New and Contemporary Dining Soon on Two Amtrak Routes

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Capitol Limited and lake Shore Limited sleeping car customers to be offered fresh choices for meals this summer

WASHINGTON – Amtrak will offer contemporary and fresh dining choices for sleeping car customers, instead of traditional dining car service, embarking aboard its Capitol Limited and Lake Shore Limited trains starting June 1.

Sleeping car customers will choose meals delivered to their Bedrooms or Roomettes – or eaten in a private café or lounge car – and entrees such as:
  • Lunch & Dinner: Chilled beef tenderloin, Vegan wrap, Chicken Caesar salad, or Turkey club sandwich.
  • Breakfast: Assorted breakfast breads with butter, cream cheese and strawberry jam; Greek yogurt and sliced seasonal fresh fruit plate.
These meals will continue to be included in the sleeping car fare and are delivered to the trains just prior to origination, eliminating on-board preparation. Customers will also be offered unlimited soft beverages, a complimentary serving of beer, wine or a mixed-drink and an amenity kit. A Kosher meal continues to be available with advance notice.

“Our plan is to provide new and fresh food choices in a contemporary way for these overnight trains,” said Bob Dorsch, Vice President of the Amtrak Long Distance Service Line. “Our continued success depends on increasing customer satisfaction while becoming more efficient.”

Dorsch said this enhancement will continue to be refined and we look forward to hearing from our customers.

The Capitol Limited (Trains 29 & 30) operates daily between Washington, D.C., and Chicago, via Pittsburgh and Cleveland. The Lake Shore Limited (Trains 48 & 49) typically operates daily between Chicago and New York, with a section to and from Boston (Trains 448 & 449).


About Amtrak®
Amtrak offers a more comfortable and convenient travel experience with free Wi-Fi on most trains, plenty of leg room and no middle seat. With our state and commuter partners, we move people, the economy and the nation forward, carrying more than 30 million Amtrak customers for each of the past seven years. Amtrak operates more than 300 trains daily, connecting more than 500 destinations in 46 states, the District of Columbia and three Canadian Provinces, and reaches 400 additional destinations via connecting bus routes. Learn more at Amtrak.com.
 
Wow. Talk about "spin doctoring". They're talking about eliminating the traditonal dining cars while promoting it like it's an improvement. UGH!

"Hey, we're switching to airline food, isn't that great?"

“Our continued success depends on increasing customer satisfaction while becoming more efficient.”

You've sure got a funny way of trying to gain customer satisfaction.
 
In 1989(?) my wife, daughter, and I took the Capitol Limited from Chicago to DC and back as a spring vacation trip. It still had the old pre Superliner/Viewliner equipment. Nice meals in the dining car were part of the rail travel experience.
 
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In 1989(?) my wife, daughter, and I took the Capitol Limited from Chicago to DC and back as a spring vacation trip. It still had the old pre Superliner/Viewliner equipment. Nice meals in the dining car were part of the rail travel experience.

Exactly, they're an important part of the journey. If you're in a hurry, you fly. If you want cheap as possible, you take the bus. Sleeping car passengers are looking for a nice comfortable journey with some decent amenities.

Let me be clear on this. I understand the logic of discontinuing the Pacific Parlour cars. I do NOT understand the logic behind this, aside from "Let's cut costs any way that we can!" I think it will hurt them long run.
 
I'm not sure this is a good idea, on Amtrak's part. It appears to be an experiment, to see if this idea will fly. More or less how they tested revised meal service on the Silver Star and Empire Builder. Needless to say, this is not something I would favor. If I read the description correctly, there is no option for a hot meal, these are all cold trays.

On the other hand, who is today's first class market for Eastern long hauls? Is there sufficient regular demand for dining car service on these trains?
The traveling public is whimsical to begin with, and to many, the cafe car provided for coach passengers is sufficient. It's been so long since I was on an Amtrak train, that i really don't know what their market is like any more..

Like many other changes, dining preferences have changed over the years, and the traditional dining car meals I enjoyed years ago, were disappointing when I took the Auto Train to Florida back in 2002. Breakfast on the AT wasn't much better than what is described in the announcement BTW, what ever happened to te "new" single level dining cars that were supposed to be coming on line several years ago?
 




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