Written by David Peter Alan, Contributing Editor
“California Dreamin’” was one of the iconic songs of the sixties. It was about an Angelino enduring a New York winter and dreaming about his warm hometown (the inverse of the scenario in Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas”). Barry McGuire recorded the original version in 1963, and the 1966 version by The Mamas & the Papas with Bud Shank’s flute solo defined the song. Nostalgia aside, there seems to be a new custom in part of the Golden State: “California Starvin’” as practiced on Amtrak’s San Joaquin trains between Bakersfield at the south end and the Bay Area and Sacramento at the north end.
For the past two months, the trains have not offered any food or beverage sales. On the newly delivered Siemens Venture cars, there are shelves with “free” snacks, cans of soda, and small bottles of water. The snacks consist of small bags of chips, pretzels, crackers, and, sometimes, packaged cookies. The soda and water are kept at room temperature, and there is no ice to cool them. There is also no coffee or anything else to drink. The situation on the older, bilevel “Amtrak California” equipment is not much different. At one time, the “California Cafe” cars that appear in the consists once served meals as well as snacks. The tables where riders once ate those meals and the lounge area where other passengers consumed snacks and sips are still there, because the furniture is built in. The area where attendants once heated and sold the food and beverages now lies empty and unused. Instead, the booths serve merely as places to put the boxes that hold cans of warm soda, bottles of warm water, and small bags of snacking material that now comprise the only food offered to riders these days.
The move is not popular, and that includes with the train crews. One crew member said: “Salty snacks, warm water and warm soda is all they think you need.” That employee also noted that 15 employees lost their jobs and others have taken a $2.00 per hour pay cut since Cinco de Mayo. In particular, the lack of coffee and the lack of ice to cool the water and soda have been sore points.
Did the local operating authority take the food away?
It appears that the agency that runs the San Joaquin trains is responsible for the loss of food and beverage service. Other corridors in California do not appear to be affected, even though many of the trips taken on those corridors are shorter than on the San Joaquin trains. I learned that firsthand on Monday, June 23, when I rode from Simi Valley to Los Angeles Union Station. Some Amtrak Surfliner trains honor Metrolink tickets, and I rode on Train 790, which runs from Santa Barbara to San Diego. The equipment on that train consisted of bilevel “Surfliner” cars. The train had a well-stocked snack and beverage inventory, and those items were not sold at a simple snack counter. Rather, that train carried a full-length Superliner observation-lounge car like the ones on long-distance trains…