First of all, let me thank the many folks who post on the FlyerTalk AGR forum. I've been reading it for about year now and it is great.

Second of all, I am new to train travel. On an odd thought, I took the City of New Orleans from Memphis to New Orleans for a conference in June 2004. I could have just as easily flown and it would have been much faster, as my train hit a stalled car at a rural crossing just north of the Mississippi/Louisana border. No one was hurt in the accident, but it did jolt me out of my slumber and I became a little frustrated because there was no cell service with which to notify the rest of my party that had flown I would be delayed several hours.

Nevertheless, I'm hooked on it now and anytime I'm travelling north or south from Memphis, I'll be on a train. In fact, going from Memphis to Chicage is wonderful on the train since I get to board at 10:00 p.m., crawl into a sleeper bed, wake up in the morning, shower, eat breakfast, and walk out of Chicago Union Station ready for the day at 9:00 a.m.

Enough of that... Now to my thought on the Amtrak dining car experiences I had on the City of New Orleans the past year or so. I would not classify the food as fancy restaruant fare nor fast food generic. Breakfast is better than McDonalds and on par with Perkins. Whether one agrees with my ratings doesn't matter.

What I want to pass along is that the experience of eating a meal at a sit-down table with an actual cloth table cover and napkins all while zipping along the way is more important that having a gourmet meal. How does this compare to other forms of meals served on mass transportation systems? I've never had an airline meal, even in first class, that compares to what I've eaten on Amtrak. Fast food in my car driving down the interstate? Nah, it is better on Amtrak.

Another thing that I thought was going to really bother me at first but that I ended up liking is sharing tables with total strangers. I've had some of the most intersting converations with table partners while in the Amtrak diner car. I'm sure I'll end up with one someday that I just wish would disappear, but not yet.

Sure, I've experienced wait staff quality that ranged from "I'm going to give the person the benefit of doubt and assume this is just a bad day" to "Gee, thanks for going out of your way to make my meal really great."

All in all, it justs add to the "experience" of the trip for me.