First look: Midwest states’ Venture coach-café debut

CHICAGO — The first of 17 Venture coach-café cars built by Siemens for Midwest States has finally debuted on one daily Chicago-St. Louis Lincoln Service round-trip.

Trains News Wire sampled the new entry out of Chicago to Bloomington-Normal, Ill., last week on train No. 305, a 5:20 p.m. departure. The trainset returns the next morning as Lincoln Service No. 300, which is scheduled to arrive into the Windy City at 9:25 a.m.

Divisions of Illinois and California transportation departments, not Amtrak, led and managed the procurement of single-level Venture cars and Charger locomotives. Though they agreed on aisle width and the same type of coach seat, the two agencies arrived at different ideas of how their respective rolling stock was to be configured. The Midwest cafes went through a variety of changes from what was initially envisioned as a standardized design; California opted for vending-machine cars that still have not debuted on the San Joaquins.

The all-Venture, five-car train waiting on Chicago Union Station’s track 18 on a stormy July 9 had its coach-café immediately behind the locomotive, followed by three coaches and a business-class car on the rear. The original plan was to run the coach-café and business-class cars together, since business-class passengers get a free non-alcoholic beverage on Midwest trains. Another reason the two cars were to be paired is that the business-class car, with one seat on one side of the aisle and two on the other, has a built-in wheelchair lift for passengers with disabilities.

News Wire bought a coach ticket and used an Amtrak Guest Rewards upgrade coupon to sit in business class, whose passengers received priority boarding on what conductors said was a sold-out train. After boarding that group in the last car, the conductor closed the trap so he could direct passengers to coaches corresponding to stops where traps would be opened.

On this trip, the overhead passenger information display system and automated announcements weren’t operational. Following the obligatory safety and no-smoking advisories after an on-time departure, a conductor added, “We have a new café car; it’s at the front of the train. There are no seats to eat your food. If you make a purchase, you must take the food back to your seat.”

Walking forward as No. 305 speeds at 79 mph in the driving rain between the Summit and Joliet stops, only a smattering of single seats remain unoccupied. This includes the café car’s coach section, which has six rows of double seats on one side of the wide aisle and eight rows on the other. The section is roughly comparable in size to the business-class section of Amfleet I and Horizon cafe cars, but Illinois opted to increase business-class capacity by making that an entirely separate car.

Illinois DOT spokesman Scott Speegle tells News Wire, “While final consist decisions are made by Amtrak, we have requested that the business class car is at one end of the consist to give those customers greater privacy. Ideally, we would like the café car placed in the middle of the consist to give all customers easier access to the cafe.” He says that as the Venture coach-cafés receive final acceptance by the agency and Amtrak, they will first fill out the Lincoln Service lineup of four round trips before being deployed to other Midwest routes.

As currently positioned, everyone lines up while waiting to be served at the snack bar in a hallway with large windows on one side, reminiscent of views experienced on Talgo cafe cars.

The cafe’s snack bar serves the same variety of fresh deli sandwiches, jumbo hot dogs, cheeseburgers, chips, soft drinks, and alcoholic beverages, including domestic and imported beers, available on all Midwest cafe cars.

The counter itself is inviting. Cody, the attendant who kept busy with a steady stream of customers during the dinner hour, remarked to a customer, “They designed this car seven years ago. I like the layout, but there is no place to sit and converse with passengers.”

Challenges occur, however, when a recently served passenger returns from the condiment table on the other side of the snack counter with food.

This is not unlike the problem encountered in any Amtrak café cars, but in those cases there is more maneuvering room directly across from where people are served. Also, anyone in a wheelchair would have trouble passing the service area to access the spacious room on the other side of the snack bar that is outfitted with electrical portals on low-level counters.

This might be a place where passengers could congregate, albeit without any seating, but travelers are told they must return to their seats after purchasing food, so “hanging out” in the relatively sterile room isn’t an option. This may change if the business-class car is positioned next to the coach-café.

When Amtrak took delivery of Amfleet I food service cars in the 1970s, “Amcafés” had coach seats on both sides of a snack bar; “Amclubs” had a first class “club” section on one side and coach seats on the other; and “Amdinettes” had booth seating on one side and coach seats on the other. Eventually, by popular demand, coach seating was eliminated in all of these configurations. Business class two-and-one seating was retained along the lines of the Amclub design, though all of those cars now have tables on the other side of the snack bar, not coach seats. Amfleet cafés on virtually all Northeast Regional trains offer table seating on both sides of the snack bar, a feature extremely popular with laptop-toting customers.

So it is puzzling why tables aren’t offered as a place to congregate away from coach seating on the Midwest’s Venture cafés. When people board at intermediate stops and can’t find seats together, café seating offers an opportunity unique to train travel for travelers to spread out, and, of course, spend some money. There are a number of table-facing seats in both coach and in business class, but these are the first to be snapped up when travelers board at departure stations.

The only table in the car is a small desk opposite from where passengers line up for the snack bar. It’s labeled “crew seating,” and during the trip a conductor could usually be found ensconced there.

Of note, however, is that returning to Chicago from Bloomington-Normal the same evening at about 8:30 p.m. on Lincoln Service train No. 306, the train was also very crowded but virtually no one visited the Horizon café-business class car. This was despite the attendant regularly announcing that he was open and serving. Perhaps it was the late hour. Or just maybe, today’s Amtrak clientele are simply content to stay in their seats with their phones.