Skip to main content

Adriatic posted:

$5 for a hotdog is just wrong imo.   Or do they pay me $5 if I'll eat one?

$7.50 burger.... Maybe, if it is a real burger, no "clown king" wanna be.

Nice chicken breast or decent steak dinner plate... I'm in.  Is there a filet or prime rib upgrade?

Not specifically directed at Adriatic - it's amusing to me that many of the same people who find this kind of food pricing offensive on a train grumble significantly less when buying food at a sporting event.  After all, they have to get the money to pay those million dollar athletes somewhere!

There's a much greater level of logistics involved in preparing food on a train than in a stadium - limited space, keeping it fresh, getting it to the venue at the proper time, etc.  Both cases, however, have a captive audience with limited choices.  But try bringing your own food with into a stadium.

All I know is that I rode the Capitol Limited and Empire Builder (all the way from DC to Seattle) and had a sleeper car with food service.

We enjoyed it just fine, halfway decent food. The only issue was it was the same menu every day for over a week but I'm a picky eater and I'm okay with the same thing every other day or so...

Last edited by p51
p51 posted:

All I know is that I rode the Capitol Limited and Empire Builder (all the way from DC to Seattle) and had a sleeper car with food service.

We enjoyed it just fine, halfway decent food. The only issue was it was the same menu every day for over a week but I'm a picky eater and I'm okay with the same thing every other day or so...

Over a week?  Our journey took 4 days (1 day to Chicago, a day there, 2 more to Seattle) The food was good and the menu was slightly different on each leg of the trip.  

Have you been to an amusement park? My local park is owned by a big publicly traded amusement park company for 25 years (family owned before that) and you should see the hot dog prices there. They overcharge for food. When you go to tourist traps you overpay for stuff because they feel that if you want to travel you will pay the prices. Also I saw recent Amtrak video ads and why do they mention airlines in them but they act like Amtrak is better than airlines? And yes, some tourist railroad dinner trains serve better food than Amtrak. There is a newer diesel powered tourist line near me in Boyertown, PA that has dining car service in an older heavyweight dining car and they did a great job on the inside of the coach. It’s like you are dining in a fine restaurant. Why can’t Amtrak offer that? Because Anderson is a jerk and could care less  about his riders?

The California Zephyr still has a full service dining car, below is the current menu. (Click on Menu to Enlarge)

1California Zephyr Menu2 Amtrak Cal Z Menu

I have a strong interest in Amtrak because my wife and her family are from Ouray, Colorado. I have ridden on the Amtrak from Dearborn, Michigan to Grand Junction, Colorado over twenty times. The train leaves Dearborn at about 7 AM and arrives the next day at Grand Junction at about 4 PM.  When we get there we have a rental car waiting for us, if the train is late the rental company will wait for the train.

Coming back we do run into issues, missing our connection to Dearborn at Chicago.  When that happens they put us on about five buses and they load them according to the final destination. We board the AnnArbor / Dearborn / Detroit and Pontiac Bus.

We always ride in a coach seat, it is only one night on the train.  We have three children travel with us and they love riding the train.  We pack food for them and ourselves but my wife and I will dine in the diner car.

Gary: Rail-fan

Attachments

Images (2)
  • 1California Zephyr Menu
  • 2 Amtrak Cal Z Menu

Add Reply

Post
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×
×