Catering on Trains - A Healthy Approach?

[Bletchleyite]

Bolognese is isn't that healthy , it's a ton of empty carbs, some likely very sugary tomato sauce, and some normally low grade mince. People have convinced if something sounds sophisticated it's healthy and stuff people poorer than them like must be unhealthy

What a strange statement. How healthy it is depends on what quality of ingredients are used, and given that on-train catering is sold at a premium price there's really no excuse to be using the same ingredients as a Tesco Value can.

I'm really not sure what's sophisticated about spag bol, in any case, so the second part of your statement is even stranger!

Sandwiches can be healthy or not depending what you put in them and depending on the bread. However what they are is very perishable - thus they're a poor choice for on train catering because you can't stock a good variety (as you may not be able to sell them) and you can't store them easily. A good selection of hermetically sealed pasta pots, by contrast, could be kept in a cupboard and restocked weekly or more.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 1 Dec 2025 ==

As some may remember, when Arriva won the XC franchise in 2007 (?), their bid included the removal of the shop to provide more seating space.

It was converted to luggage space (which to be fair is much needed due to the tiny overheads on Voyagers). It didn't add much if any seating.

 

[coach fan]

How long is the longest Ryanair flight? I doubt many train journeys in the U.K. made often are longer. Offer the same snacks they offer simple. Trains are for travelling. Not eating. Doubley more so when taxpayers who don’t even use trains are funding them.

 

[Bletchleyite]

How long is the longest Ryanair flight? I doubt many train journeys in the U.K. made often are longer.

Most short haul flights are 1-2 hours. A good many intercity train journeys are considerably longer.

Offer the same snacks they offer simple. Trains are for travelling. Not eating. Doubley more so when taxpayers who don’t even use trains are funding them.

Ryanair offer a wide range of catering. Probably one of the best economy class offerings going. The economics are different on planes, though, as they can be sold by cabin crew who are required to be there for safety but don't have much of a role during cruise unless an emergency occurs.

 

[43096]

How long is the longest Ryanair flight? I doubt many train journeys in the U.K. made often are longer. Offer the same snacks they offer simple. Trains are for travelling. Not eating. Doubley more so when taxpayers who don’t even use trains are funding them.

That’s just the race to the bottom approach. The alternative is that good quality catering is part of the “offer” and therefore attracts more customers even though catering may be loss making. That is the approach taken by more enlightened operators (ČD and ŽSSK to name two).

 

[signed]

How long is the longest Ryanair flight?

As a whole, 6h30 between Warsaw Modlen and Tenerife South, but as @Bletchleyite says, there is catering, and even though extremely pricey, there is plenty of choice.

 

[NCT]

That’s just the race to the bottom approach. The alternative is that good quality catering is part of the “offer” and therefore attracts more customers even though catering may be loss making. That is the approach taken by more enlightened operators (ČD and ŽSSK to name two).

In the UK context (already max train length and max frequency on the busiest intercity routes), more seats are more effective at attracting accommodating passengers than more space-demanding frill.

 

[richa2002]

Agree with the OP. The quality of ingredients on trains has plummeted. I just don't bother anymore unless it's GWR pullman or TfW loco hauled. Everything else really is bargain basement stuff.

I'm pleased peoples' eyes are being opened to the horrors of ultra processed food. It's not a moral panic. It's good education.

 

[NCT]

For the majority of GB intercity journeys (around the two-hour mark) on-train catering is a distress purchase. This is very different to continental Europe where 4h+ inter-city runs are common, where some form of onboard catering is essential.

 

[Bletchleyite]

For the majority of GB intercity journeys (around the two-hour mark) on-train catering is a distress purchase. This is very different to continental Europe where 4h+ inter-city runs are common, where some form of onboard catering is essential.

We do of course have a fair few 4+ hour InterCity runs, such as Penzance, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Inverness and Aberdeen, and the full length of the Highland Mainline is well over three. I can certainly see a case as noted above for different catering approaches on these longer runs than the Manchester/Birmingham/Leeds/Bristol/Cardiff/Norwich/Sheffield/Nottingham runs. Indeed at one point British Rail used a different train classification for the Birmingham-Euston services, though I don't know what impact that had on catering - they were ICS - InterCity Shuttle.

