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Ah, the advantages of unions. Even as the whole ship (to use another form of transport) is about to sink, unions refuse to admit that their existence just makes workers’ jobs LESS secure.
Written By: mark URL: http://www.marknicodemo.blogspot.com |
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Or, maybe they should get out of the food and beverage altogether on certain routes and leave it all to the private enterprises located in stations to fulfill any such need. All that would cost is a simple sign which tells passengers "get it here or forget it till you get there Works nicely for JetBlue... Written By: shark URL: http:// |
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It probably does add a non-trivial fuel cost to haul another car. Not that there aren’t other ways around the problem, but I don’t think that’s likely to be the best solution.
Written By: Crank URL: http://www.baseballcrank.com |
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As for the need to store and move food on and off the train, add a car for just that. The problem isn’t hauling another car for the food. What they’re talking about is storing the food at the stations until the train pulls in. There’s no way to have the food delivered right to the train: to begin, it’s almost impossible for a restaurant to have its vendors deliver at specific times; add to that the fact that trains are often late, and the vendors aren’t going to sit around waiting for a late train. I doubt that Amtrak is restocking the food supply at every tiny station the trains pull into, anyway. (If they are, then they are complete idiots, which is always a possibility.) But even keeping food at the major cities and connecting points incurs storage and loading expense. Written By: Steverino URL: http://steverino.journalspace.com/ |
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So it is delivered to specific warehouse locations at particular stations where the food is then stored and picked up by train crews as needed. These trains run specific routes for heaven sake. Again, this isn’t rocket science, unless, apparently you’re Amtrack. Offer a limited menu, store as few a number of items as necessary, have capacity on the train for a certain amount of food and replenish when necessary. If you sell hot dogs, sodas and chips, store hot dogs, buns, condiments, sodas and chips in the facilities. Buy in bulk, freeze the dogs, etc. Written By: McQ URL: http://www.qando.net/ |
So it is delivered to specific warehouse locations at particular stations where the food is then stored and picked up by train crews as needed. These trains run specific routes for heaven sake.This is probably what’s being done right now, McQ, and does not contradict what I posted above. But before it’s put on the train, the food has to be stored somewhere, and the perishable/frozen foods require special storage, all of which cost extra to operate. And it takes manpower to load the food onto the trains. That is what Amtrak was getting at when it said there was an additional expense in storing the food and loading it. You don’t have this kind of expense in a typical restaurant because the food is only stored where it is prepared, and there is no secondary transfer of the food after the vendor delivers it. If you sell hot dogs, sodas and chips, store hot dogs, buns, condiments, sodas and chips in the facilities. Buy in bulk, freeze the dogs, etc.That’s fine for a short run, but not for trips longer than a day. Nobody above age 8 wants to eat hot dogs and chips for three straight days. I’m not going to defend Amtrak; it’s a waste of taxpayer money. The labor costs and other criticisms are certainly fair. But this particular criticism is unwarranted. Written By: Steverino URL: http://steverino.journalspace.com/ |
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Unwarranted? Hardly. And, btw, no one is suggesting they eat hot dogs and chips for three days. Trains run on tracks (and schedules). This isn’t a mystery. They know where they’re going and when they’re going to stop and for how long. Those stops have (or should have) storage facilites. Menus can be made in advance (waaay in advance), food ordered for that menu and stored at those storage facilities at those stops. Then, when the train stops to load and unload passengers for that designated time, the (union wage scale) kitchen crew can load the requisite amount of preordered food from the storage facility at the designated stop. Next step, preparation. Again, in the real world, this is a fairly simple logistics problem. Why is it beyond Amtrack? Written By: McQ URL: http://www.qando.net/ |
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Why not simply get Amtrak out of the food business, and contract/lease the cars out (at a profit) to outside venders? Let THEM deal with the headaches....or, if nobody is willing, then perhaps there isn’t a profit to be made after all. Written By: Richard Speidel URL: http:// |
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One question: Do they sell alcohol on Amtrak? IIRC, most restaurants’ profit margin is vastly helped by the sale of alcohol. If Amtrak doesn’t sell alcohol, it’s no wonder they can’t profit on the food cars. —|PW|— Written By: pennywit URL: http://www.pennywit.com |
There is not now nor has there ever been a reason for government to be in the transportation business, especially when you can’t make a profit on a $3.50 hotdog.OK, but then lets do away with government subsidies for the nation’s airports and air-traffic control, highway system, and inland waterways. Just to be fair. Written By: fred URL: http:// |
Why not simply get Amtrak out of the food business, and contract/lease the cars out (at a profit) to outside venders?Because, as this story shows, they’re as incapable of negotiating viable contracts with private enterprise as they are running a business themselves. Written By: Bitter URL: http://qando.net/ |
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OK, but then lets do away with government subsidies for the nation’s airports and air-traffic control, highway system, and inland waterways. Just to be fair. Fred: You’ve come to the wrong place if you expect an argument from me as concerns this. Works for me ... let’s do it. Written By: McQ URL: http://www.qando.net/ |
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I ride Amtrak every day to and from work. First, Amtrak stores food, etc. in storage sheds fairly close to the tracks at its "terminal" stops (In my case, Washington, DC Union Station). They cart supplies over to the trains in little wagons pulled by golf carts or small tractors. I always notice rat traps around the food storage areas. In the case of the Acela, they procured specialized food wagons, which are these great big stainless steel things. They also have specialized haulers for beer. (Yes, you can buy booze on the trains). They used to have keg beer on the Acela, but I think they switched to bottles some time ago. I have been riding for 20 plus years, and they seem to "rebrand" every few years. This requires repainting train equipment, napkins, you name it. They went to the Acela look on most trains just a few months ago. I have never really enjoyed the food, and most times just buy in the station from private vendors. Beer included. At least on the NE corridor, they should just completely get rid of food service and suggest people buy in the stations. (All major stations have good food service). Written By: Chris URL: http:// |
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