I worked on a new product launch that failed. In their wall street report, corporate ding dongs blamed:
1 customers didn’t understand how great the product was
2 employees didn’t understand how great the product was
3 something about relying on competitors as partners, really a shot at gov regulation.
No mention of the aforementioned ding dongs’ total misread of consumer needs and wants.
In the 1970s, there was a dining car on the trains I took on my weekly visits between NYC and Boston. One time I had a memorable champagne drinking party with an impromptu pair of passengers which resulted in an extremely wobbly walk home on Boston’s perceptibly moving sidewalks.
By 1980, those dining cars were gone, replaced by a kiosk that dispensed packages sandwiches and drinks. I don’t believe the Millennials can be blamed for that.
We had recently tried to plan to go cross country via Amtrak than road tripping but ultimately funds and timing killed that. As I had done a lot of research, these were some of the main concerns I had related to this:
The dining car over time has restricted and cheaped out on their menu it seems to the point that it feels like you get better variety and cheaper options in the cafe car. Beyond that it seems to be better just to pack your own food.
That isn’t even mentioning the whole ‘dining with strangers’ bit that has been covered. Normally that wouldn’t bother me but with fewer people and in a more ‘intimate’ setting it kinda irks me. I’d much rather just order my food and eat it in my reserved seat. Hell, I’d be willing to go get it and bring it back myself. I’m actually taking my first cruise next year and likewise will have a similar dining experience but at a much larger table with more people in my own group I am comfortable around. This doesn’t bother me nearly as much.
I know there’s been mention of concerns about available food storage on the train and running out of items as well. What would be nice is on some fuel or passenger stops have designated food counters or restaurants and let people stop long enough to get food and bring it on board. Let people order ahead on the train and have it ready to pick up on arrival. Some already do this if they trust the train timetable and delivery people and get food delivered straight to the station. Make something official. Makes it a lot easier to keep stuff stocked and means passersby can use them or people not necessary staying on but getting off or on. Part of the concerns about food stock on the train is consistency and planning ahead for passengers and what people will normally aim for. This could help significantly.
Is Amtrak useful anywhere outside of the northeast? And even in the northeast, everyone I know seems only to complain about it.
Amtrak is a complete non-entity for me. I live in a metro area with 2 million people (Columbus, Ohio), but nearest Amtrak station is 1.5 - 2 hours away by car (Cincy or Cleveland, and I don’t know anyone in either of those cities who has ever ridden Amtrak).
For me, the news of Amtrak doing away with the dining car is a bit like the news from a few years ago that Western Union quit sending telegrams.
No, it is being killed by congress, (because trains are socialist?), while air traffic gets subsidized.
Wait, 1980…? The lack of dining cars caused Millennials??
Young people with enough demographic power to do something we can blame…
A lot of this boomers/millennials have caused X is due to the profound jealousy of Gen-X that we were never really significant enough to pull it off.
(And the economy is fucked so most millennials are broke. Really broke. As such, they are picky about their luxuries).
I rode the coast starlight as well, and enjoyed the parlor car very much. I usually fly coach on the rare occasions that I fly at all, so getting a 1st class sleeper berth for the family made me feel like a 19th century aristocrat! But there was much to be desired in terms of service and professionalism on the part of the crew. Some of their frequent use on the train-wide intercom to make lame inside jokes with each other just got really annoying after the first few times. Also, the amenities often didn’t live up to the advertising. The “theater” (a room with a DVD player below the parlor) generally didn’t work and certainly didn’t stick to the posted showtimes, and the WiFi that was featured so promenently in the train brochures didn’t work at all on our trip, in either direction. May sound like a minor thing to complain about but when you’re traveling with a couple of little kids cooped up on a 36 hour train trip the WiFi and/or movie theater can really help keep the kids entertained.
Anyway, yeah screw Amtrak for blaming millennials. I’m not one, but lots of business/organizations who need to improve their business model or customer service are always unfairly using them as scapegoats.
Hi, Skip the Dishes? I’m on a train, can you deliver to the next station?
I think you’re talking about the observation lounge. The dining car waitstaff would tell our expansive friend that they do not get to do that in the dining car. I witnessed one person get chewed out for leaving their kid there while they retrieved their wife from some distant car. It was delightfully awkward.
The observation lounge is another matter, and is more of a “you kids figure it out” territory.
My wife and I took the Southwest Chief from Chicago to Flagstaff in 2010, and we thought the food was actually quite good. And I’ve got social anxiety bordering on hermit-like, but our meal companions were always great to talk to.
One “Millennial” tic I (boomer/genx cusper) detest is proclaiming that such-and-such “makes me uncomfortable.” Fuck you; lots of things make everybody uncomfortable. Who gives a shit? This just makes me hate that more.
I bet it would be easy to find articles from the late 1950s bemoaning how the young people of today were killing the transatlantic passenger ship industry with these newfangled jet planes.
Never had a crappy sit-down meal on Amtrak. What they serve in the café is another story, though.
I heard it was because of a Trump appointee who hates Amtrak. The dining cars are always filled with young and old when I’m in them.
Presumably the parts of the train that most often caused Millenials were the bathrooms.
I’m talking the northeast regional line between DC and Boston… nothing really to observe other than city skylines unless you’re looking for murders in Newark, NJ.
If you’re in the Chicago area, it is. Aside from the long-distance trains, there are corridor services to Milwaukee, Grand Rapids, Port Huron, Detroit, Carbondale, St. Louis, and Quincy, with service to the Quad Cities in the works. New locomotives are already in service, and new cars are on their way. All of these are at least partially state-funded, though.
Well, if Biden liked it then obviously it has to go.
Your ideas about food management sound interesting. Maybe they’ll adopt it in the future to avoid the storage problem. However, those of us who aren’t bothered by sitting with strangers are being outnumbered by those who dislike it. Even on cruises, the dining room experience is being reduced in favor of more fast food and fast casual options. It makes me sad, because IMO meeting new people and doing things differently than I would at home is part of the appeal of travel.
I’m wondering who are the parents of these Millennials?
