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Clapham Junction - Exeter St Davids catering?
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High Dyke
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Probably due to the type of DMU stock used on the route.
greatkingrat
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Also most London - Exeter passengers will use FGW, so most of the passengers are doing shorter intermediate journeys.
You have got about 4 weeks to do it, then its bye bye Chef!
off-topic but what is happenning? Why are they getting rid of it and what is going to replace it?
Do you want the official reason or my (and a lot of other peoples) opinion?
Official reason
Every meal prepared by the Travelling Chef loses FGW £10.
Yep they reckon a £5 bacon sandwich costs £15 to make!
My opinion
The new IEP trains only have a food prep area behind the cab at the 1st class end so nowhere to cook food for Standard class passengers and by getting rid of the Chefs now people wont associate the two things when IEP is rolled out in a couple of years.
Do you want the official reason or my (and a lot of other peoples) opinion?
Official reason
Every meal prepared by the Travelling Chef loses FGW £10.
Yep they reckon a £5 bacon sandwich costs £15 to make!
My opinion
The new IEP trains only have a food prep area behind the cab at the 1st class end so nowhere to cook food for Standard class passengers and by getting rid of the Chefs now people wont associate the two things when IEP is rolled out in a couple of years.
I agree with your opinion.
Noooooo! The second-best railway catering available in England (after the Pullman) and FGW are getting rid of it. Bonkers.
If you want access to hot food service between London and Exeter, then there are the existing Travelling Chef services for the next few weeks. These are available from Paddington at 1106, 1306, 1406, 1506. There are also Pullman restaurants at 1006 (brunch), 1206 (lunch), 1803 & 1903 (dinner). Restaurant is available to Standard Class ticket holders if space allows. That is unlikely on the 1803 & 1903 though. Almost always full with 1st Class ticket holders.
These days journey length has nothing to do with catering provision. Look at XC for example who run some of the longest journeys in the country but have only a trolley service (admittedly first class gets small microwaved meals and they are similar out to standard class but it's hardly a proper service).
The only operators which have regular full service is East Coast, Virgin Trains (First Class only, Standard Class gets hot snacks like microwaved bacon roll), East Midlands Trains (First Class only, Standard Class hot snacks), First Great Western, Arriva Trains Wales (but only on two trains per day and only for a few months more) and Scotrail (Sleeper services only).
Everybody else at best offers a trolley/buffet with hot snacks at most. In some cases there has been a really dramatic decline in just the last ten years or so. For example Liverpool Street - Norwich services used to have some literally award winning full restaurant services. These days it's down to just a buffet with a hot bacon roll the best you can expect.
It's a shame really as I think a full catering service, properly targeted, could be successful even on today's railway with a plethora of alternative catering options. FGW clearly make Pullman Dining work for them and I'm sure that East Coast could have kept a restaurant service on a couple of high-peak London - Edinburgh services and turned a profit on it. But maybe I'm just a dinosaur
PHILIPE
Veteran Member
Catering service on trains has been run down over the years. Even XC from Edinburgh to Plymouth, for example, is just an at-seat trolley service. Where would you fit a kitchen to provide a dinner service on a Class 159. I shouldn't think many passengers would do an end to end journey on this route as, has been pointed out already, people would travel FGW.
Ash Bridge
Established Member
These days journey length has nothing to do with catering provision. Look at XC for example who run some of the longest journeys in the country but have only a trolley service (admittedly first class gets small microwaved meals and they are similar out to standard class but it's hardly a proper service).
The only operators which have regular full service is East Coast, Virgin Trains (First Class only, Standard Class gets hot snacks like microwaved bacon roll), East Midlands Trains (First Class only, Standard Class hot snacks), First Great Western, Arriva Trains Wales (but only on two trains per day and only for a few months more) and Scotrail (Sleeper services only).
Everybody else at best offers a trolley/buffet with hot snacks at most. In some cases there has been a really dramatic decline in just the last ten years or so. For example Liverpool Street - Norwich services used to have some literally award winning full restaurant services. These days it's down to just a buffet with a hot bacon roll the best you can expect.
It's a shame really as I think a full catering service, properly targeted, could be successful even on today's railway with a plethora of alternative catering options. FGW clearly make Pullman Dining work for them and I'm sure that East Coast could have kept a restaurant service on a couple of high-peak London - Edinburgh services and turned a profit on it. But maybe I'm just a dinosaur
Well I must be a dinosaur too, because I fully agree with you,and well done FGW for reintroducing proper onboard dining (Damn shame about Traveling Chef though
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higthomas
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It's a shame really as I think a full catering service, properly targeted, could be successful even on today's railway with a plethora of alternative catering options. FGW clearly make Pullman Dining work for them and I'm sure that East Coast could have kept a restaurant service on a couple of high-peak London - Edinburgh services and turned a profit on it. But maybe I'm just a dinosaur
Well I thought the real reason they axed restaurants was to encourage people to upgrade their ticket. If that generates more profit than a restaurant, then that's what they'll do. Passenger satisfaction will rarely enter into it unless they feel it will boost profits, that's how capitalism works sadly.
(Although I do agree that it is a real shame they have gone, and being young, I have only ever experienced poor quality catering sadly. Travelling chef is the best I've had, and even now that's going.
I shall try the Pullman someday, but I will have to bring someone else with me to subsidise it at those prices.)
Tetchytyke
Veteran Member
Yeah, East Coast's justification of getting rid of the restaurant car was to beef up the First Class offering. In a time when first class travel was getting cut out of corporate budgets, they had to find a way of allowing people to justify the more expensive travel.
The trains that used to carry proper restaurant cars out of London still have a proper dinner served. It's alright, it's not as good as what went before, but it's also not fifty quid a head on top of the first class train fare.
The trains that used to carry proper restaurant cars out of London still have a proper dinner served. It's alright, it's not as good as what went before, but it's also not fifty quid a head on top of the first class train fare.
Bishopstone
Established Member
The other thing I'll mention is that the trolley does seem to do a number of passes on this route, so if you aren't feeling thirsty/hungry immediately, you are likely to have another opportunity in half an hour.
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