The Railway Menu

[HST Power]

There's been a lot of discussion lately about meals and value for money, particularly when travelling in First Class.

So, upon backing from two forum members, I decided to create a thread on not the meals and menus offered on trains today, but more about what you think makes a good train meal, whilst giving you value for money.

What would be included in the ideal breakfast/lunch/dinner and how much would you charge for it?

In a separate thread, I heard of one member paying £52.50 for a twenty five minute First Class journey, which included breakfast. Now as I stated in the thread, I thought that seemed rather extortionate, as you're paying £2.08 a minute (my maths skills are on par with a six year old so that sum is probably wrong) when £52 could probably buy you enough breakfast to last a fortnight, if not longer (that is if like me, you just eat toast in the mornings )

So the purpose of the thread is to list your ideal breakfast/lunch/dinner menu and state the price. The length of the train journey is up to you, I suppose it might be easier if you specify what meals would be served on different journey lengths.

I've got a few ideas done already, but my computer is encountering a few difficulties, so I'll be back with them later.

 

[Clip]

Id definatly have 2 different breakfast menus - one for mon - fri and then one for sat/sun.. The former being a full at seat cooked breakfast of the norm or even croissants/veggie alternative. Weekend first - Id rather go for the heated up sandwich/panini route.

Dinner is a hard one as it really is sandwich time but it would be good if you could get a fresh made sandwich/panini/your choice of bread from a nice selection on the menu.

Tea is also tough but traditional family meals served at seat on a proper plate from a selection with certain days being dedicated to certain foods just like at home. Again for weekends - Id go for a quick microwave option for people.

 

[thefab444]

Id definatly have 2 different breakfast menus - one for mon - fri and then one for sat/sun.. The former being a full at seat cooked breakfast of the norm or even croissants/veggie alternative. Weekend first - Id rather go for the heated up sandwich/panini route.

I don't know, there could be value in having a full cooked breakfast seven days a week; a lot of people, especially families, tend to only eat them at the weekend. Could be used as an incentive for more leisure passengers to upgrade to FC.

 

[Clip]

I don't know, there could be value in having a full cooked breakfast seven days a week; a lot of people, especially families, tend to only eat them at the weekend. Could be used as an incentive for more leisure passengers to upgrade to FC.

Interesting thought but im not sure whether people would see the value in an upgrade @£15 just for a full English.

 

[Greenback]

Abolish all complimentary food. Declassify the catering coach. Meals to be served at seat in FC.

Full breakfast served every day until 1400 at around £10, but plated not silver service.

Baguettes, warm paninis and sandwiches served all day.

Dinner menu of cottage pie, fishermans pie or shepherds pie, plus sausages and mash, fish and crushed potatoes or other British style meals. Cost £10.

Cold meat, egg, cheese or prawn salad plates also to be available.

 

[WestCoast]

Abolish all complimentary food. Declassify the catering coach. Meals to be served at seat in FC.

Full breakfast served every day until 1400 at around £10, but plated not silver service.

Baguettes, warm paninis and sandwiches served all day.

Dinner menu of cottage pie, fishermans pie or shepherds pie, plus sausages and mash, fish and crushed potatoes or other British style meals. Cost £10.

Cold meat, egg, cheese or prawn salad plates also to be available.

That's pretty much what I would do. I'd abolish First Class "complimentary" catering, leaving free tea/coffee/soft drinks/biscuits and have a restaurant car like THIS. Open to all, but first class passengers may also dine at their seat, served by a host. I would introduce a range of First Class tickets that included a meal, something akin to EMTs dining tickets but with a wider range.

I'd also introduce things such as curry, stews and posh fish and chips in addition to other British favourites to the menu in the evening.

 

[Minilad]

I have never really understood the obsession people have with a meal on a train.
Invariably they are not as good as having a proper meal in a restaurant and in most cases much more expensive.

 

[WestCoast]

I have never really understood the obsession people have with a meal on a train.
Invariably they are not as good as having a proper meal in a restaurant and in most cases much more expensive.

Admittedly, many journeys in this country are far too short for a full restaurant offering, but when you're on a train for more than 4 hours, it's something to do helping to pass the time and it can be a treat. If you're a business person it saves you time eating at your destination.

I am just going off what happens in continental Europe actually, where an InterCity train without a restaurant car (or proper bar) is like a mainline train without a driver! However, the food is actually quite decent (and not badly priced) on some of them.

