try that out on would be the Lake Shore Limited, the Silver Meteor, and the California Zephyr. The Lake Shore Limited, and Silver Meteor are both blessed by having two great end cities, with a lot of traffic between them. While the Zephyr is known for the scenery.

Amtrak has all but destroyed the relationship they had with car owners that I don't think many would sign up to do it. Especially if you have to 238 the car. If you have to 238 the car there is a zero percent chance.

Could you add enough temporary equipment downstairs and revive the upstairs bar in order to provide the dining experience in that car sufficient to meet the demands of this group?

With the right amount of money you could fit any group. You could make the best Parlor car type car out there and someone will still complain. But yes its doable to do all of the interior needs to make it sufficient. That being said some of the cars that have been laying in storage at Beech Grove since the giant "Superliner" Script days probably aren't the best candidates either.

 

[John Santos]

[...]Starlink is already oversold and I don't think we have equipment that would make it work reliably.[...]

By "oversold" do you mean they already have more customers than they can handle (even though it is no available yet, or only in an alpha test mode if you know somebody) or do you mean "over-hyped", that is it won't live up to the performance expectations?

The latest performance figures I've seen (within the last month) are that it is if anything higher throughput than promised, with very good latency. The latest prices I've seen put it well above wired broadband, and the base stations and antennas are too big and expensive for personal use, but perfectly suited for mobile use and much better latency than satellite Internet. It's also symmetric, i.e. approximately equal performance in both directions. (Satellite Internet, at least the last time I looked at it, which was some years ago, uses high band-width but also high latency satellite broadcasting for the downlink, but uses DSL or even traditional copper modems for the uplink.)

I believe one of the target applications of Starlink is long-distance trucking fleets, mostly for tracking location and dispatching, which requires very small total data transfer, but widely dispersed mobile ground stations. An Amtrak use case would require a lot more bandwidth, but roughly the same dispersion and mobility.

I do think the cost would be prohibitive using ground-based cell tech, because they would need to install hundreds if not thousands of cell repeaters (and uplinks) all along the passenger networks, many of them many miles from the nearest broadband service. The recent CZ re-route through Wyoming would get no coverage at all, but that would be automatic with Starlink.

BTW, there are competitors in the market (Bezos/Amazon, Iridium, O3B, OneWeb, etc.) but they are either much more expensive or won't be available for several years.

I think Starlink will be available before Amtrak could actually roll it out even if they started today.

 

[MARC Rider]

Amtrak has all but destroyed the relationship they had with car owners that I don't think many would sign up to do it. Especially if you have to 238 the car. If you have to 238 the car there is a zero percent chance.

Pardon my ignorance, but what is "238"ing a car? I presume it has something to do with meeting some sort of regulatory requirement, but what are the details?

 

[MARC Rider]

One more thing Amtrak can do is to finally implement the pre-ordering of meals -- for both sleeper and coach. Plus, passengers should be able to order special meals (kosher, whatever other special diets they offer, etc.) via the website and app and eliminate the need to call and agent.

They should also spend some time thinking about the meal quality, variety and pricing so that they can actually earn some net revenue on the service, even if it is simplified dining. (Encouraging coach passengers to buy more food should help with that.) Thinking doesn't cost anything, and the executives are getting paid anyway.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

Could you add enough temporary equipment downstairs and revive the upstairs bar in order to provide the dining experience in that car sufficient to meet the demands of this group?

When the ssl Cars were used to substitute parlour cars they used the 8 booths upstairs for dining. Don’t forget the traditional dining car would still be on the train in theory so you can use that kitchen as well.

Iowa Pacific did prove that theory on one of the lines with cheaper sleepers the City of New Orleans. However I think the real route to try that out on would be the Lake Shore Limited

You might already know this but that was Ed’s intention all along. Amtrak didn’t want him running cars to New York penn and basically made it impossible for him to do so on a regular basis.

Because I had been a previous passenger, Iowa Pacific sent me a killer deal for the one trip that they ran to Florida one year... I regret not taking it now.

 

[allanorn]

This is a good question. Incremental improvement is the best one can hope for but I think there's a lot of room for that.

