https://www.timesunion.com/business/article/Boxed-meals-replace-dining-car-on-overnight-train-12954545.php
Boxed meals replace dining car on overnight train from Albany
Updated 4:04 pm, Wednesday, May 30, 2018
Hot breakfasts and dinners will disappear from the Lake Shore Limited starting Friday as Amtrak looks to reduce costs. Sleeping car passengers, who typically pay a premium fare, instead will get box meals that they can consume in their rooms or in a special food service/lounge car.
"Breakfast will include items such as cold breads or yogurt with sliced fruit. No 'Railroad French Toast' anymore," said Carl H. Fowler, a vice-chair of the Rail Passenger Association/NARP, in an opinion column in Wednesday's Times Union. "Sleeper passengers paying hundreds of dollars more than coach fare will receive one free alcoholic beverage with their cold boxes, but that's not much compensation."
The Lake Shore Limited travels daily between Boston and Chicago via Albany. While the train typically separates into two parts at Albany with one continuing onto New York City, that service has been suspended through Labor Day while track and tunnel repairs are under way at Penn Station. Other upstate trains are being diverted to Grand Central.
A big adventure doesn't have to cost you a fortune.
Media: Country LivingAmtrak officials have been under pressure from Congress to cut food service losses, Fowler noted. Some hot food items, such as pizza and burgers, will continue to be available for purchase in the lounge car, open to both coach and sleeping car passengers.
Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said a mandate from Congress to break even on food service is driving the changes, along with Amtrak's own efforts to invest taxpayer dollars in a sound manner.
"This hasn't begun yet," he noted of the new food service on Wednesday. "The project is going to evolve based on customer reaction," Magliari added, saying some hot food items could return to the menu.
The special food service/lounge cars reserved for sleeper passengers are manufactured by CAF USA at its Elmira plant. Amtrak will post the new menus online by Friday, when the streamlined food service debuts.
The onboard food service employees whose jobs will be eliminated are typically among the most senior of Amtrak's employees and will likely be able to move to other positions at the railroad.
This isn't the first time Amtrak has reduced food service locally. July 1 will mark the 13th anniversary of the end of food service on trains originating or terminating in Albany. At the time, the railroad said it was losing $1 million a year.
The Empire State Passengers Association has launched an effort to restore that service, a move that would have to be approved by the state Department of Transportation, which provides financial support for trains operating within New York.
Rail advocates have suggested that passengers wanting food service restored should contact their state legislators.
They're also hoping the reopening of the commissary at the Albany Rensselaer rail station to replace the one at Penn Station during the summer diversion could encourage Cuomo administration officials to restore food service on all upstate trains.
Another alternative, according to frequent passengers: Food shops at Penn Station and Grand Central that will sell a bottle of chilled screwtop wine with an empty Coca-Cola paper cup in a brown paper bag, along with your turkey sub and chips.
