The Kazakhstan train was not all that different from my experience riding Amtrak.   Amtrak's passenger cars were built by the Budd Company in the late 1970's and the early 80's so they too are very old but they are quite comfortable.   Trains are also slow and must give way to freight  trains on the route.   New York to Chicago is 920 miles and takes about 22 hours which seems comparible.   There is no dining car on the Lakeshore Limited.   Sleeping car passengers do get flex dining service, boxed meals which are not very good.   Coach passengers can get soft drinks, tea and coffe and snacks in the cafe car which is a snack bar.   I suggest bringing your own food.   The only real advange I can see is that I have never encountered a toilet with a missing toilet seat on Amtrak.  At the same time Kazakhstan does have a lot more trains than Amtrak provides.   

I'm afraid Amtrak will never return dining cars to its east coast service.   A trip from Washington to Boston is about 8 hours and 20 minutes and on the Acela about 6 hours.   They could serve boxed meals at the snack bar with a hamburger or something like that but that is all we will get.   

Dining cars are very expensive as they produce no actual revenue.  However, a car full of passengers does produce revenue.   

The new Acela will be 10 cars rather than 8 as in the present Acela.   That means about 12 percent more passengers.  The Acela already makes a profit so the new ones should be even more profitable.   

Shrinking Shorty (TOILETHEA1) said...

I was afraid of that, drat.  Still I keep hoping they will bring it back.

Shorty, I have to disagree with you here.   To trade off a car that carries passengers with a car that produces no passenger revenue at all just does not make sense to me.   I would try to have high quality boxed meals for those who want them on both the Acela and the Regional trains.   Even Amtrak coaches have generous amounts of room with a tray table that is plenty big enough to hold a meal and a beverage.   But passenger revenue is really what trains are all about.   And for people who need to travel keeping the fares as reasonable as possible is important.   

For me, at least a trip four hours or more should have at least a cafe car, longer trips, say six to eight hours or more should have a dinning car.