Without additional funding, it's going to be almost impossible to improve the hard product. I'd focus on ensuring the maintenance is spot on and sending out feedback requests after each LD trip within 24 hours, especially to sleeper pax. The technology's good enough to link the feedback survey email address to the room each sleeper pax was in, so they have an opportunity to identify maintenance problems that can be addressed before they become long term problems.

The soft product definitely could use an upgrade. Amenity kits cost a little money but it's possible they can save money by not overstocking the showers with additional product that ends up taking more space and/or gets destroyed by the shower. NightJet (ÖBB) goes with a continental breakfast for sleeper pax; you just fill out a form and hand it to the SCA/conductor before you go to bed. Kits are delivered at the time you request. I completely get a freshly-cooked hot breakfast on a train is amazing, but I'm guessing it might be easier to assemble and distribute a continental breakfast. Trash/recycling may be an issue though.

I would be more than happy to accept smaller meals if they're healthier and better quality. My last train trip was cross-country and I felt completely overstuffed by the third day with just the sheer amount of food being provided. I'm guessing nobody's burning 3000 calories a day by just sitting on the train, and most of us are probably bringing snacks on-board anyway. If boxed meals are to stay, international business-class flight food is probably the minimum standard to go for here. I really want traditional dining to come back, as I haven't had the Amtrak steak yet - but even then I think there's some room for improvement on how good lunch and dinner can become.

I do like the idea of a reorg to give individual lines more discretion for regional products to sell on board: beer, wine, soft drinks, maybe even some food ideas. Sure they'll be a strong contingent of Bud/Miller/Coors drinkers, but what I really like about the Surfliner and Cascades lines is that they put some thought into what they offer in the cafe car. The regional/state-sponsored lines seem to do well here from what I've seen, so maybe each individual line gets a regional manager who is empowered to take feedback and make decisions to improve sales. Tie their bonus performance to F&B sales.

At the end of the day though, what's Amtrak's mission? I feel like they have three: essential long-distance service, inter-regional mass transit (e.g. NEC), and exploration/slow travel. Each mission has different target markets and target customers, which makes consistent messaging and vision-handling extremely difficult. They may want to take a hard look at themselves to determine who they are, what they're trying to do, and what they want to do - so there's a better alignment and more consistent customer engagement.

 

[Nick Farr]

With the right amount of money you could fit any group. You could make the best Parlor car type car out there and someone will still complain. But yes its doable to do all of the interior needs to make it sufficient.

Assuming by some miracle Amtrak allowed it, I'm thinking lease a SSL and a SL sleeper from Amtrak and add it to the end of a CZ consist. (We would just not use the dining car on board at all). Absolutely deep clean and upgrade everything possible on board.

Sell out the sleeper car.

Use the tables in the SSL to serve meals which have all been pre-ordered. They're heated and plated downstairs. Otherwise use the rest of the SSL as exactly that: a lounge.

The idea is testing partners along the route that can restock food and other items, along with building in the cost of better, custom bedding and amenities kits.

Pitch the trip to railfans. Everyone round trip from Chicago with several days in San Francisco.

How many OBS do you think it would take?

 

[crescent-zephyr]

Assuming by some miracle Amtrak allowed it, I'm thinking lease a SSL and a SL sleeper from Amtrak and add it to the end of a CZ consist. (We would just not use the dining car on board at all). Absolutely deep clean and upgrade everything possible on board.

Sell out the sleeper car.

Use the tables in the SSL to serve meals which have all been pre-ordered. They're heated and plated downstairs. Otherwise use the rest of the SSL as exactly that: a lounge.

The idea is testing partners along the route that can restock food and other items, along with building in the cost of better, custom bedding and amenities kits.

Pitch the trip to railfans. Everyone round trip from Chicago with several days in San Francisco.

How many OBS do you think it would take?

If you’re suggesting a 3rd party do this it would be difficult. As I mentioned above, Amtrak management made it very difficult for Iowa Pacific to operate and that was BEFORE Amtrak got stricter with private car policies.

Of course, Anything is possible and maybe the right company could talk the new head of Amtrak into giving it a go.

