Amtrak’s Simplified Dining Service (or “Diner Lite”)
In it’s appropriation for Amtrak for Fiscal Year 2006, Congress has mandated that Amtrak must achieve “operational savings” by July 1, 2006 - otherwise federal funds will not be available after that date to underwrite on-board food and sleeping-car service (see NARP Hotline #429). Such micromanaging is of course not terribly unusual for Congress - every member of Congress likes to make sure that his/hre district gets its share of federal money - and transporation seems to be especially well suited towards such distribution of federal money.
Thus, Amtrak has been forced into introducing certain measures to ensure that such savings can be achived - otherwise they might be forced to abolish food and sleeper service altogether as of July 1 of this year. The way that Amtrak apparently will try to achive these savings is by introducing a so called “Simplified Dining Service”. Basically, this means that they will rebuild the Sightseer/Lounge cars to also accomodate food service, which will be provided in the form of prepared meals (similar to what the airlines to I guess).
The following are extracts from an internal Amtrak memo that outlines these service changes - this was recently circulated on the “All Aboard” Yahoo message board:
“Operations
“Simplified Dining Service
“Service Advisory
“Train Service and On-Board Service Employees
“Issue Date: 02-14-2006
“Background
“It is estimated that in FY06 Amtrak’s Food & Beverage (F&B) Service will lose nearly $120 million system wide on revenues of $79.2 million, and expenses of $198.8 million (food and labor) resulting in a deficit of $119.6 million. Of the Food & Beverage expense (198.8 million), over 60% is for the wages and benefits of On-Board Service employees.
“The FY06 Appropriations legislation states that unless Congress and the Department of Transportation certify that Amtrak has achieved operational savings by July 1, 2006, Amtrak will be restricted from using appropriated funds to subsidize the net losses from F&B and Sleeping Car service on any Amtrak route.
“Progress in achieving these savings will be monitored by the Inspector General of the US Department of Transportation (DOT) and then reported quarterly to the House of Representatives & Senate Appropriations Committees.
“Controlling costs and maximizing revenues in the F&B service is critically important. As a result, Amtrak has a number of strategic initiatives to reduce costs and increase revenue. One of these initiatives is called the Simplified Dining Service. This service is an internal change in the way Dining Car operations are organized and managed on all Long Distance Trains.
“Advisory
“Effective February 15, 2006, the Simplified Dining Service will be instituted on the Capitol Limited and the Sunset Limited. The Service has been in place on the Texas Eagle and the City of New Orleans since December and will be re-launched as a result of significant comments and suggestions from both employees and customers.
“All Long Distance trains (excluding Auto Train and the Empire Builder) will be transitioned to this service by June 1, 2006.
“The following is a list of scheduled dates for implementation:
“February 15, 2006
Texas Eagle, City of New Orleans, Capitol Limited and Sunset Limited“April 15, 2006
Silver Star, Lake Shore Limited and Southwest Chief“May 3, 2006
Crescent and Coast Starlight“May 24, 2006
California Zephyr and Silver Meteor“The annualized savings expected from Simplified Dining Service is in excess of $10 million. These savings are primarily a result of an estimated staff reduction of 100 positions. Generally, the Dining Car crew will be reduced from a crew of 5 to a crew of 3. Additional crew positions must be added based upon the anticipated number of meals to be served per meal period, not consist or passenger counts.
“In addition to the Simplified Dining Service, Amtrak Transportation and Customer Service Departments Strategic Reform Initiatives include: renegotiated and new vendor contracts; modified equipment; and integrated Lounge Car, Cafe Car and Dining Car food service on long distance trains. These initiatives are specifically identified by the DOT as establishing reform. The new contract with Gate Gourmet became effective January 1, 2006, and contains a number of changes which are very beneficial to Amtrak.
“As a result of the Simplified Dinning Service implementation, the following changes will take effect:
“… - The Dining and Lounge Cars are to open immediately for service. The collection of tickets is not a reason to delay the opening of either the Dining Car or Lounge Car and no announcement is to be made advising customers to wait until the tickets are collected. …
Employees, Version 2.3:
“21a. “Cafe/Lounge car service should be open upon passenger boarding, at the initial terminal. No exceptions.”
“21c. “Normal hours of operation on the Cafe/Lounge car of long-distance trains are 6:00 a.m. until midnight, unless otherwise indicated on the train manifest. Short-distance trains must offer continuous hours of operation.”
“- During normal dining car hours of service, crew member and deadhead employees are prohibited from eating in the dining car. A crew table during normal dining car hours is no longer permitted. Employees may eat before the beginning or after the end of the scheduled dining car hours. …
“- Dining car hours for lunch will be extended from 2:00pm to 3:00pm. … Item 21b reads as follows: “Although these are general guidelines that may be subject to some variation by specific train, minimum meal service periods for Dining Cars are as follows, unless otherwise directed by an Operations Service Advisory:
Breakfast 6:30am – 10:00am
Lunch 11:30am – 3:00pm (Lunch is now extended from 2:00pm to 3:00pm. This will be updated in the OSU)
Dinner 5:00 pm – 9:00 pm”“… - A standardized reservation system called Staggered Seating will be used in every Dining Car, system wide. The Staggered Seating system provides customer with options for reservations at 15 minute intervals, and reduces the number of customers per seating to 8. Every 60 minutes a total of 24 [sic] customers are seated and served. During the 4 hour dinner period, a total of 96 [sic] customers can easily be accommodated.
