Dennis LaGrua posted:With a diner staff of four, five or six, the train had to dedicate that many sleeper rooms for the employees in addition to salary and benefits. Now Amtrak can sell those room to the public to generate revenue. While I will miss the full diners, if they do it right, the pre-prepared reheated meals can be satisfactory for an overnight trip where one employee heats up and serves everything. . The Cardinal has done it this way for years and while the food isn't great it's satisfactory.
I'm willing to try this, even after 4 "overnight" trips with a "real" dining car. I'm sure there will be some "good old days" hand wringing about this, but I ordered the steak dinner, medium rare, on all four trips: 1. Perfect, 2. Almost raw, 3. Overdone, 4. Tough with gristle. I have no problem with the meals we get flying first class, but I'll be surprised if Amtrak will use real "silverware" and plates. From the photo I saw, it will be a plastic tray, with areas for the meal and salad built in. According to Amtrak, this "dining car" will also be added to the Silver Star, which up to now, only has cafe car.
Which leaves me with a interesting choice: Up to now, I've taken the Meteor because it has a real dining car, and also because the Star has a longer trip...taking 28 hours vs the Meteor's 24. Since they will now both have the same "dining" set-up for sleeping-car-only passengers, why not just take the Star and save $236. on the one-way trip? (or 8,000 points from my Amtrak credit card). As far as the 4 extra hours go...the Star leaves Philadelphia around 12:30 pm, the Meteor around 5 pm. Yet the Star gets to Ft. Lauderdale a half hour sooner. The earlier leave time gives me daylight to see D.C. monuments as well as Virginia towns, that I miss due to darkness on the earlier train. Upon waking up, all there is to see are Georgia pines, then Florida trees, until you get to Sebring and some orange groves. In any event, Amtrak has not given a "start" date for this.
