Dinner train

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A dinner train is a relatively new type of passenger train service whose main purpose is to allow people to eat dinner while experiencing a relatively short, leisurely round trip train ride. This contrasts with conventional passenger trains, whose main purpose is to transport passengers to some destination as quickly as possible but which also might serve dinner on long-distance routes.

Dinner trains have become popular in recent years, particularly in the United States. This is in part a result of a nostalgia for passenger trains (which are less common in the U.S. than in many other countries) and in part because it provides a very different experience from driving and from eating at ordinary restaurants.

There are currently dozens of dinner trains which operate at least part of the year in more than 30 states in the U.S. Most such trains operate either seasonally or a few days a week, but some operate daily (or even twice daily on weekends in a few cases cases).

Almost all dinner trains run on lightly used branch lines or tourist lines, and virtually all use older passenger cars. Some feature the use of steam locomotives for at least some of their runs. Speeds are usually much slower than ordinary passenger trains, not only due to lower track standards but also to the fact that the emphasis is on the journey itself, not the destination.

Dinner trains can be fun not only for the passengers who ride them but also for the train crews and other employees. They can also provide jobs and be a profitable business. Moreover, they can generate substantial benefits for local economies, including boosting tourism and increasing sales at nearby businesses. For example, the Spirit of Washington, which operated daily on the Woodinville Subdivision near Seattle, provided 80 full time jobs and contributed roughly $10 million annually to the local economy before ceasing operations in late October, 2007.

In addition to just providing dinner while riding on a scenic route, some dinner trains have developed additional functions, such as hosting wedding receptions and having murder mystery events during the dinner.

Some so-called dinner trains do not actually serve meals aboard the train. Rather, the food is served in a building or outdoors after the train has reached its destination; the passengers then reboard for the return trip. This is particularly true for narrow gauge railways, on which it would be impractical to prepare and serve formal meals. Examples include the 2 ft 6 in gauge Puffing Billy Railway near Melbourne, Australia and the 3 ft 6 in gauge Lahaina Kaanapali Railroad in Maui, Hawaii.