After several years of not traveling, I recently took a train trip.
Someone would need to get the prep method just right to hydrate the noodles and veggies without leaving behind broth. Maybe steaming it instead of adding hot water?
Yeah, I kind of already knew that something like breakfast tacos would make more sense, but I'm human and cold prep ramen was a huge thing for me for a time, so I was like "I have an idea..."
B. I've been wondering for some time now how to research this. Realization: Me traveling regularly and trying plane/train food will not happen, even if I "win the lottery." I can barely eat while traveling.
For this and other reasons, while I will certainly continue writing about food generally, I am giving up on the idea of starting an airship company and revolutionizing air travel food as part of that. (If someone actually wants to start "Diamond Air," have at it. I don't care.)
C. I grabbed a menu from the dining car knowing I'm not doing a meal with these people because I could barely eat. I did so as research. It seemed like an opportunity I would be stupid to pass up.
Amtrak could do a lot to make it more legible how all of this works. Some people seem to just KNOW how the food bits work. I assume that's their "frequent flyers" so to speak.
The e-ticket could include info on the snack bar and dining car, menus, prices and explanations about other logistical details. Their profitability might go up if they didn't assume coach passengers are too poor to buy food and helped them understand what was available, even if it's your first trip and money is an issue.
Rich people can afford to information gather by buying stuff and seeing what works for them before settling on something they feel has maximum bang for the buck. Poor people can't do that and are often treated badly for asking questions.
Please don't do this to your paying customers. You never know who their friends and relatives are etc.
(I read something online once about a guy who didn't like how an airline treated him and tweeted about it. He didn't have a lot of Twitter followers but had more "pull" than it looked like because some of his followers had a lot of followers, so the airline ended up in shock over the impact.)
If you INFORM your passengers how everything works ahead of time, we might spend more money on food with you. Even people with serious budgetary constraints might spend more if they didn't feel intimidated by the process of trying to figure it out.
I'm a writer by trade. I asked if I could get a free diet coke in the dining car because the menu says "complementary beverage during meal periods" NOT "with meal purchase."
They aren't the same thing and I figured it was just poorly worded but I asked anyway. I was right: It's actually only free beverages with meal purchase.
And the person I asked was kind of a jerk to me. For one thing, he assumed I was asking for free alcohol -- at breakfast -- and told me that's only served during dinner.
I don't typically drink alcohol but was wearing an alcohol-themed t-shirt bought under emergency circumstances as the cheapest replacement shirt I could get while traveling.
I still don't feel it was an appropriate assumption given the poorly worded menu. But most poor people aren't as ballsy as I am.
Anyway...
If the e-ticket explained what your policies are, then we wouldn't have to ask "stupid" questions. And you wouldn't have to give stupid answers as if you haven't actually read your own menu recently.
You could also include info on food and services available at any stations involved in the trip. Online links (or PDFs, whatever -- technical details, not my department) to menus, prices etc and blurbs about being allowed to take food bought at the station onto the train would help a lot of people who are coping with health issues, dietary constraints, motion sickness while traveling, etc.
And you should state in the email if wifi will be available on the train in question and, if so, how accessing that will work.