On what routes, if any does on train catering make a profit?

[Tester]

Cuisine 2000?

No - way back in the 1960s

 

[dk1]

No - way back in the 1960s

Hope it was more successful

 

[Carlisle]

By Birmingham I was flagging so asked if I could have a drink, he asked to see my ticket and then told me he could only give me a 330ml bottle of water. I wasn’t feeling great by the time I got to Leeds.

On hindsight it wasn’t a great idea to rip the shops out of the Voyagers as during periods of reduced staffing First Class customers could at least get some complimentary refreshments from there.

 

[Dr Hoo]

No - way back in the 1960s

Which BR routes did tray meals feature on?

 

[Tester]

Which BR routes did tray meals feature on?

My only recollection of them is on railtours, but they were provided by British Rail Catering (pre-Travellers Fare) so may have had wider circulation.

Two varieties - chicken and ham, with various sides - served in a compartmented tray.

Priced around 10/- (50p), which wasn't particularly cheap then.

 

[Dr Hoo]

My only recollection of them is on railtours, but they were provided by British Rail Catering (pre-Travellers Fare) so may have had wider circulation.

Two varieties - chicken and ham, with various sides - served in a compartmented tray.

Priced around 10/- (50p), which wasn't particularly cheap then.

Thanks. Checked out some old timetables. The tray meals were advertised for parties (only) travelling on services with no restaurant or buffet car.

There were also ‘compakt meal boxes’. These seemed to be more along the old luncheon basket idea. A re-usable case with a thermos flask and a cold meal. Any alcohol was as an addition to the base price. To be ordered two days in advance from ‘principal main line refreshment rooms’.

Not really an impulse buy!

 

[paninaro]

It has been done, but seems to be unusual enough to be news :

Cafe delivers bacon rolls to group onboard Mallaig to Glasgow train

An award-winning roadside eatery made a special delivery of breakfast rolls to a hungry group - onboard on a ScotRail train.

www.heraldscotland.com

Not a delivery but I do this with Rannoch Station Tearoom about once a year on the sleeper. Message them on Facebook a few days beforehand, leap out at Rannoch and swap cash for nice coffee and a veggie sausage sandwich

 

[Hellfire]

Which is the longest scheduled journey that doesn't have catering? There are obviously routes like Cambridge - Brighton which aren't designed for end-to-end travel, but I'm thinking routes where passengers would take most of the journey?

Exeter-Waterloo?

 

[Taplowgreen]

A can of wine sounds awful.

Handy if you have drains that need unblocking.

 

[philosopher]

Exeter-Waterloo?

This seems to be one route where a trolley could make a profit due to most stations west of Salisbury have no or little catering facilities. However this would require it to be consistent enough that passengers knew they could rely on it.

 

[dk1]

Exeter-Waterloo?

SWR withdrew all remaining catering during 2020.

 

[Titfield]

SWR withdrew all remaining catering during 2020.

Yes unfortunately as I always used to buy a tea and a Kit Kat on the early morning Weymouth Waterloo

 

[Highlander1]

I'd start with Edinburgh to Inverness then, only a couple of trains on that route have catering. Pretty shoddy for a 3.5 to 4 hour journey.

Every Glasgow/Edinburgh to Inverness starting its journey between 8am and 5pm has catering. On some journeys it only covers Perth to Inverness. Those are the hours mandated by Transport Scotland

 

[Tetchytyke]

Every Glasgow/Edinburgh to Inverness starting its journey between 8am and 5pm has catering.

That's not what the Scotrail website says. On Mondays to Saturdays only the 0838 from Edinburgh has catering, although it is better from Glasgow with the 0707, 1007, 1207, and 1507 having catering. As you say, nothing after 5pm, so the peak time 1733 from Edinburgh has nothing.

On-train hospitality

Drinks and snacks on longer distance journeys.

www.scotrail.co.uk

 

[liamf656]

I've heard muttering of Crosscountry removing catering on all Turbostar routes. Not sure how true that is but if so Nottingham to Cardiff will be a fairly long journey without a trolley

 

[Highlander1]

That's not what the Scotrail website says. On Mondays to Saturdays only the 0838 from Edinburgh has catering, although it is better from Glasgow with the 0707, 1007, 1207, and 1507 having catering. As you say, nothing after 5pm, so the peak time 1733 from Edinburgh has nothing.

On-train hospitality

Drinks and snacks on longer distance journeys.

www.scotrail.co.uk

Both the 1032 and 1332 from Edinburgh have catering from Perth. The 1633 LNER also has catering. The 4 services you listed from Glasgow are all the direct services during that 8-5 window. That means all the trains in the 8-5 window have (with the 0707 an extra one to provide catering on the return).

 

[dk1]

I've heard muttering of Crosscountry removing catering on all Turbostar routes. Not sure how true that is but if so Nottingham to Cardiff will be a fairly long journey without a trolley

That’s already gone. Only catering is on Voyager services.

 

[Kilopylae]

Instant won't sell. People want quality espresso based coffees now.

I don't think this is true. I can't think of anyone (except for Europeans) that would rather pay £3 for filter coffee than £1.50 for instant coffee.

 

[tumbledown]

Perhaps we can have a poll, once we define the size of cup.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I don't think this is true. I can't think of anyone (except for Europeans) that would rather pay £3 for filter coffee than £1.50 for instant coffee.

Filter coffee isn't "quality espresso based coffee", much as I quite like it. Lattes, cappuccinos and flat whites are what I'm talking about.

