I would like to know if there is a time limit placed on passengers to finish their meals in the dinning car. If the train is crowded, I assume that the seating in the dinning car is at a priemium (especially durring dinner time.

But this brings me to a related issue. Some years ago there were experiments on the Sunset Limited with 24 hour dining car service. Some interesting things happened.

Reservations were no longer required, because the dining car never filled to capacity at any one time. Servers liked it because they could pace themselves better, rather than having intense rush periods. Plus they took home greater than average tips. Passengers liked it because it allowed them to eat on their own schedule, and not Amtrak's. I think dining car revenues also increased. It seemed like a win-win situation, but for reasons I am not entirely clear on, it wasn't adopted systemwide. Some attributed it to the fact that the idea didn't originate with Amtrak brass, but rather at a lower level, but there may be more to it than that.

For those wondering, the graveyard shift was staffed with a skeleton crew of one chef and one server, and a limited late night menu was offered. This was great for people boarding or detraining at odd hours.

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Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth.
-Mr. Toy

I like to think of myself as Amtrak's biggest fan but it is clear to me, especially since joining this forum, that the organization is stuck in a rut. And like most ruts, it must feel like a cozy and comfortable place to be.

To passengers, especially people new to railroading, the dining car is a treasured and anticipated experience. Yet, imagine their frustration when they 1) are passed over in making a reservation because they happen to have gone to the bathroom 2) they miss their seating because the PA system isn't working 3) are herded in and out of the dining car like cattle (howbeit tactfully) because their 30 minute slot has expired.

The magic of a passenger train is that cars can be added during holiday seasons or times of national emergency. But despite this fact, there probably will only be one dining car to accommodate all the people. This creates a bottleneck. Make the dining car open 24 hours a day and things will become less hectic, like the way a four lane highway will accommodate rush hour traffic better than a two lane highway.

All this is obvious and common sense, but I just wanted to put my two cents in, if only as a way of welcoming our new moderator, Irishchieftain.

Welcome aboard!

A 24-hour diner would probably play havoc with the bookkeeping system, which is all the more reason why, were such a system adopted, that Amtrak stop giving "free" meals to those who buy sleepers.

I don't think Amtrak would go broke, or its sleeping compartments run empty, if it simply focused on charging people for accommodations, period. Afterall, how many hotels and motels give people free meals for staying in their rooms? The only parallel that comes to mind is a cruise ship, but that analogy fails when one considers that cruise ships do not have "coach" compartments were passengers are denied meals.

I know the gentle readers of my posting are probably outraged by my words, since most of you have the means to afford sleepers and probably expect free meals. But how can Amtrak justify giving out more than one free meal to parties of more than one individual who occupy a single compartment?