EMT Breakfast trains

[voyagerdude220]

Hi all,

I'm looking into possibly travelling with East Midlands Trains in First Class, on a Saturday train where they offer the full breakfast service. Possibly the 08:29 Sheffield to London St Pancras, but not sure.

Has anyone got any experience of breakfast on an East Midlands Trains service? Is the cooked breakfast good?

I'd be travelling on a discounted priv ticket (probably a single) and upgrading £12 weekend first- is that a problem for me wishing to eat onboard?

Does anyone know how busy these trains get- would I struggle getting a seat/upgrade, as I wouldn't have a reservation?

Thanks in advance.

 

[NottsPhil]

Yes, the EMT breakfast is good and freshly cooked on board. The Saturday offer isn't as good as weekdays - only the full or veggie available, no black pudding and no toast (although the egg is served on a toasted muffin). They will keep you topped up with regular runs of tea, coffee and juice. There is a menu on the EMT website.

Shouldn't be a problem getting the breakfast with the upgrade, there's nothing anywhere says you can't and its complimentary to all first ticket holders (although I've never tried myself).

I've only used the HST from Nottingham on a Saturday but I gather anecdotally that the ex-Sheffield services doing breakfast can be very busy (although they will probably be seven-car Meridians so three carriages of first). If you don't have an advance ticket you can purchase the upgrade at the ticket office before boarding, and assumably if you did that far enough ahead you could reserve a seat with it too. Of course, the HST actually starts at Leeds so you could join it at Sheffield (with the penalty of a longer journey time) and you should have no trouble getting a seat there.

This is still the only proper food service on a Saturday on the network, I don't know how profitable it is but the ex-Nottingham HST is usually well loaded and EMT's London Day Out ticket is good value. They used to only run two Saturday breakfast trains but introduced a third service a year or so ago so it must do well enough.

 

[voyagerdude220]

This is still the only proper food service on a Saturday on the network, I don't know how profitable it is but the ex-Nottingham HST is usually well loaded and EMT's London Day Out ticket is good value. They used to only run two Saturday breakfast trains but introduced a third service a year or so ago so it must do well enough.

Hi Notts Phil,

Thank you very much for your extremely helpful post. The fact it's the only proper breakfast service available on a Saturday is the very reason why I'm looking to make a special effort to use it.

I find it frustrating that VT don't offer a cooked breakfast on board at weekends, however, I'm aware that they've previously trialled it, so I'm guessing it isn't profitable for them to do so. Having said that, since VT have increased the price of weekend first class upgrades, (or notably decreased Preston to Birmingham from £15 to £10), I'd say that the increased VT upgrade prices justify a cooked breakfast, particularly given EMT charge £12.

 

[bb21]

It you are lucky, you may get away with simply paying the food supplement without the upgrade.