As for staffing, if it was 1 sleeper and the ssl as parlor car that would only require 2 service staff members. When Iowa Pacific was operating on the back of the city of New Orleans they operated with 1 Pullman conductor, 1 porter, and 1 chef.

That was with 1 sleeper and 1 diner / lounge / sleeper. So pretty much the same type of setup.

 

[Nick Farr]

Reduce announcements on the PA. A quiet ride is one of the few luxuries Amtrak can still provide, but the constant stream of announcements makes it feel more like a subway train. In particular, diners should be called to dinner with a pager, like they do at restaurants that don't have table service, rather than by a PA announcement that all 300 people on the train have to listen to. Snack bar closures could be advertised via a light-up sign, similar to the lavatory sign on an airplane. The PA should be able to be switched to address just the sleepers, or just coach.

This is a great idea! On some of the older Superliners, there's an option to switch channels that would disable the announcements in the room.

A very small touchscreen could fix the call button, announcement and thermostat and wouldn't be a terribly expensive retrofit.

 

[Nick Farr]

If you’re suggesting a 3rd party do this it would be difficult. As I mentioned above, Amtrak management made it very difficult for Iowa Pacific to operate and that was BEFORE Amtrak got stricter with private car policies.

How long ago did they run these services? Would it be any different if the services themselves were monthly as opposed to something approaching daily service?

 

[dlagrua]

I believe that Amtrak has been receiving more funding of late but with many airline people on the management team they obviously know nothing about train travel. You cannot sell one against the other. Airline travel will almost always be faster than train LD sleeper service so you have to present Amtrak as a more comfortable way to get to your destination and see America in the process. They must restore the amenities driven by petty cost cutting to attract new customers. Things like full and more inclusive fresh prepared dining options, white tablecloths, a flower or two on the table, ice availability, and coffee and juice would make the service more desirable. The TV dinner style food that they are now serving is sickening. We are very reluctant to take more trips because of this. On this months three day trip that included 8 meals the reheated meals we very disappointing.

 

[Nick Farr]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is "238"ing a car? I presume it has something to do with meeting some sort of regulatory requirement, but what are the details?

Refers to Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations (i.e. Federal Law as passed by Congress), part 238 which sets the safety standards for Passenger Equipment on US Railroads.

https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-i...30f012222908&mc=true&node=pt49.4.238&rgn=div5
"Tourist, scenic, historic, or excursion operations, whether on or off the general railroad system of transportation" are exempt under the law and AFAIK, most Private Car operation is exempt from 238 under this provision,.

 

[MikeM]

My vote is to increase capacity and reduce some fares particularly for sleepers. If you can sell out 3 sleepers at 80 - 90% of the per room revenue that you'd get from only selling out two sleepers at current rates, I think revenue comes out ahead. I'd also like to see the diners run more efficiently, with more seatings, more tables used for revenue diners (eliminate the "crew tables" at peak times), and expand dining services to coach passengers aggressively. Maybe even split the diner with one side selling basic inexpensive meals (think burgers, hot dogs, pancakes, sandwiches) and the other side selling more deluxe items spun towards the sleeper clientelle.

Longer term, I'd love to see some experimentation with the dining cars, perhaps going to a lunch counter format on some trains, where most of the dining seats are at a counter that can be served by one or two servers easily. Think Waffle House on wheels. That wouldn't work so well with superliners, but maybe a test could be done with surplus single level equipment to try a proof of concept. Traditional railroads used this approach when they ran passenger service as a cost savings option successfully.

Last but not least, consider shifting one or more trains from superliner to single level equipment to use the viewliner sleepers that are piling up in Florida. Free up some Superliner equipment to extend the other trains.

I do like the other comments in this thread about on train personnel improvements, at one time Amtrak had a "On Train Services Manager" position that managed the services crew which could be useful, but would require union negotiations and a additional salary. But it'd be worth it for the right person in those positions.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

How long ago did they run these services? Would it be any different if the services themselves were monthly as opposed to something approaching daily service?

November 2012 through December of 2015.

What you are describing is similar to what a few private car owners have done in the past. Friends of 261, Cincinnati Railway, LA rail and others.

At that point it’s just a “rail cruise” - it needs to operate somewhat regularly for people to be able to use it as transportation.

 

[Seaboard92]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is "238"ing a car? I presume it has something to do with meeting some sort of regulatory requirement, but what are the details?

It's basically a stricter regulation on what you can and can't do to a passenger carrying railcar. For instance you can't use wood, the upholstery must be flame retardant, the seats must be fixed, etc.... Most car owners would not want to 238 a car, nor do they want to pay for it. I've had a good conversation about it recently when I was planning the interior for a car.

You might already know this but that was Ed’s intention all along. Amtrak didn’t want him running cars to New York penn and basically made it impossible for him to do so on a regular basis.

That was his plan and I think it was far better than doing the City of New Orleans. I think he started on the City of New Orleans just because he is the biggest Illinois Central fan I've ever met. The Lake Shore Limited the private car often times could have ended up being cheaper than the rooms, as it seams every time I want to use the Lake Shore it's in a high bucket. It's also well suited for business travelers, and historically minded passengers if you market it as the 20th Century Limited Experience. And Florida well it's a snowbird destination and it's just incredibly marketable. What Amtrak has done to the Florida trains since the 1990s is really next to criminal as those used to be packed trains with long consists.

Assuming by some miracle Amtrak allowed it, I'm thinking lease a SSL and a SL sleeper from Amtrak and add it to the end of a CZ consist. (We would just not use the dining car on board at all). Absolutely deep clean and upgrade everything possible on board.

Sell out the sleeper car.

Use the tables in the SSL to serve meals which have all been pre-ordered. They're heated and plated downstairs. Otherwise use the rest of the SSL as exactly that: a lounge.

The idea is testing partners along the route that can restock food and other items, along with building in the cost of better, custom bedding and amenities kits.

Pitch the trip to railfans. Everyone round trip from Chicago with several days in San Francisco.

How many OBS do you think it would take?

If you’re suggesting a 3rd party do this it would be difficult. As I mentioned above, Amtrak management made it very difficult for Iowa Pacific to operate and that was BEFORE Amtrak got stricter with private car policies.

Of course, Anything is possible and maybe the right company could talk the new head of Amtrak into giving it a go.

As for staffing, if it was 1 sleeper and the ssl as parlor car that would only require 2 service staff members. When Iowa Pacific was operating on the back of the city of New Orleans they operated with 1 Pullman conductor, 1 porter, and 1 chef.

That was with 1 sleeper and 1 diner / lounge / sleeper. So pretty much the same type of setup.

Crescent Zephyr said it very well but I wanted to add a few points so I'll add them below both of you. The first mistake is to pitch a trip to railfans, that's a bad idea. Railfans don't buy tickets, they go trackside with a camera to photograph something. You should always market to the general public more so because they are more likely to buy a ticket. Some railfans will still come as well but they will be a much smaller part of your demographic. For instance the Wine Train trips we used to run on a regular basis at another one of my tourist railroads was 95 percent general public. Yet we run it with vintage E8s and 19 matching Budd cars.

Amtrak management did not like the Iowa Pacific experiment despite the fact it cost Amtrak no money and in fact made Amtrak at minimum five dollars and some change per mile if only two cars ran. And of course two cars trigger an extra locomotive charge of $5.94 per mile. I actually had a client call me once about running a trip for her boss's retirement party like the Pullman Rail Journey's and having to pay for the extra locomotive at that rate for two round trips (as they were laying over a few days in NOL before returning north) caused that trip to be too costly. Personally I think Amtrak set the number that low to hurt IPH's business by triggering the charge on every move.

It should be noted the extra locomotive charge triggers on the Lake Shore Limited on car No. 14 and the train is listed as a normal consist of 13 cars with one locomotive. That being said the train almost always has two locomotives. But I wouldn't put it passed them to charge for it even if they normally run with two. Before Portland, OR was removed from the private car system they didn't require a second locomotive from Spokane to Portland, now however they do and it must come from Chicago. The train length has not changed on the Baby Builder however. But at least Portland has been added back.