 

[HST Power]

I'd scrap the catering coach and introduce at-seat service. Throughout the day, a small menu containing sandwiches, cakes, paninis and soft/hot drinks would be made available, free for First Class customers. One free drink and sandwich from the day menu for Standard Class passengers.

 

[WestCoast]

I'd scrap the catering coach and introduce at-seat service. Throughout the day, a small menu containing sandwiches, cakes, paninis and soft/hot drinks would be made available, free for First Class customers. One free drink and sandwich from the day menu for Standard Class passengers.

So basically a trolley? This would have to be a fantasy since "free" catering for standard class passengers isn't going to happen. British Airways is now serving a drink and a packet of nuts/seeds to economy passengers on 2-3 hour flights in the day.

To me the buffet should be more of a cafe/bar or on longer journeys a restaurant, or at the very least a shop. Preferably with seats or at least tables. A place to go in the train away from your seat, to chat/socialise with a proper hot drink (good coffee from a decent machine) or something stronger. Eurostar's cafe isn't bad if don't you mind standing up. On longer journeys, a place to have a proper snack/meal.

Maybe I'm getting too attached to continental European trains in this regard, I just don't find the atmosphere on long-distance UK trains that pleasant anymore (particularly long journeys on CrossCountry), due to lack of this feature. Why do you think station outlets are thriving? Of course, these ideas take away seating and that is the major problem here, but I just don't think trolleys are the answer to anything.

 

[Greenback]

I'd scrap the catering coach and introduce at-seat service. Throughout the day, a small menu containing sandwiches, cakes, paninis and soft/hot drinks would be made available, free for First Class customers. One free drink and sandwich from the day menu for Standard Class passengers.

I think that would end up like many airline catering operations - poor food and not really sufficient in quantity to remove the need for obtaining a proper meal at the end of the journey.

What is needed for lnger journeys is a superior offering at a reasonable price. This will give rail a competitive edge over coaches and aircraft, which are unable to provide the same quality.

 

[ryan125hst]

I have never eaten a meal on a train and have only had sandwiches and drinks from the buffet car. However, I liked the idea of the restaurant car that GNER used to have.

I think the best option would be to have a restaurant car for standard class passengers to use. First class passengers could be served food at there seat. They could offer complementary lighter food (For example sandwiches, crisps, biscuits ect.) as well as hot food, such as bacon rolls for example. They could also give them complementary tea and coffee as well as cold drinks. They should also make full three course meals available to them but they will have to pay for them. The food served in the standard class restaurant and first class at seat should be the same.

 

[SS4]

I would like to see an complimentary hot meal served to first class passengers. At breakfast this would be the full English, something on toast or continental.
For dinner some panini (I forget what it's singular is ), toast, fresh fruit, crisps and some old-fashioned sandwiches.
At tea fish and chips, jacket potato, a healthy variant thereof, some sandwiches from lunch, curry and chilli.
Evidently these would be rotated depending on the day of the week

I'd like to extend bacon and sausage (and egg if it's feasible) sandwiches to be available all day (microwaved ones outside of breakfast/first class) and to retain tea, coffee, juice and water all day.
Where safe and possible uneaten food from a previous meal should be offered (based on my own experience of getting the leftover bacon cob from breakfast on XC at about 1pm )
The alcoholic drinks I'd keep much the same as Virgin's current offering but try and add some 50ml bottles of Jack Daniel's.

I'd also declassify a first class carriage where loadings allow for it and change it into a dining coach with standard passengers being allowed to upgrade and receive said free meal on receipt of a fee (about £5-8)


disclaimer: I've no idea how divorced from reality this idea is!

 

[Greenback]

The big problem with complimentary food is that it's generally not taken so seriously by providers. The mentality of 'it's complimentary so it doesn't matter' is a hard one to shake off.

But one of the problems with providing proper, paid for, meals is that many TOC's have been deliberately running down the concept by downgrading menus, reducing availability and not stocking the trains properly. This drives away customers which allows the TOC to say that custom has fallen. It's an old trick but it's still surprisingly effective.

Also, for too long dining trains were stuck in a bit of a time warp, with traditional silver service, heavy, unhealthy food and old fashioned menus. I think that innovative catering, simpler meals at reasonable prices would attract people both on to rail and to the dining car, but I don't think it's ever been done effectively.

