This is normal pretty much throughout europe on long distance trains. I know at the very least it's standard in Germany, France, Austria, and Italy. Maybe you're thinking of regional commuter trains that don't have dining cars?

That you're using multiple qualifiers here suggests that these could still be exceptions.

Intercity Express is the high speed long distance train, and are the most common long distance trains by a long shot. They're the ones that have the dining cars. Regular Intercity trains usually don't have dining cars, but they're rather rare. I've still never actually ridden one because they're almost never used (since Intercity Express is so sucessful, and the Regional trains are fast enough for journeys of around 200km)

95% of passengers are not sitting in a dining car watching the world go by in an Amtrak style experience.

Over the last few decades they have generally died out on shorter intercity routes, granted.