On the subject of Silver Standard. GNER used to operate it on peak trains and it was very busy. I used to sit in the smoking carriage, the good old days, so can't remember what they offered but it was something like a free newspaper and free coffee for passengers on full price standard tickets.
Yes they did, it was called standard plus, it was in either the 1 or 2 standard carriages nearest to the buffet. From what i remember it was just on Leeds services and was for full fare standard open (as they were called then) tickets. You got tea/coffee, newspaper, buscuits and order taken from the buffet menu and delivered at seat. It was on all Leeds trains throughout the day and was really a bit stupid as on the morning peak services the whole train was entitled to it (no advances on peak am trains back then) so there was a mad rush to gets seats in those 2 coaches, yet in the off peak you had a nearly empty coach while there were passengers stood up without seats. On Friday afternoons/evenings we always made some excuse up to cancel it and told passengers to claim there tea/coffee/newspaper from the buffet, the trains were too busy to justify it taking a whole coach up.
Im sure First will do it differently however, probably sell it as a standard business package, with any spare seats on the day available for upgrade for a supplement from the guard.
On the subject of First, while there train operations are good, there bus operations at least in Leeds and Manchester are not. You cant blame people for bad mouthing them on facebook etc if they only have experience of using first buses. I am a little miffed how they can manage their train operations so well yet offer a crap, overpriced, unreliable bus service.
Though certain (other) business types do have an annoying tendency to make annoyingly loud phone calls.