I don’t have a dog in this fight other than at some point in the future I would hope to be a customer of Amtrak and retrace my childhood trips on the CZ/ Overland and Daylight. From the issues raised in some of the other posts it sounds like there is some labor and management problems with the onboard personnel. Now my memories are mostly from the 1960’s during the decline of passenger service, especially on the SP. To me the key personnel that I recall interacting with were the porters and dining car waiters and to a lesser extent the conductor and brakemen. I suspect that some of these problems of long hours and working conditions etc.on the long distance trains have been around since before Amtrak.

Now having said that I thought it would be instructive to see what the staffing level (diner) was of the original CZ for reference (see previous posting). By the 1950’s the CZ dining cars per Zimmerman were suffering from overcrowding as they had dinner (super if you hail from the Midwest) seating at 4:15 (full train only) 5:00PM Chef’s Early Dinner w/ limited menu for families with children, first regular dinner call at 6PM with subsequent calls at 7, 8 and if necessary 9PM. With an 11 car train the CZ could be carrying approximately 250 passengers I think. The 48 seat diner at capacity with the one hour seating turns could theoretically serve 288 (48 x 6 seatings) diners per meal if every table/ seating was full. So with the diner crewed with 6 waiters they each would have had 2 tables each plus any room service they would have to deal with also. The menu noted that this service outside the diner was an extra charge and subject to delay during busy times. Remembering also that the waiter was busing and setting the table, these guys kept busy. When the buffet dome was added some light meals were also served there.

How does this compare to the current Amtrak CZ?