The point I'm trying to make is on the Iowa Pacific operation Amtrak did not like carrying their own competition on the rear of their own trains. Especially when that competition had a far superior soft and hard product to what Amtrak operates. Getting Amtrak to agree to allowing something on the Zephyr on a regular basis would not work.

I would staff it differently than Crescent Zephyr actually and here is how I would and why.

First off I'm going to assume we're using a 10/6 Sleeper because as far as I know no superliner sleepers have been sold. So you are looking at 20 beds from that car (Two rooms taken out for crew), plus from your observation with a car like Hickory Creek you have an additional 6 overnight guests to deal with. I would have one porter in charge of the 10/6, a lounge car attendant, a chef, and an additional utility who could help any of the other three in the event they need assistance. As someone who has worked these trips there are times when one person is really slammed and needs the extra hand but the other employees are busy. So having that fourth person really can help pull together the product. The other thing to remember is that when you are marketing a high end product like a PV trip you must be providing the best service possible.

They can chose one of any 200 Amtrak certified private cars so we must provide the best service we can because without the customer we are all unemployed. So by having that fourth person you can provide that extra little bit of service to make the soft product better.


Now there was one trip I was supposed to work on that was going to be a massive political charter tied to the 2020 Democratic Primaries. The train was supposed to run with 22 cars of which 10 were sleepers, 8 lounges (some also had sleeping space), 1 diner, 2 coaches, and 1 office car. There was one porter assigned for every two full sleepers, 1 for each lounge, 7 for the diner, 1 for the entire coach section, and for the candidate section had 8 staff members. That's not counting the mechanical crew, and the car owners representatives. Personally I think this staffing was too light for the actual crew need to provide a first class experience. That trip would have been one amazing trip had it actually been able to get off the drawing board, and it would have been a great pay day for me had it ran. I was to be assigned to the mechanical department on it.

 

[Seaboard92]

November 2012 through December of 2015.

What you are describing is similar to what a few private car owners have done in the past. Friends of 261, Cincinnati Railway, LA rail and others.

At that point it’s just a “rail cruise” - it needs to operate somewhat regularly for people to be able to use it as transportation.

Exactly it is just a rail cruise at that point. There is nothing wrong with being a rail cruise but it is not a business Amtrak should be in. That would set a bad precedent for congress. Now there is a market for a rail cruise and that should be provided for by the private car owners, and Amtrak should be working harder to accommodate our unique needs. They are however getting better in recent days. Portland, OR was added back into the network and it looks like on 11/14, and 27/28. And they did offer a special Covid Summer special for car owners. So they are slowly realizing what they did under Mr. Anderson and are trying to rectify and make up for it. But till Mr. Gardner is gone there is only so much that can be done.

Personally I think something like the American Orient Express would make a lot of sense today on their two most popular routes. The Great Pacific Northwest (SLC-SEA) via Glacier Park, Yellowstone, and Teton, and the National Parks of the West (ABQ-SLC) via Yellowstone, Teton, Arches, Grand Canyon. But it wouldn't be transportation.

I've also heard rumors from sources close to Rocky Mountaineer that they were going to start running a train out of Denver in the 2020s. I don't know if Covid has put a halt to those plans.

 

[Nick Farr]

Exactly it is just a rail cruise at that point. There is nothing wrong with being a rail cruise but it is not a business Amtrak should be in.

Why not? For that matter, why not just privatize the sleeper segment?

There's a lot of folks here who, as far as I know, would never get to be your customer because those opportunities aren't (from what I've seen) ever marketed publicly.

There also appears to be a demand for those who want a higher level of food quality. I'm sure Amtrak could probably sell enough sleeper capacity to one-off passengers and their captive market. I don't see them growing the segment at all.

There's also the missed opportunity of marketing themselves as a safer alternative to flying in pandemic times.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

I've also heard rumors from sources close to Rocky Mountaineer that they were going to start running a train out of Denver in the 2020s. I don't know if Covid has put a halt to those plans.

If they could buy the old depot in Grand Junction and run trains both east to Denver and west to Salt Lake City with an overnight in grand junction (similar to the Canadian operation) they would have a gold mine. They could do day trips from grand junction to arches, Durango, etc.

Plus... they can use the same name... still the Rocky Mountains!