 

[Steddenm]

In Dáil Éireann one TD brought it up about catering in long distance Iárnrod Éirrann services the other week and Transport for Ireland said that they have tried to source a new catering provider for InterCity and Commuter services, yet the subsidy isn't there anymore and it isn't commercially viable.

There is catering on the cross-border Enterprise services, including at-seat paid meals in First Class, yet on other routes such as Dublin Heuston to Cork, Trallee, Westport and Galway and Dublin Connolly to Rosslare Europort and Sligo there is no catering avaolable at all which according to the TD is "unacceptable".

I remember pre-pandemic the first service in the morning from Rosslare Europort to Drogheda via Connolly had a catering trolley added at Wexford which did a roaring trade at just after 6am.

I don't think many of the UK operators make much of a profit from retail sales on board, and neither does the Enterprise. Most routes wouldn't suit catering anymore because of the heavy loading on UK trains as the trolley wouldn't be able to get through (CrossCountry, I'm looking at you) and I think that South Western Railway removing catering on Exeter, Weymouth and Portsmouth services was a mistake, also for CrossCountry removing it on the Turbostar Cardiff to Nottingham services.

 

[dk1]

Filter coffee isn't "quality espresso based coffee", much as I quite like it. Lattes, cappuccinos and flat whites are what I'm talking about.

Can’t go wrong with the 99p filter coffee served in Pret although I notice it’s £1.20 at railway stations. Even then you can take another 50p off both if using your own mug.

 

[route101]

This seems to be one route where a trolley could make a profit due to most stations west of Salisbury have no or little catering facilities. However this would require it to be consistent enough that passengers knew they could rely on it.

When I used this service in 2019, the trolley only appeared from Salisbury and Waterloo.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 21 Dec 2025 ==

In Dáil Éireann one TD brought it up about catering in long distance Iárnrod Éirrann services the other week and Transport for Ireland said that they have tried to source a new catering provider for InterCity and Commuter services, yet the subsidy isn't there anymore and it isn't commercially viable.

There is catering on the cross-border Enterprise services, including at-seat paid meals in First Class, yet on other routes such as Dublin Heuston to Cork, Trallee, Westport and Galway and Dublin Connolly to Rosslare Europort and Sligo there is no catering avaolable at all which according to the TD is "unacceptable".

I remember pre-pandemic the first service in the morning from Rosslare Europort to Drogheda via Connolly had a catering trolley added at Wexford which did a roaring trade at just after 6am.

I don't think many of the UK operators make much of a profit from retail sales on board, and neither does the Enterprise. Most routes wouldn't suit catering anymore because of the heavy loading on UK trains as the trolley wouldn't be able to get through (CrossCountry, I'm looking at you) and I think that South Western Railway removing catering on Exeter, Weymouth and Portsmouth services was a mistake, also for CrossCountry removing it on the Turbostar Cardiff to Nottingham services.

When did the catering stop on Cork to Dublin? I seen a trolley back in the summer.

 

[dk1]

When I used this service in 2019, the trolley only appeared from Salisbury and Waterloo.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 21 Dec 2025 ==


When did the catering stop on Cork to Dublin? I seen a trolley back in the summer.

An at-seat trolley operates on all services on the Dublin/Cork route.

 

[Megafuss]

As somebody that regularly makes use off the first Northbound Newcastle to Edinburgh LNER service in First Class for the sum of £30.20 for a 1h40 journey, I was amazed by the THREE members of first class catering crew each time for the breakfast menu.

I'm usually the only one onboard!!!

I love it, but with my tax payer hat on, it's in no way economical. (Appreciate they then work the 0900 ex Edinburgh, which will be busier)

 

[D1537]

I love it, but with my tax payer hat on, it's in no way economical. (Appreciate they then work the 0900 ex Edinburgh, which will be busier)

I'm a regular user of the 0900 out of Edinburgh (well, I was, it's less of use to me now as it's fast from Newcastle to York) and it can be a very busy train.

 

[Kilopylae]

Filter coffee isn't "quality espresso based coffee", much as I quite like it. Lattes, cappuccinos and flat whites are what I'm talking about.

Goes to show there are circles within circles of coffee quality! I think I actually prefer filter coffee to a latte on a normal day.

 

[StoneRoad]

Having quick read this thread, I would like to make a small contribution ---

From the point of view of Heritage Railways - Catering, especially "on-train" but also having a decent cafe at Terminal stations are an important additional revenue stream.
"Added Value" over the ticket price, if you will.
Some of these railways treat it extremely seriously, so it seems likely that adding this does improve per-head spend.

At least one line I know did "packed baskets" during Covid, and I think retained them as they did help that all important additional spend on what is a long journey ...

I do quite a lot of visiting railways in this sector, and being able to get decent food / drink is almost as important as decent / clean bogs ! Indeed, I will sometimes call in without travelling.

 

[Sealink]

One of those difficult questions which even surveys are unlikely to get a true answer to. In terms of concrete reasons for choosing the train for a specific journey - then probably no, but in terms of putting the train in the “choice frame” then yes. Not for everyone, of course, and certainly only for specific journeys.

I had several friends visiting Dorset a few years ago and they all drove down from London "as we can stop and get lunch or a cuppa on the way."

This was after SWR ditched the trolley service to Weymouth and Exeter.

I was genuinely surprised that it was a factor in their travel choice.

 

[Kilopylae]

From the point of view of Heritage Railways - Catering, especially "on-train" but also having a decent cafe at Terminal stations are an important additional revenue stream.

Even on relatively short heritage journeys, I for one make an effort to seek out either a beer or a bottle of Fentiman's. It's part of the experience!