Maybe but not quite as mad as bidding £1.3billion for a ten year franshise with a parent company which was already on shakey ground, and so what does the next company do, errrrrrrr bids even more:roll:.
Want someone to blame for the disappearance of restaurants, look no further than the directors of GNER and NX.
OK, I think NXEC were crazy to bid even more than GNER but if GNER hadn't put in that high bid we may have ended up with another operator winning the franchise and we'd have lost the restaurants back in 2005 - so keeping them around until 2011 was better than that scenario.
I blame the government, only interested in the highest bidder, not caring about past performance or customer service.
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18:29 KGX - NCL
Entered coach K and welcomed with the smell of Burger King. Obviously some passengers didn't want to risk being hungry, but it's a very distinctive smell and not as pleasant as better times when I'd be sitting at a nicely laid out table and possibly even being offered a pre-departure drink.
This service has a chef on it so there's some hot food. The salmon is very nice, but a lot less substantial than the restaurant equivalents, the dessert was superb, the appetiser is a joke.
We really need to be offered two cans of beer per round unless they start stocking proper sized cans (I think it's a case of they don't fit in the trolleys).
I was still hungry after my two course meal, I had missed lunch as I was busy, but I could get away with that on the old restaurant offering.
As I'm travelling back on a Sunday I'm using standard class. I really don't think I want to pay a premium to have to queue at the buffet (approaching it from the wrong side as it was designed on the principle that first class shouldn't need to use it). In standard I might have the opportunity of a trolley serving alcoholic drinks, in weekend first no such luxury.
So - evening services to Newcastle, I'd be willing to pay a bit more for first class if I'm on a train with a chef, it's still the best offering around, and I really hate to say that (considering it's a decline far worse than NXEC subjected us to). Weekend or non chef services I'll use standard, or fly.
Beyond Newcastle the restaurant was the only thing that kept me taking the train London - Edinburgh and I even used the old 1800 service to GLC if I wasn't in a hurry to get to Glasgow because I preferred it to Virgin. Now flying makes so much more sense. Eat in Gordon Ramsays Plane Food or Wagamama before the flight (or Wetherspoons if on a budget)
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ARRGH!!
No cold drinks run after York on this train. Went to the buffet and was told because the train terminates at Newcastle and the journey time is less than one hour then there's no full service for York.
Whereas the buffet is open and they did announce the trolley was available to standard class after departing York.
Stella doesn't taste as nice after drinking Pedigree, but it's OK if I start on it.
what a shame. Maybe I will just got a bottle from the fridge at Simply foods for £6-7 and take that on !
And I was certainly full - but not bloated.
