Regardless of whether of not dining car service generated revenue and when you look at it, one cannot just look at dining car service as a revenue generator to offset overall costs or even passenger train expenses. Let's face it, the railroads didn't want to carry people because they didn't have to anymore. That being said, in the late 70s, I always scheduled a "Month of Mondays" off from my office in August. I reverse commuted from Penn Station Manhattan to Long Island via the LIRR to be a beach bum for a day. For day trippers like me, destinations were/are Long Beach, Jones Beach, Robert Moses State Park and Fire Island. The nice thing was that even though there were no dining cars as LIRR is commuter, they did offer beverage service into Manhattan at the end of the day, similar to the airline attendants with the cart coming down the aisle. After a great day on one of the Long Island beaches, there was nothing like reverse commuting back to Manhattan Penn Station, vodka tonic in hand with a fresh squeezed lime, watching the suburbs pass and seeing those who worked on a hot summer Monday going in the other direction, collars open, waiting to get to the burbs. Me? I came back to the city refreshed, energy intact for Tuesday. Rick Sedlisky The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List Sponsored by the ELH&TS http://www.elhts.org ------------------------------
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