By Stephen Mihm, Bloomberg Opinion, Yahoo! Finance; November 23, 2019
(Bloomberg Opinion) — More than 119,000 people have signed an online petition demanding that Amtrak cancel its plan to phase out dining on long-distance trains. But Richard Anderson, the head of the rail carrier, told Congress this week that he’s determined to phase out a grand American tradition that stretches back to the 1830s.
The first passenger trains didn’t serve food. Instead, they would make “food stops” in certain places along the line, typically clearings in the forest. There, the railroad would make available a range of utterly disgusting, foul vittles designed to blunt the appetite.