- Amtrak is nixing its traditional dining car services on the company's one-night East Coast routes.
- The passenger railroad service has had dining cars since the start of its service in the 1970s.
- Take a look at the history of the dining car, from Amtrak's takeover of private rail companies to 2019's announced shuttering.
- $4.
Amtrak is doing away with its iconic dining car on overnight trains traveling on the East Coast, instead replacing them with "flexible dining services" of ready-to-serve food.
The dining cars have been a part of Amtrak since it started service in 1971. The news of the reduction of the number of dining cars in service - as well as the claim that millennials would rather sit in their rooms instead of next to people they don't know to eat dinner - has $4.
The passenger train company is still keeping its dining car services on long-distance trains, which include its seven overnight routes: California Zephyr, Coast Starlight, Empire Builder, Southwest Chief, Sunset Limited, the Auto Train, and Texas Eagle.
The new flexible dining services$4 red wine braised beef, vegan Asian noodle bowl, chicken fettuccine, creole shrimp and andouille sausage, and a kid's meal pasta and meatballs. To compare, the original dining cars had $4 steak and crab cakes, salmon, and thyme-roasted chicken breast, which were cooked in an onboard kitchen.
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Amtrak anticipates that these changes will save them $2 million annually, according to$4.
Take a look at the timeline of the iconic Amtrak dining car: