> The New York, New Haven & Hartford claimed that they > operated their dining Cars at a profit. > The Lehigh Valley discontinued Passenger Services in > 1963. While working for their successor Lehigh Valley > So, listers, does anybody here know anything about the > financial performance of the food services on Phoebe, Lake > Cities, etc? The LV and NH (and LIRR, btw) "profits" were really from the beverage service. THE LV had about 700 commuters who purchased coffee, doughnuts and sometimes breakfast in the morning, and would unwind with a couple of drinks on the way home at night. The Reading did all right as well -- for the same reason. As an aside, when SEPTA was looking to get out of the Newark service, it distributed an extensive questionnaire about the service. Fully 52% of the riders agreed that they'd pay double the commutation fare if that's what it took to keep the service, but something like 78% said they'd cease using it if the breakfast/bar car service was removed. Guess what SEPTA/NJT's choice was on what to do next . . . Looking back at it, I suspect that the DL&Ws Dining Car Dept did ok, but the Erie (and EL) was a big loss as the Erie did not have an extensive suburban bar car network on its commuter trains. Cheers, Jim Guthrie The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List Sponsored by the ELH&TS http://www.elhts.org ------------------------------
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