Will Amtrak Get Rid of Diners Now?

[Kisatchie]

Seems Amtrak is losing money like crazy on food service. And man, $9.50 for a cheeseburger? See:

http://washingtonexaminer.com/amtrak-lost-800m-on-cheeseburgers-and-soda/article/2503832


Hmm... they should sell
bags of fried termites. It's
dirt cheap...

[Bob Bufkin]

They could make money if they contracted this service.  Let one of the fast food companies do it and they would both likely make a profit. 

[conrail98]

They could make money if they contracted this service.  Let one of the fast food companies do it and they would both likely make a profit.

I was actually thinking that. I wonder how much of it is "wasted" food though, stuff that's not used and has to be thrown away or if they do a break-down on the food used on cafe's versus in diners for long distance trains. $9.50 for a cheeseburger is wrong, it's only like $5 if I remember from my trip down to DC for the Susquehanna Limited,

Phil

[ljudice]

The turkey wrap is great!

[Kisatchie]

...$9.50 for a cheeseburger is wrong, it's only like $5 if I remember from my trip down to DC for the Susquehanna Limited,

Phil

Hmm... maybe it's a blue
cheeseburger... gourmet
pricing and all...

[conrail98]

Hmm... maybe it's a blue
cheeseburger... gourmet
pricing and all...

I was also thinking it might be the diner cheeseburger he quotes, not the ones in the bag microwaved from the cafe,

Phil

[asarge]

If it comes from a member of Congress I would take it with a HUGE grain of salt. Not trying to be political, but they have been known to "cook the books" to take the soapbox.

[Kisatchie]

If it comes from a member of Congress I would take it with a HUGE grain of salt. Not trying to be political, but they have been known to "cook the books" to take the soapbox.

I think most of the article is accurate. After all, the Amtrak rep argued that they were improving. They've gone from making back 49% of what they spend to making back 59%. Woo hoo...


Hmm... Kiz makes ZERO%
to counterbalance what
he spends on trains...

[Bob Bufkin]

Lots of railroads lost money on dining service before Amtrak, so this is not anything new.  I do remember reading something about them trying to contract out a couple years ago but their unions raised such a stink that they quickly dropped it.

[eric220]

I also have to wonder how these arguments account for the fact that long distance sleeping car passengers pay for their meals as part of their accommodation charge.  It would be very easy to discount those meals as "freebies".

As an example, if the CZ averages only one passenger per room in the two sleepers per train that they're running these days, that is 42 passengers per train who are getting "free" meals.  With service including lunch and dinner on the first day; breakfast, lunch, and dinner on the second day; and breakfast and lunch on the third day, that's 7 meals per passenger per trip from Emeryville to Chicago.  That's 294 meals per trip that required a cook, server, and diner supervisor that are "free" to the passenger, but "expensive" to AMTRAK.  Given the capacity of the superliner sleepers, that number could potentially go as high as 686 "free" meals per trip.

It's easy to see how that could jack up the "average loss" on meal service system-wide if they don't account for the fact that those meals are paid for as part of the accommodation charge.

[conrail98]

I also have to wonder how these arguments account for the fact that long distance sleeping car passengers pay for their meals as part of their accommodation charge.  It would be very easy to discount those meals as "freebies".

As an example, if the CZ averages only one passenger per room in the two sleepers per train that they're running these days, that is 42 passengers per train who are getting "free" meals.  With service including lunch and dinner on the first day; breakfast, lunch, and dinner on the second day; and breakfast and lunch on the third day, that's 7 meals per passenger per trip from Emeryville to Chicago.  That's 294 meals per trip that required a cook, server, and diner supervisor that are "free" to the passenger, but "expensive" to AMTRAK.  Given the capacity of the superliner sleepers, that number could potentially go as high as 686 "free" meals per trip.

It's easy to see how that could jack up the "average loss" on meal service system-wide if they don't account for the fact that those meals are paid for as part of the accommodation charge.

Take it a step further and you get free stuff when in first class on regionals and Acela, like some drinks and snacks,

Phil

[wm3798]

I did my part to prop up the system when I went to Charlotte a few weeks ago...


That and a lot of beer in the lounge car between Raleigh and Charlotte after my brother boarded.

Lee

[Kisatchie]

Hmm... I didn't know red
wine went with M&Ms...

[peteski]

But just any ol' M&Ms - peanut M&Ms! 

[One of One-Sixty]

In my hay day as when I was bouncing back and forth between Daytona and Philly twice a month, I know that the dining car would always be pack, and the conductors use to go around from room to room as well as the coach cars to tell everybody to make reservations as they tend to get full quickly.

While I never actually tried the dining car, due to the fact I would spend all my time in the cafe car, I know that there was a lot of foot traffic passenger through from the coach cars to the dining car, and sometimes the line would stretch through the cafe car.

Food services in the hospitality industry when it is a second or third service that is being offered on top of something, usually is always the portion that brings down the revenue.  As most of the time they are only making $4-5 net, and when you fator in everything else, that quickly dwindles to pennies on the dollar depending on how busy they was.

This is the reason why a lot of hotels only offer Continental breakfasts, as they can spend very little and make it seem like a whole lot depending on how they layout the spread.

It is interesting to see this article, considering that #8400 will not be alone as the only Viewliner Diner car anymore, with the order of new Viewliner IIs 25 of the 130 new cars will be diner cars.