 

[All Line Rover]

I have never really understood the obsession people have with a meal on a train.
Invariably they are not as good as having a proper meal in a restaurant and in most cases much more expensive.

The Arriva Premier Service is better than MANY "stationary" restaurants!

 

[Clip]

All these ideas for extra services like standard class restaurant car and places to socialise are either going to lengthen the train to fit them in which in turn will cost too much or if thats not viable lessen the amount of seats already on the normal length services.

A trolley/buffet bar is more then adequate for standard class really.

 

[WestCoast]

All these ideas for extra services like standard class restaurant car and places to socialise are either going to lengthen the train to fit them in which in turn will cost too much or if thats not viable lessen the amount of seats already on the normal length services.

A trolley/buffet bar is more then adequate for standard class really.

This thread was about ideals really, but I still maintain a trolley is not good enough on journeys of 4 hours or more, since on CrossCountry it does a disappearing act and the refreshments are sub-par! Just my opinion on the matter though.

Another thing which keeps cropping up is vending machines, which work perfectly well in many other countries, but somehow they would be out of the question here. :?

 

[Clip]

Sorry - your right it was about ideals.. Ive not really done a long journey on XC since about 1987 so cant really comment though i must admit even sometimes on southeastern going to margate you dont see the trolley person after bromley south on the down or Faversham on the up.. They just park themselves down and thats it. mustnt want any bonus.
Though they really should have one on the HS1.

 

[185]

Three across the board levels of catering,

1. Intercity - A buffet at all times, a trolley daily 6am-8pm & 4 short-use tables used as restaurant where profitable.
2. Regional - Trolley daily, 6am-8pm, at seat service. Refrigerated plug-in rechargable trolleys. Sandwiches from independent sources, not RailGourmet.
3. None. Some station vending provided where required.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

I have never really understood the obsession people have with a meal on a train.
Invariably they are not as good as having a proper meal in a restaurant and in most cases much more expensive.

Good points! You're right.

I could make an impassioned speech about the joys of catering and being catered while the countryside is rushing past the skill of carrying 4 hot dishes through twists and turns, but really, its a lot more pragmatic than that.

I recognise many local people on-board travelling from Newcastle to London and back, mostly just by sight, but there's a significant number every weekday, whose alarm clock will be going off between 4:30 and 6:30am, whose work in London will probs be between 10am and 4pm or later, and getting home around 11pm.
Not much time available to eat properly at home at either end of the day!
The journey time on EC may only be 3 hours, but there's the additional travel at either end plus reasonable waiting times on the stations. The 2 journeys are such an obvious part of the day in which to eat, and if possible, to eat properly.
Now you're right that I could often find 45mins or so to pop into an Italian bistro in Soho or Fitzrovia before going to Kings Cross, but that won't always be possible and still involves keeping a careful and maybe anxious eye on the clock.
You'd also be right in suggesting that snacks or take-away food from shops on the concourse would be adequate - though for some of us (especially if making that or a similar trip 2 or 3 times a week) isn't really very enjoyable. (I rather dislike most 'snack' food and drink but realise that many people are very happy with those options).

So to answer your question XCDriver, my 'obsession' is partly a matter of taste but more significantly a way of fitting the eating into the most appropriate parts of a long day - when sitting on the train. A train with tables and a kitchen.

(You can adjust your journey times and origin stations to taste)

 

[Minilad]

Good points! You're right.

I could make an impassioned speech about the joys of catering and being catered while the countryside is rushing past the skill of carrying 4 hot dishes through twists and turns, but really, its a lot more pragmatic than that.

I recognise many local people on-board travelling from Newcastle to London and back, mostly just by sight, but there's a significant number every weekday, whose alarm clock will be going off between 4:30 and 6:30am, whose work in London will probs be between 10am and 4pm or later, and getting home around 11pm.
Not much time available to eat properly at home at either end of the day!
The journey time on EC may only be 3 hours, but there's the additional travel at either end plus reasonable waiting times on the stations. The 2 journeys are such an obvious part of the day in which to eat, and if possible, to eat properly.
Now you're right that I could often find 45mins or so to pop into an Italian bistro in Soho or Fitzrovia before going to Kings Cross, but that won't always be possible and still involves keeping a careful and maybe anxious eye on the clock.
You'd also be right in suggesting that snacks or take-away food from shops on the concourse would be adequate - though for some of us (especially if making that or a similar trip 2 or 3 times a week) isn't really very enjoyable. (I rather dislike most 'snack' food and drink but realise that many people are very happy with those options).

