AMTRAK REVERTING TO SOUTHERN PACIFIC FORM.

When Amtrak rolled out the new coaching stock for the California corridor service, I introduced a Streetsblog review of the cars with "I'd roll them out shamefacedly too."  The reversion?

Time for a history lesson.  "And here the raison d'etre for Amtrak included discontent with automat cars on Southern Pacific (and some Burlington trains) and Buffeteria cars replacing the full dining cars on the Hiawatha." Until recently, there were those prepackaged meals for sleeper passengers on the Empire Builder and California Zephyr, there is no food service on the Milwaukee trains, even the morning and evening runs that once had a lunch-lounge car, so an automat car on Southern Pacific metals under Amtrak auspices, why not?

The railroads' cost-cutting measures led the Interstate Commerce Commission to mandate levels of service on long-distance trains, and those levels of service were in the initial Amtrak legislation, with surprisingly encouraging outcomes early on.  Later, well, ferroequinologists developed the E-T-T-S locution for a reason.

Southern Pacific's Automat cars were an attempt to reduce costs in the dining department.  They also had the effect of discouraging passengers by degrading the service.  The Interstate Commerce Commission and the railroad locked horns over whether the regulator had the authority to impose service standards.  That wrangle was mooted by the passage of legislation creating Amtrak, which included requirements for food service on overnight and longer-haul trains.  Food service, however, is satisfied by the provision of a single cafe car providing microwaved food with Gate Gourmet's indirect cost return included.  Substituting better pastries, or adding espresso, might heighten the appeal of Acela first class service.

The food service and business class cars have arrived in the Midwest, and Trains passenger train correspondent Bob Johnston offers his impressions.

Divisions of Illinois and California transportation departments, not Amtrak, led and managed the procurement of single-level Venture cars and Charger locomotives. Though they agreed on aisle width and the same type of coach seat, the two agencies arrived at different ideas of how their respective rolling stock was to be configured. The Midwest cafes went through a variety of changes from what was initially envisioned as a standardized design; California opted for vending-machine cars that still have not debuted on the San Joaquins.

The coach-café extends an idea from the Acela trains, in which there is a counter staffed by an attendant, but little nearby seating, and passengers eat at their seats.  The article notes there is little maneuvering room, should a passenger cross the aisle to the condiment bar to put that green relish on his hot dog and then make his way back to his seat.

On this trip, the overhead passenger information display system and automated announcements weren’t operational. Following the obligatory safety and no-smoking advisories after an on-time departure, a conductor added, “We have a new café car; it’s at the front of the train. There are no seats to eat your food. If you make a purchase, you must take the food back to your seat.”

Walking forward as No. 305 speeds at 79 mph in the driving rain between the Summit and Joliet stops, only a smattering of single seats remain unoccupied. This includes the café car’s coach section, which has six rows of double seats on one side of the wide aisle and eight rows on the other. The section is roughly comparable in size to the business-class section of Amfleet I and Horizon cafe cars, but Illinois opted to increase business-class capacity by making that an entirely separate car.

With the people who appropriate the money for the trains in Springfield and the rent-seekers in Chicago, a full-length business car makes political sense.  Whether the service will ever require multiple business class cars in the manner of the old Yankee Clipper or Abraham Lincoln remains to be seen.

The intended design of the train sets, with a coach-café operating as a married pair with a business class car, is a nod to the traditional arrangement of cars in a train.

The all-Venture, five-car train waiting on Chicago Union Station’s track 18 on a stormy July 9 had its coach-café immediately behind the locomotive, followed by three coaches and a business-class car on the rear. The original plan was to run the coach-café and business-class cars together, since business-class passengers get a free non-alcoholic beverage on Midwest trains. Another reason the two cars were to be paired is that the business-class car, with one seat on one side of the aisle and two on the other, has a built-in wheelchair lift for passengers with disabilities.

That's not how Illinois officials want their trains run.

Illinois DOT spokesman Scott Speegle tells News Wire, “While final consist decisions are made by Amtrak, we have requested that the business class car is at one end of the consist to give those customers greater privacy. Ideally, we would like the café car placed in the middle of the consist to give all customers easier access to the cafe.” He says that as the Venture coach-cafés receive final acceptance by the agency and Amtrak, they will first fill out the Lincoln Service lineup of four round trips before being deployed to other Midwest routes.

On the train Mr Johnston rode, the coach-café was on the head pin, followed by three coaches and the business class car.  The traditional configuration of a train would put the coaches on the head pin, then the coach-café, with the business class car carrying the markers.  In that way, the business class passengers would have their privacy, albeit without a car host, they'd have to go forward to the coach-café to get their beverage.

Historically, the dining car separated coaches from first class, and a lounge car of some kind, if one was offered, would be between the coaches and the diner to allow coach passengers to chill until a table became available.

Perhaps, though, none of that matters now-a-days.

Of note, however, is that returning to Chicago from Bloomington-Normal the same evening at about 8:30 p.m. on Lincoln Service train No. 306, the train was also very crowded but virtually no one visited the Horizon café-business class car. This was despite the attendant regularly announcing that he was open and serving. Perhaps it was the late hour. Or just maybe, today’s Amtrak clientele are simply content to stay in their seats with their phones.

Sad. It's unlikely that you'll see the high-roller rent-seekers dealing a few hands of bridge or pinochle or poker in the club car any more.