Evening meal on West Midlands services?

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Right, so Virgin Trains offers an Evening Meal service and an Evening Meal West Midlands service in First Class. The former includes hot meals, the latter does not. They are both weekday menus.

So, does this mean if travelling Birmingham to London first, I only get the West Midlands option? Because that is just sandwiches! I'm booking first class to get the hot meal they advertise on weekdays!

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Thanks in advance!

 

[221129]

Right, so Virgin Trains offers an Evening Meal service and an Evening Meal West Midlands service in First Class. The former includes hot meals, the latter does not. They are both weekday menus.

So, does this mean if travelling Birmingham to London first, I only get the West Midlands option? Because that is just sandwiches! I'm booking first class to get the hot meal they advertise on weekdays!

That's exactly what it means... Birmingham is in the West Midlands...

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

That's exactly what it means... Birmingham is in the West Midlands...

What if the train comes from Scotland?

 

[northwichcat]

The lighter meal is because you're making a shorter journey. It's like British Airways offering less food on a flight to Greece than on one to America.

 

[jopsuk]

Looking at the Timetables it appears that routes A & B (the routes to and via Birmingham) never feature the blue coloured "Evening Meal served to 1st Class Customers" used on routes via the Trent Valley- I'd take this to mean that at no point on those services do you get the full evening meal service (even if, for some odd reason, you're doing London-Scotland on them). Full evening meal seems to be available on selected services across routes C-F.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I think that is correct.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Looking at the Timetables it appears that routes A & B (the routes to and via Birmingham) never feature the blue coloured "Evening Meal served to 1st Class Customers" used on routes via the Trent Valley- I'd take this to mean that at no point on those services do you get the full evening meal service (even if, for some odd reason, you're doing London-Scotland on them). Full evening meal seems to be available on selected services across routes C-F.

OK thanks. Can you give me an example of what will be on offer on a through service from Scotland (boarding at B New St.)?

Oh, and has someone changed the name of this thread? I'm pretty sure I called it something else...

 

[Chrism20]

What if the train comes from Scotland?

Not sure about the ex Glasgow services but the two from Edinburgh which pass through New Street (17:10 & 19:10 departures from NS) in the evening I'm pretty sure only the later one has the evening West Midlands service, the earlier one is the afternoon service.

Northbound the 16:43 Edinburgh has afternoon service, I'd imagine the Glasgow an hour later has the evening offer.

Before they changed the 1643 to a single voyager north of New Street the booking engine threw up an anomaly where you could get the 1730 Glasgow direct and change at Preston into the 1643 ex Euston for a very attractive advance fare. That meant you got the proper dinner service on the Glasgow and still arrived in Edinburgh at the same time. Sadly when it switched to a single voyager the fare seems to have gone.

The West Midlands does not get the full evening meal service similar to Manchester, Glasgow, Liverpool etc.

 

[cactustwirly]

I would advise you to save your money and get something to eat in Birmingham instead.

 

[Starmill]

There used to be the offer of an evening meal northbound from Birmingham on a couple of services to Glasow and Edinburgh. There no longer is.

The last through service to Edinburgh is at 1815 though, and Glasgow Central, Carlisle and Preston an hour later, so it does not really seem they are very interested in this market.

 

[roversfan2001]

I'm booking first class to get the hot meal they advertise on weekdays!

The hot meal is only on a limited amount of services, usually coming from London in the evening peak, not going into London.

 

[yorkie]

OK thanks. Can you give me an example of what will be on offer on a through service from Scotland (boarding at B New St.)?

https://www.virgintrains.co.uk/experience/first-class/menu
Vegetable biryani with raita, Ham hock & piccalilli sandwich or chicken madras wrap (only one choice of sandwich/wrap will be available on each journey).

It will be a very small portion; it is not compatible with the word "meal". If you want something substantial to eat on the train, you'll need to buy something at Birmingham to bring on board. There are a wide range of suitable food outlets at, or near, New Street.

You'd be better off taking a loco hauled train out of Moor Street and using the money saved for other things, such as food bought in Birmingham.

Oh, and has someone changed the name of this thread? I'm pretty sure I called it something else...

Our forum rules require thread titles to be descriptive. Don't worry about it this time, but please bear this in mind for future reference.

 

[Chrism20]

The hot meal is only on a limited amount of services, usually coming from London in the evening peak, not going into London.

There are actually quite a few southbound That have the hot meal service in the evenings.

There are

6 from New St (simplified West Midlands menu)
6 from Manchester
1 from Chester
2 from Glasgow which start the dinner service at Preston going south
3 from Glasgow

Virgin East Coast have no southbound evening meal trains but Virgin West Coast have plenty.

 

[Blindtraveler]

I am somewhat saddened about the removal of the evening meal Northbound from Birmingham, used it a good few times and did notice back in May it had gone, along with the 17:30x EUS changing further North for the Voyager which I had only ever done once but was nice to get both dinner and a late night snack on the run North.