FRN

Amtrak’s dining car service is the focus of this piece by ABC News’s Bill Redeker, who compares the streamlined dining service on the California Zephyr — basically, reheating prepared meals — to the “classic” dining service still in existence on everyone’s favourite long-distance train, the Empire Builder. Amtrak’s using the streamlined service to save money: it costs $2 to generate a dollar of revenue in the dining car, and this reduces the number of staff required. But Redeker argues that the service on the Empire Builder is so much better — and that dining service makes long-distance train travel what it is — that, he asks, why can’t Amtrak simply raise the fares elsewhere to compensate?

The video version (3:25 long) is also available. Via gngoat.