So to answer your question XCDriver, my 'obsession' is partly a matter of taste but more significantly a way of fitting the eating into the most appropriate parts of a long day - when sitting on the train. A train with tables and a kitchen.

(You can adjust your journey times and origin stations to taste)

Great rant. Only I wasn't really asking a question

 

[NightatLaira]

A Chinese all you can eat buffet!

No, I'm being serious. Having worked in one - these things make a fortune! The overheads are minimal, the choice is sensational, the profits are astronomic, it has everything you could want for railway dining. A win-win situation for all.

You'd get:

• Loads of Customers
• The opportunity to do 'bain marie' style 'hotel cooked breakfast' service in the mornings.
• Minimal Wasteage (almost nothing gets thrown away, if something's shifting slowly - you just top up the popular things less regularly until the less popular stuff goes)
• Rail Gourmet/someone else could make the stuff at key locations like London & Scotland Terminii, New Street, Piccadilly, York, etc. And transit the items hot from the food preparation areas direct to the trains in H&S approved 'meals on wheels' style plastic boxes.
• Everyone likes Chinese, it's a well know fact! (*joking*) Well, you could always put on a European dish to keep Greenback happy
• It makes people thirsty so they'll buy more drinks
• You can varigate the menu every so often by deleting less popular dishes - I reckon it would work well for the 'intercity operators' (EC, FGW, XC, VT, EMT, GC, HT, SR, etc)

I'm serious ok I'll get my coat...

 

[SS4]

A Chinese all you can eat buffet!

No, I'm being serious. Having worked in one - these things make a fortune! The overheads are minimal, the choice is sensational, the profits are astronomic, it has everything you could want for railway dining. A win-win situation for all.

You'd get:

• Loads of Customers
• The opportunity to do 'bain marie' style 'hotel cooked breakfast' service in the mornings.
• Minimal Wasteage (almost nothing gets thrown away, if something's shifting slowly - you just top up the popular things less regularly until the less popular stuff goes)
• Rail Gourmet could make the stuff at key locations like London & Scotland Terminii, New Street, Piccadilly, York, etc. And transit the items hot from the food preparations areas direct to the trains.
• Everyone likes Chinese, it's a well know fact! (*joking*) Well, you could always put on a European dish to keep Greenback happy
• It makes people thirsty so they'll buy more drinks
• You can varigate the menu every so often by deleting less popular dishes

\

I'm serious ok I'll get my coat...

You have a good point although I think space would be your biggest problem (and I'd go to Big Wok near Hurst St if I wanted Chinese _

 

[ryan125hst]

A couple of days ago I mentioned that the restaurant service that GNER used to offer looked good. The GNER Summer Menus can be found here: http://www.mediacentre.eastcoast.co.uk/imagelibrary/default.aspx?SubjectID=169

The food on offer looks quite good, although the prices are very high and the style is more upmarket restaurant (Is there a more formal name for this?). I think one of the main reasons for this is the fact that it is based on high quality restaurant food.

A good option, in my opinion, is to offer a more "pub food" based dining experience. I don't know whether it would work, or whether any TOC has tried it before, but the lower prices and the fact that food would be familiar to most people might attract more customers which would result in higher profits.

For example:
The train could offer, as suggested, a buffet at all times. It would serve tea, coffee, hot chocolate, cold drinks, sandwiches and snacks, such as crisps, biscuits and chocolate bars. It could also offer warm snacks such as toasties, bacon rolls, burgers ect. although this may be restricted to certain times of the day, or maybe during the week only.

A trolley service would be available, again as suggested, between 6am and 8pm serving hot and cold drinks, snacks and sandwiches.

For the restaurant car:
Breakfast could be available between 7am and 11pm and could offer Full English breakfasts, Egg and bacon rolls, cereals, fruit, croissants, yoghurt's ect.

Lunch would be available between 12pm and 2pm and dinner would be available between 5pm and 9pm. They would offer three courses if the customer wanted them.
In my opinion, food should be what British people know and eat:
Steak
Pork Chop
Lamb Hotpot
Chilli Con Carne
Lasagne
Cottage Pie
Steak and Kidney Pie
Half Roasted Chicken
Fish and chips.