“- Reservations are now required for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The LSA is responsible for contacting all customers to arrange their lunch and dinner reservations. The LSA and all Train Attendants, both coach and sleeper, will work together to arrange customer’s breakfast reservations….”
[This Week at Amtrak, February 20, 2006]
Now obviously, I don’t belive Congress made a very smart decision in mandating these changes - this can only be interpreted as a sign that they want to abolish long-distance service altogether. I mean seriously, would you want to take a three day/two night train trip without the option of sleeping in a sleeping car and with no on-board food service? Besides, Congress’ decision was apparently based on a report by the Inspector General that was somewhat misleading with regards to the potential savings in the food service and sleeper area… Everybody in the rail advocacy community agrees that long distance train ridership would experience a serious drop when food and sleeper service is no longer being provided. And even the Swiss Federal Railways had to learn that dining cars per se should not be regarded as a profit center but actually should be considered as part of a bigger picture of what service a customer expects when riding a train. For some people, the fact that decent food service (and sleeper service) are even available are an important factor in the process of making a decision to even take the train.
[amtrak]
Posted in: Uncategorized | February 19, 2006 11:40 pm
4 Comments »
adron_bh, on February 21, 2006 @ 11:43 am
This cutting this and cutting that crap is stupid. I hate to see Congress doing this, no one there seems to have the balls to stand up to and for Amtrak and say, you’re labor practices are completely unfeasible.
This segment “It is estimated that in FY06 Amtrak’s Food & Beverage (F&B) Service will lose nearly $120 million system wide on revenues of $79.2 million, and expenses of $198.8 million (food and labor) resulting in a deficit of $119.6 million. Of the Food & Beverage expense (198.8 million), over 60% is for the wages and benefits of On-Board Service employees.” is self-explanatory of what needs to occur.
When one rides the Empire Builder or any other long distance trains and sees 4 people serving dinner, 1 person standing around directing them (why I don’t know), 1 person assisting, and then of course there are at least 1 cook or more.
That is 7 people serving x number of people. Any resturaunt that serves comparable meals would be idiotic to have THAT many people serving the food. On top of that each of these people probably makes an obscene amount of money (Union Workers average 60k on Amtrak from what I’ve read - and if laid off get 5 years severance). This is absolutely unacceptable to Amtrak, Taxpayers, Washington, and especially the paying customer.
I worked at Waffle House for almost 2 years. I had health benifits, 401k retirement plan, and made slightly above minimum wage, and was generally happy with my job. I was damn proud to work for such a good, self capable company, that followed it’s advertisements and provided what they said they would.
Amtrak & it’s Union(s?) are being idiotic. The food service they run is not even up to the standards of Waffle House. It could make loads of money for Amtrak but instead is a leaching service provided at subpar levels instead.
The diner with an efficient wait staff and good cooks could easily serve the entire car (which isn’t even used fully for 1/2 the year on most routes) with less than 2/3 of the current staffing levels.
Waiters & Waitresses should be more dependant on providing good service and attaining tips, and cooks - well the cooks are trained and pretty decent to begin with. They ALL should be held to the same standards than ANY decent restuarant that is responsible to maintain itself should be held to.
I’m amazed at the ineptitude of Amtrak, Congress, and associated parties, and insulted at Amtrak’s Unions for maintaining this unacceptable and insulting status quo.
I ride the train as often as possible. I expect food service and sleeper service. To have it taken away because of the ineptitude of Amtrak and the greed of the Unions is discusting…
I’m going to rant on about this with proposed and obvious solutions at my blog.
Ben, on February 22, 2006 @ 5:27 pm
Thanks for posting on this. I had no clue. Doesn’t anyone realize that deteriorations in service don’t generate revenue or renew interest. Guess my last trip on the Coast Starlight was indeed my last. Does this spell the end of wine tastings as well? And what about that newly renovated menu featuring homegrown options aboard the Empire Builder? How disappointing.
Marcel Marchon, on February 22, 2006 @ 5:56 pm
It looks like for now, the Empire Builder and Auto Train will retain their existing service levels. Apparently, the refurbished cars and generally improved service on the Builder has led to an increase in revenue (well, duh …!). I wonder why they don’t take this as a clue and give the other trains a similar treatment. Instead of downgrading service which will most likely lead to a decrease in revenue.
Anonymous, on April 10, 2006 @ 6:17 pm
I just completed my first long distant roundtrip on Amtrak for Galesburg to Reno on the California Zypher from 3/31/06 too 4/6/06. And I had nothing but outstanding service on the entire trip. From Sam going out and Deana returning in Sleeping Car, too Russ and Mario outbound and Nick and Mike on the return in the Diner. Every one of these people preformed their jobs too the highest standards. They all made they’re customers feel like family. And now I know many of you are thinking, he was only seen one trip on Amtrak. True, but I have also spent 22 years in Customer Service with the airlines, the last 10 in Station Management. And I always counciled my employees when they preformed badly and I always prosed them when they did good, especially when customer write letter. I’m currently complying a letter on the whole trip too issue to Amtrak. It will will rate every part of they’re service. But Customer Service onboard well recieve very high marks.
Dale
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