 

[NCT]

We do of course have a fair few 4+ hour InterCity runs, such as Penzance, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Inverness and Aberdeen, and the full length of the Highland Mainline is well over three. I can certainly see a case as noted above for different catering approaches on these longer runs than the Manchester/Birmingham/Leeds/Bristol/Cardiff/Norwich/Sheffield/Nottingham runs. Indeed at one point British Rail used a different train classification for the Birmingham-Euston services, though I don't know what impact that had on catering - they were ICS - InterCity Shuttle.

These services will always operate on the edge of a system with those 2-hour journeys being in the centre of all cost-benefit analyses. Stock interworks across shorter and longer routes and the whole thing will be designed around the 'British typical'.

 

[Bletchleyite]

These services will always operate on the edge of a system with those 2-hour journeys being in the centre of all cost-benefit analyses. Stock interworks across shorter and longer routes and the whole thing will be designed around the 'British typical'.

It does, but in the new world of GBR it doesn't have to. Indeed, given the level of demand for travel to Edinburgh and the potential for doing things differently to aim at the genuinely long distance market, I remain surprised that LNER seem to be planning the new CAFs to be for the Leeds services rather than making them a dedicated long distance fleet for the Edinburghs/Chieftain/Northern Lights with higher comfort yet more capacity due to the additional vehicle, and potentially an upgraded catering provision.

 

[coach fan]

I’d say more so… we aren’t exactly bursting at the seams with cash right now. Just ask Rachel from accounts.

 

[NCT]

It does, but in the new world of GBR it doesn't have to. Indeed, given the level of demand for travel to Edinburgh and the potential for doing things differently to aim at the genuinely long distance market, I remain surprised that LNER seem to be planning the new CAFs to be for the Leeds services rather than making them a dedicated long distance fleet for the Edinburghs/Chieftain/Northern Lights with higher comfort yet more capacity due to the additional vehicle, and potentially an upgraded catering provision.

There's not enough timetable capacity for the handful of very-long distance services to be on self-contained diagrams. It wouldn't make sense to have a non-standard micro-fleet either. If anything, LNER Edinburgh runs are more concerned about absorbing (or pricing off) excess demand than attracting punters.

GBR doesn't mean throwing away efficiencies, or indeed basic economic principles.

 

[Bletchleyite]

There's not enough timetable capacity for the handful of very-long distance services to be on self-contained diagrams. It wouldn't make sense to have a non-standard micro-fleet either. If anything, LNER Edinburgh runs are more concerned about absorbing (or pricing off) excess demand than attracting punters.

I'd hardly say there were a handful of 4+ hour intercity services. Edinburgh is likely close to being half of LNER's operation by vehicle miles, and Penzance is still a fair chunk of GWR's.

With LNER's heavy moves towards book in advance, though, I wonder if the catering model that might work for the Edinburghs and beyond might be an approach where if you want a meal you order it in advance rather than wasting a vehicle on a restaurant car. That could be provided using the existing units as they are now.

 

[Autspectorder]

Foodshakes could work. They are healthy, easy to prepare, and not even that expensive.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Foodshakes could work. They are healthy, easy to prepare, and not even that expensive.

And remove all the pleasure from eating. No thanks!

 

[Darandio]

Foodshakes could work. They are healthy, easy to prepare, and not even that expensive.

So easy that if it was something you fancied you can prepare at home and bring with you?

 

[yorksrob]

Bolognese is isn't that healthy , it's a ton of empty carbs, some likely very sugary tomato sauce, and some normally low grade mince. People have convinced if something sounds sophisticated it's healthy and stuff people poorer than them like must be unhealthy

Growing up in the 1980's it was the height of sophistication !

I tend to make my own tomato sauce for pasta using onion, chillies and garlick. The tomato puree is processed though.