Home > Rafi on the Rails > Archives > 2007 > September > 29 > Entry
Day 3: Lake Shore Surprises
So have you heard? The Twentieth Century Limited’s food service has gone from this:
to this:
After almost being left in the dust by the Boston section of the Lake Shore Limited, we figured the rest of the day would be fairly anticlimatic.
Click Continue Reading to find out what happened.
A bit of history about the Lake Shore Limited and how you get from Boston to Chicago: The Lake Shore Limited (formerly, and perhaps better known as the Twentieth Century Limited) is a unique train, in that it has two sections: one from New York City, and one from Boston. Both sections meet in Albany, New York, and combine into one train to Chicago. Until a few years ago, this combination was a literal process, meaning the actual cars from Boston (including a sleeper) hooked onto the cars from New York and the combined train continued on westward. Prior to that, the train split again in Toledo, Ohio, and a section went north to Detroit while the rest of the train continued west to Chicago. Today, however, the Detroit split is long gone (replaced by a bus connection), and the Boston section no longer physically joins the New York train. Instead passengers must transfer to and from the Boston section at Albany, and the sleeping accomodations are only carried on the New York-based cars (which is why Jon and I were in business class until Albany).
So, with that backfrop in mind, we arrived in Albany at about 5:05 PM. The New York section of the Lake Shore was scheduled to leave Albany, bound for Chicago, at 7:05, so we had two hours to kill. As coincidence has it, one of my wife’s close friends lives and works in Albany and was more than happy to pick us up and share a wonderful dinner with us in downtown Albany, complete with a quick tour of the downtown area. We arrived back at the Albany station with plenty of time to spare, and headed down to the train, which had just arrived. And that’s when I got the second shock of the day: NO DINING CAR.
Now, to Jon, the import of this wouldn’t become entirely clear until he stepped foot onto the Empire Builder in Chicago. But I had a sinking feeling in my gut that I knew what was happening: the Dining car had been removed, and a “Diner/Lounge” had been put in its place. Now, a Diner/Lounge car is a relatively new animal on the Amtrak system. It looks like a Cafe or Lounge car that you find on single level trains, but it happens to serve a menu that’s more like (but not identical to) a dining car. For more background on why it exists and what its intended purpose is, look at this blog I contributed to Window on Washington back in May. Suffice it to say, Amtrak has insisted that the single level Diner/Lounge car is not meant as a complete replacement for single level diners. Instead, it’s meant to augment service on “short haul” (ie “day train”) routes that until now have only had basic cafe food service, and as a food upgrade for the Cardinal (New York-Washington-Chicago), which has been without a diner for a number of years.
So, the first thought that went through my head was, “is this permanent?” The second thought was, “oh, man… this is going to get interesting.” The latter thought was simply because I had also noticed that our train had three almost entirely full sleeping cars and five packed coaches. That’s a lot of people to fit into a car that seats only about 30 at a time.
Since we had already had dinner, we decided to get some light appetizers and dessert in the Diner/Lounge instead. And sure enough, the car was absolutely packed. And the dining crew was going crazy; I didn’t envy them, that’s for sure. Unfortunately, service and common courtesy took a big hit as a result of the crunch. What sleeping car passengers had to pay for and what they didn’t wasn’t fully explained to us, so we ended up ordering food for which we hadn’t budgeted (appetizers are not complimentary for sleeping passengers in a Diner/Lounge, for example). The service was also incredibly slow. We showed up in the Diner at 8:00 PM, and no one spoke to us until 8:20 PM. It wasn’t until 8:50 PM that we actually got our food (cheese sticks, ice cream and a slice of chocolate cake). The food was okay (as okay as precooked, reheated food can be), and we went to bed shortly thereafter.
Breakfast in the morning was also a madhouse, but the food came a little faster. Appearance, however, apparently wasn’t at the top of Amtrak’s priorities. Staff was still very rushed and very non-talkative. Coffee was served from one of those clear plastic ice water pitchers (anyone heard of a coffee pot?). And when we walked in and out, we felt like we were walking through the kitchen itself, because the diner/lounge staff were continually running up and down the aisle trying to get as many people served as possible. Lots of people in a small car does is never a comfortable situation. Why Amtrak didn’t put TWO diner/lounges on, I have no idea.
I did call Amtrak on Friday morning, however, to try and figure out what happened. As it turns out, the Diner/Lounge replacement is anticipated to be a temporary change on the Lake Shore. A high number of traditional “Heritage” diners are out for repair, and rather than impact multiple routes with spotty diner/lounge replacements, Amtrak made the decision to just remove all Diners from the Lake Shore entirely until enough cars are repaired to put them back in service. Unfortunately, Amtrak doesn’t know when this will be, and until then, it’s Diner/Lounge service for the Lake Shore.
Here’s what Cliff Cole from Amtrak PR was able to tell me:
The last operation of the Diner Lounge was on Train 49(9/16) and 48(9/17) before we converted the train to a Diner Lite Operation. We don’t believe that this is a permanent measure as we’ve done this to relieve the pressure on Heritage Diner requirements while we send some cars into Beech Grove for some work. We’re looking into a number of things for future equipment requirements so I can’t tell you exactly when they’ll be back at this time.
I certainly can understand Amtrak’s perspective here. The Heritage diners are ancient at this point, and they desperately need new equipment (which they’re not going to get without help from Congress). So from a maintenance perspective, push is going to come to shove at some point, and cars are going to have to be shopped. At the same time, based on our experience on a packed Lake Shore, one Diner/Lounge replacing a full Diner results in a very chaotic atmosphere, and one I certainly hope I don’t have to go through again.
Regardless, the food was acceptable, and we got to Chicago without incident, and aside from the food service, the Lake Shore provided a good trip.
-Rafi
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Lake Shore Limited
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By Tim Howard
September 29, 2007 6:00 PM | Link to this
I hope the Diner does come back as I always enjoyed the food on an Amtrak diner. If one takes train food for what it is, the experience is enjoyable one of eating on the train.
By Jay Hadley
September 30, 2007 9:23 PM | Link to this
I’ll bet you’re glad you did dinner in Albany.