Preston-Glasgow Thursday 1741 (1530 off EUS) in first class (as a treat for me and my wife): advertised in the printed and pdf timetables as "hot..evening meal served" (from PRE northwards).
We have both previously travelled first, mainly from London, but I have also used an evening service from Glasgow, so were expecting a reasonable (if not huge) meal. As it was we were left hungry and disappointed.
The hot offer was a beef pasty (tolerable for a snack) or toasted sandwich (not tested); there were also the usual snacks but no dessert. "We don't do an evening meal on this train" said the staff member when I queried this, without any apology.
Before I complain politely to Virgin, would any other diners care to comment
- has the evening meal offer generally been downgraded?
- is the offer north of Preston routinely different from standard?
To give the full picture of the catering offer
- sandwiches were offered after Carlisle but no hot food (to be fair, it may be that no-one joined at Oxenholme or Carlisle); by then we didn't really fancy them.
- drinks service was excellent (except that coffee was offered 2 minutes after the drinks trolley leaving Carlisle and before seconds of food)
Other poor impressions
- our reserved seats had been occupied up to Preston but staff had not cleared the tables let alone reset them
- catering staff walked through First Class soon after Motherwell, obviously to be first off the train
- ticket check perfunctory in the extreme (by the time we'd heard the guy he was into coach K...)