They would be served with potato or chips, and veg or salad. Vegetarian options would also need to be available.

On Sundays, a roast dinner with a choice meats (Beef, Chicken, Pork, Turkey, Lamb) but other options could remain available.

A smaller version of this menu (With less to choose from) could be made available at seat to first class passengers (The above was for a restaurant car also available to standard class). They could also serve the buffet menu at seat to first class ticket holders.

Lunch would offer a similar menu to dinner time, but with slightly less choice. They could maybe rotate the menu ever week/ few weeks.

They could offer special nights as well, such as Chinese, Curry or a more upmarket restaurant style of food that most TOCs currently offer.

As I say, I don't know whether passengers would want this, but it is served in pubs all over the county. Surly, it would be cheaper to serve than the food they currently serve and the food can still be cooked fresh and taste very good. The lower price would also encourage more customers.

Do you think that this would work? Would there be a demand for this?

 

[sheff1]

I have never really understood the obsession people have with a meal on a train.
Invariably they are not as good as having a proper meal in a restaurant and in most cases much more expensive.

Clearly you have been travelling on the wrong trains, quality wise, and is is worth the extra to have a high quality meal on a train, meaning you then arrive at your destination refreshed with no need to trawl round an unfamiliar city to find a decent restaurant.

My ideal would be return to the system of a restaurant open to all (but with priority given to first class) with silver service breakfast, lunch & dinner. I accpet though that this will never happen in the current climate.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

A good option, in my opinion, is to offer a more "pub food" based dining experience.
. . . .
Lunch would be available between 12pm and 2pm and dinner would be available between 5pm and 9pm. They would offer three courses if the customer wanted them.
In my opinion, food should be what British people know and eat:
. . . .
Surly, it would be cheaper to serve than the food they currently serve and the food can still be cooked fresh and taste very good. The lower price would also encourage more customers.

Do you think that this would work? Would there be a demand for this?

Sorry, but I have to reply 'NO' on several grounds.
Firstly, the personal note. I'm unlikely to choose any of those you've listed, the only interesting item was lasagne (but if its the overcooked piping hot stewed mush 'pub food' variant, then no thanks). Shame you didn't list the 'vegetarian options' which might have had something I'd find appealing. Is there any research or costings attached to this proposal?

Secondly, the range. The wastage would be phenomenal. How many covers are you expecting to serve with all those mains? And how many choices are you going tolerate refusing because you've run-out-of-stock? How many of these different options are you going to be able to produce and serve in the one kitchen? Are you expecting simply to serve some options in the first half hour, followed by their desserts, then the next range of options in the second hour, etc (not good for a group/family wanting to eat together).
What stocking level and wastage % are you anticipating?
Don't really understand the point you're trying to make by "food should be what British people know". Does that include porridge, samosas, halal meat, sushi, dates?

Third, the times - 2hr service of lunch, 4hr service of dinner. On how many services at those times? Are crew just working one service per shift, or two?
Where and when will they board and where and when will all that the stock be loaded and waste removed? How many crew?

Fourth. The menu. Even if you cut the menu down to only a third of that list, then added the unspecified "the vegetarian options", how many of these can realistically be prepped, cooked and served in the available time (say 20 mins pre-journey then travel time)? Are any of them actually pre-cooked and re-heated (many of those dishes as familiar in pubs as just that, hence the uniform and stogy consistency and often compensated with artificial flavourings)? All those dishes at once plus how many vegetables, hot starters and hot desserts? In how many ovens and burners per kitchen?

I'm sorry to tell you that not only do I not find the menu appealling but I can see it as being, either, very expensive to deliver, or else there's nothing fresh about it and its all just one-time re-heat dishes made the night before. Might work in a hospital or canteen (or a pub!), but not on trains.

How about trying the sums again with a variety of 0 covers, 6 covers, 20 covers and 40 covers (each ordering 0.5 starter, 1 main and 0.5 dessert on avg.) and see what you'd have to charge per passenger and how many you'd dissapoint.

Surely if you want to reduce costs then you reduce the range, extend the service to cover a full shift, reduce the number of personnel, reduce the equipment required?
Then to increase income, you increase value by enhancing quality, maintaining speed of prepping and promote 2 or 3 sittings per journey (I think that last one might be the only one we agree on!)