 

[railiner]

I do like the other comments in this thread about on train personnel improvements, at one time Amtrak had a "On Train Services Manager" position that managed the services crew which could be useful, but would require union negotiations and a additional salary. But it'd be worth it for the right person in those positions.

What Amtrak used to have, was a "Chief of On Board Services", assigned to most of the long distance trains. That person was in a "partially exempt" union position, and was required to be a member of a supervisor's union. The Chief's on each route, reported to a specific Train Manager, who divided their time between the crew base, and riding the route assigned to them, to monitor the performance. This position was entirely management.

 

[fdaley]

Wonderful discussion here. If there were a "superior sleeper" service on the back of the Lake Shore Limited and the California Zephyr, I'd definitely be a customer -- at least if it ran regularly, with departures at least once a week.

Better in my view if it were run by the private car owners, as the service standards would undoubtedly be higher, and it wouldn't be on Amtrak's books except for the fees paid to Amtrak by the private operators. But the Iowa Pacific experience is a real cautionary tale, and the more recent Amtrak management, especially under Richard Anderson, has seemed downright hostile toward the private car owners. Amtrak shouldn't view such services as competition to their regular sleeper service (in my own case, they've already lost me as a customer because of flex dining).

The possibility of using Amtrak equipment and crews for an upgraded sleeper experience could also work. But again, under Anderson, the company has gotten rid of its dome and parlor cars and seems to have no interest in anything that might distinguish long-distance trains through superior comfort and service. And I'm not sure why, if the company's management were willing to operate a higher-end sleeper service as a new offering, they wouldn't just upgrade their regular sleeper service in an effort to attract more travelers and to win back customers like me. If the issue of meal service could be resolved, upgrading and restoring other amenities -- new blankets and bedding, toiletries, daily newspapers, printed schedules -- would certainly add to the feeling that sleeper customers are receiving value for the price paid. All of these would have a cost, though it might be small when compared with the potential revenue generated by new and returning customers.

Apart from the sleeper experience per se, and the dining, which we've been asked to discuss elsewhere, I definitely support the suggestions made here for stronger emphasis on on-time performance, better WiFi, and a more user-friendly website (the latest iteration seems in many ways more cumbersome than the last).

But even more important for the long-distance trains, better, more consistent on-board services staffing would go a long way toward building and retaining ridership. There was a considerable improvement about 15 years ago (perhaps in the David Gunn era), but there still is too often a feeling on Amtrak that the train is being run for the crew's benefit. In reality, they are working in a competitive hospitality industry. Maybe they could take lessons from Via Rail?

 

[crescent-zephyr]

My opinion on WiFi... my phone has unlimited data and it gets pretty good service throughout the Amtrak system. The Cascade mountains are the only long stretch without service that I can remember.

I’m thinking in a few years it won’t be an issue so it would be a poor investment. Just my opinion of course.

 

[20th Century Rider]

Well they just sold off the parlour cars and the dome.... but if they wanted to do a 1st class sevice they could doll up a SSL and use it as a parlour car. Attach a recently refurbished sleeper and make sure Gul is the attendant and your done. 1st class service.

Streamline management and weed out the 'deadwood' ... and speaking of EB attendant GUL... he should be promoted to a management position of training and evaluation of SCA's because he understands the meaning of customer oriented service. Amtrak needs to reward those with promotions etc. who are so service oriented. In addition, heating and cooling, air circulation, and plumbing on the Superliners need extensive maintenance.

 

[20th Century Rider]

One more thing Amtrak can do is to finally implement the pre-ordering of meals -- for both sleeper and coach. Plus, passengers should be able to order special meals (kosher, whatever other special diets they offer, etc.) via the website and app and eliminate the need to call and agent.

They should also spend some time thinking about the meal quality, variety and pricing so that they can actually earn some net revenue on the service, even if it is simplified dining. (Encouraging coach passengers to buy more food should help with that.) Thinking doesn't cost anything, and the executives are getting paid anyway.

And!!! Upgrade the technology so passengers can choose and pay for seating / rooms / online... just like the airlines. The agent driven system is costly, labor intensive, and outdated.