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Depending on the time of your journey the answer may be both. Breakfast you'll probably be OK as long as you're on the services before 9:30. Lunch you may want to go to the buffet to supplement the at seat offering.

Yeah, but it wasn't the same as GNER, NXEC or East Coast until 22 May. If I want exercise I go to the gym, if I want to use the buffet I'll travel standard which is what I'm doing today.

We're all in this together. As part of Big Society rail you must take your own rubbish to the bin now and if you want food you must queue at the buffet. The weekend first class service is total rubbish in my opinion. Upgrade to standard class if you want a trolley with a decent selection.

Of course First is cheaper than standard, they have a better selection available at seat from the trolley, that's why people choose to upgrade.

On East Coast today someone sitting near the end of the carriage had a standard class ticket, totally open about it as some passengers got on and asked if she knew how much the upgrades are and she said 'just take a seat, I did'. When the guard appeared she said "I'm only going to the next...

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...

Nice to hear that Sainsburys is at Newcastle Central, spend an extra £3 there to make up for the inadequacies of EC catering. It's a vicious circle, one train company offers poor catering, increasing the demand for shops to open on the concourse, people then start using these shops to buy...

It's free, it's the same wifi as you'd get in EC first class lounges which is much quicker than the train and doesn't require registration. I think NXEC fitted it in this station to make up for the fact there's no first class lounge in York (as typically in East Coast managed stations only...

When GNER did their 'mallard' refurb they mentioned in their magazine that one of the benefits would be the ability to make selected announcements to just one section of the train. Does anyone on East Coast actually do this?

First class ones they did (the first class requirement was season tickets only) :) For standard class they had a different loyalty scheme for annual season tickets called GNER365. I don't know much about it, but included some first class upgrade vouchers and some buffet vouchers.

The EC rewards team (the old team, based in Orpington) used to be very flexible at what qualified for a ticket. If you needed to submit your tickets for delay repay they'd accept other evidence of the ticket purchase (e.g. I used a receipt for the train ticket attached to a photocopy of the...

For me the old scheme was much better (but still very poor compared to GNERtime *), I made use of the 20% discount a lot in addition to my free travel. Although to be fair this scheme isn't as bad as I feared (I expected it to be as bad as the points based one on redspottedhanky.com), I'll...

Obviously the police need their time to have a through investigation, I'm surprised anyone thinks otherwise. Were services suspended in both directions? What happened to those arriving late missing their onward connections? Once the line was open did EC run all trains to their intended...

Another downgrade is the closure of East Coast Rewards which rewarded the people who spend the most on East Coast rail travel. It's being replaced with a new loyalty scheme which is confusingly also called East Coast Rewards. They're being quiet about the actual benefits the new scheme will...

When I fly I always select an aisle seat. When I reserve a seat on the train I always select an aisle seat. When I board a train without a reservation (or the reservation has given me a window when I requested otherwise) I'll always choose an aisle seat. When I'm on a bus I'll also do...

Old first class: you were served at-seat with anything that's available from the buffet and most (non-restaurant) services also had a chef-prepared at seat dining menu. New first class: if it's not complimentary you need to get up and queue at the buffet. Is this considered an improvement?

Personally I'd go for 'London Eastern Railway' which is the actual registered name for the company (shame they never used it).

I bought alcohol many years ago on a child ticket on ICEC, just depends how old you look :p None of that challenge 21/25 nonsense back then though. Were the non-alcoholic drinks free? To me this would be the ideal complimentary offering, food to restaurant quality. Of course that wouldn't...

I'll have to try the biscuits next time I go through KGX. I'm still surprised about your comment on the staff as I do think they're the best point of the EC lounge, so you might have been unlucky. Unfortunately the staff have no need to interact with customers anymore (NXEC stopped the...

I'd say it's worth it if you're travelling standard and have a while to wait for your train. If you want to relax and have non-alcoholic drinks, some cake and fruit (that's what I remember, there's probably biscuits too) it'd probably pay for itself considering what you'd pay for a coffee in the...