My ideal would be return to the system of a restaurant open to all (but with priority given to first class) with silver service breakfast, lunch & dinner.

Me too!

What would be included in the ideal breakfast/lunch/dinner and how much would you charge for it?

£50 if that was on top of a STD class tix and included the extra space of First Class, service, half a bottle of half-decent wine and a 3 course meal of fresh ingredients (and not re-heated pub dishes!).
Less for a breakfast - but passengers' range of choices for breakfasts vary widely. Say £20 for a 'continental style' (also fresh) or simple egg dish; and more for a larger cooked meal; again, assuming that these are suppliment charges over the STD fare. Perhaps 60% of those prices if they are for the meals while holding a 1st ticket.

 

[Butts]

Perhaps a restaurant car could be franchised and given to an individual to see what they could come up with.

You could have a "Greasy Spoon" version in 2nd Class and a "Silver Service " one in 1st Class.

The possibilities are endless !!!

 

[DaveNewcastle]

Perhaps a restaurant car could be franchised and given to an individual to see what they could come up with.

I got quite far in devloping a business plan for exactly that - until I started to factor in the access charges imposed by the TOCs at the stations and the on-board restaurant and kitchen. These seemed to make it impossible.

 

[LE Greys]

Hmm, well, looking at the options above and comparing with the typical East Coast menu of today, I certainly wouldn't choose the modern option. I couldn't find an East Coast link, but this was the GNER at-seat menu. Look at the sandwiches on Page 5, and ask yourself what someone would do if they just wanted something plain. It's all complicated and every single one has loads of different fillings in one sandwich. I can't see a single combination I liked. The snacks were better, in fact I liked most of them. The lunchtime specials on Page 8 succeeded in ruining a steak sandwich by putting onions in it and ruining a bacon sandwich by adding salad. If I want odd things in a sandwich, I'll ask for them.

First thing I'd do, incidentally, is pull out all microwaves and throw them away. They are the bane of modern cooking, usually producing something soggy and inedible. The good thing about heat ovens is that they dry the food out as it cooks. That's what creates crisp pastry on a sausage roll. However, the intention is to offer most food cold.

Then I'd start on the sandwiches, by refining them down to something more edible. Go for the best quality bread I can afford. Keep the hot bacon option, although this would need an actual griddle so that you can have your bacon crispy (the way I like it). I'd cut down on the more complicated options, and have ham on its own, jam on its own (flavours being whatever is cheapest at the time) cheese and pickle with nothing else and perhaps a few of the fancier things as well. Make sure that at least 50% of the options have no mayonnaise. Other things that might appear would be sausage rolls and pork pies. Also offer the usual stuff, crisps, biscuits, some fresh fruit and so on. With the drinks, reduce the size of hot drinks to something resembling a household mug, but halve the prices. Why on Earth do people want a pint of tea? Don't serve alcohol before 4 p.m., but keep the selection roughly the same as it is now.

A limited number of trains would have full restaurant service during the day. These would all have titles, should have at least four hours between end points. On the ECML, this gives us the Flying Scotsman, restored to 10:00 Talisman, Northern Lights, Queen of Scots, now the four-hour flyer Highland Chieftain and so on. This would be a different main course for each day of the week (fish on Friday, Sunday roast, etc) but with a very few options, say one with meat/fish and one without. Exactly what to choose I don't know, but I'd advise looking to the LNER Coronation menu for inspiration. This would include a dessert option, plus the usual drinks and other things. There would be no a la carte, just whatever happens to be on offer on that one day (which is how the LNER did it, incidentally).

Station catering would get a different treatment. All large stations under East Coast management would have one of their major outlets replaced by a station cafe, serving things more along the egg and chips line than pub food. This would be set up so as to attract non-travellers as well, with competitive pricing. There used to be a place at Aberdeen Bus Station before the rebuild that did egg and chips with tea for £3:30, and I believe there is something similar at Inverness. Nice and convenient, but involves leaving the station.

Finally, all brands would disappear in favour of East Coast logos.

 

[Butts]

Are there any large stations with a Wetherspoons in ???
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I got quite far in devloping a business plan for exactly that - until I started to factor in the access charges imposed by the TOCs at the stations and the on-board restaurant and kitchen. These seemed to make it impossible.

I thought the TOC might take care of that pleased to get rid of the hassle and benefit from the improved catering operation.