Yet there's no shelves on the underground
-
Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!
Virgin Trains can't serve coffee without bags?
- Thread starter thenorthern
- Start date
- Status
Yet there's no shelves on the underground
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R
RailUK Forums
xotGD
Established Member
- Joined
- 4 Feb 2017
- Messages
- 6,088
A colleague of mine got scalded when the person sat next to her on the train decided to try and hold his coffee cup by the lid, which promptly uncoupled itself from the cup, depositing the hot coffee in her lap.
Don't be complacent about hot drinks.
Don't be complacent about hot drinks.
Elecman
Established Member
Indeed I have a nasty scar on my forearm from where someone took thier cup out of the provided bag and then spilt the hot black tea all over my arm 5 seats from the buffet less than 6 months ago.
47271
Established Member
- Joined
- 28 Apr 2015
- Messages
- 2,983
I had a large and unbagged cup of coffee spilt over me on a Scotrail train a few years ago.
Luckily it got cooled by the table that it ran across and only made a mess rather than scalding. But I was put to several hours of inconvenience as a result because I had to go back home to change.
On the strength of my direct experience I really don't understand why you wouldn't want to mitigate the risk of injury - or mess - through spillage of hot liquid.
I understand even less why a few people on here have managed to get themselves so wound up against such a simple measure.
Luckily it got cooled by the table that it ran across and only made a mess rather than scalding. But I was put to several hours of inconvenience as a result because I had to go back home to change.
On the strength of my direct experience I really don't understand why you wouldn't want to mitigate the risk of injury - or mess - through spillage of hot liquid.
I understand even less why a few people on here have managed to get themselves so wound up against such a simple measure.
I'm going to assume that the bags cannot be reused once they have gone out to a customer. In the same way that you can't reuse the dish of mango chutney in an indian restaurant if a table of people doesn't appear to eat any of it. Potential contamination risk would be too high i suppose.
I feel very sorry for you, that's dreadful. Serving tea or coffee that is that hot has cost some firms dear in the USA. I don't understand why buffets do this. You don't need boiling water to make coffee or tea (since tea bags were invented), just hot enough to release the brown stuff into the water. If one must use steaming water, then it should rest until it is safe to be carried, covered with a lid, at least.
When I am served with coffee from the trolley on my SWT 159, I wait at least 10 minutes before I attempt to sip through that little hole in the top, and then it is often still too hot. Ridiculous.
Sacrilege! Coffee I agree, but tea needs to be pretty close to boiling. While you'll get a nice cup of brown liquid using hot water, it won't be proper tea.
The water in the trolley has to stay hot for several hours so if it starts off just hot enough then it wont stay hot enough for long.
Try a test one day whereby someone else makes tea bag tea (both ways) and prove me wrong. You won't. It's a fallacy,just like when they said tea leaves were better than tea bags. A load of 'shoe repairers'.
No, however, the way the HSTs are bouncing and suddenly lurching at points on the MML its certainly possible to spill it when pouring and drinking. I was thinking it the other day when I had my coffee to Nottingham.
Interesting you mention this. In my old office we had a hot water urn and a kettle. I could tell which someone had used when they made me a cuppa.
Edit: Thought I'd add that we had the urn first and I'd always used it and been happy enough, then a new person moved down to our floor and brought their kettle with them. Even then I kept using the urn because it was faster. It was only when someone made a cup for me using the kettle that I noticed how much better the tea tasted.
Last edited:
I'm not a tea fan but you're probably right. The water for coffee however should be 92 degrees. Even that could be nasty if spilled.
phil8715
Member
- Joined
- 19 Aug 2007
- Messages
- 266
Could they not use a cardboard cup holder?
61653 HTAFC
Veteran Member
Quite a few have said so, but I've managed to reach the age of 35 and have NEVER been given a paper bag with my hot drink on board a train, on ANY operators. I also managed to avoid injuring myself or any of my fellow passengers despite the lack of a magic paper pouch.
This. If buying more than one cup, a cardboard tray like those given out at McDonald's drive-thrus would be more convenient than a paper bag. They could even be re-used a few times once they've been collected by cleaning staff.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
I have been on trains where there was a tannoy call for usable bags to be returned to the buffet. Was some years back though.
Oh of course they DO. Cafes will use milk in jugs that has been out on tables all day, it happens everywhere, I'm not saying that there IS this rule for the paper bags i'm asking if anyone knows if it is like the rule IS about food / drink.
tsr
Established Member
I've seen those a couple of times on trains, albeit very rarely. I've visited onboard buffet/cafe/shop things on VTWC, VTEC, GWR and GA recently, so it may have been one of those. I really can't quite remember!
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
Given how common it is that food vessels are reused (milk, sugar, sauces...) I'm not convinced that the rule IS as you say. Do you have a reference to the relevant law?
I would suggest the bag is comparable to a tray (the food doesn't make contact with it in normal circumstance), and those certainly are re-used, FWIW.
I suggest that it's possible that the built-up deposits in the urn, as opposed to those or lack of them in the kettle had more to do with the taste than anything.
The only blind test that could resolve the issue is one where the same device is used, where the kettle is boiled and the water poured immediately into one cup and then the kettle allowed to rest for for, say, 20 -30 secs and then poured into the other cup, all this done by a friend unobserved by the tester. The friend then serves up the two cups, for comparison, having ensured that they were equally brown in colour. I suppose perhaps the second would require a brief zap in the microwave to ensure that the tester can't detect a temperature difference but........
I don't think this is OT, as I am convinced that nobody would detect a difference in taste. Clearly the second cup will be ready to drink before the first, which is only an advantage, I would have thought.
We have soft water so there wouldn't have been much in the way of deposits. Besides, it had been replaced not that long before as someone managed to break the lever off.
I expect you would agree with me, however, that if my blind tests were carried out and it turned out that there was no taste difference, then giving people flavoured boiling water to carry through a train is the height of irresponsibility. See our earlier poster who is still nursing their wounds.
bb21
Emeritus Moderator
- Joined
- 4 Feb 2010
- Messages
- 24,151
ScotRail used to do that, then Abellio took over, and the practice stopped.
You used to be able to get a reusable cup for £6, including six teas/coffees. When you use up your coupons, you can get 20p off each hot drink if you continue to reuse your cup, or get another reusable one for £6, with six drinks thrown in again.
At the time RailGourmet charged £2.20 for a stinky Starbucks coffee.
bb21
Emeritus Moderator
- Joined
- 4 Feb 2010
- Messages
- 24,151
Put down cup on barrier, insert ticket, retrieve ticket, replace ticket in wallet, pick up coffee, walk through barrier. They stay open for ages, I never bothered to work out how long but it's plenty of time to do that.
Not recommended, of course, at a very busy station, unless you like a brolly in the back!
You'll probably find that someone who does this would often see their ticket pop out right under the coffee, knocking it over.
I have seen this happen already, twice.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
You'll probably find that someone who does this would often see their ticket pop out right under the coffee, knocking it over.
I have seen this happen already, twice.
Really? The position of the slot seems pretty obvious!
I've still got four coupons around here somewhere.
QueensCurve
Established Member
- Joined
- 22 Dec 2014
- Messages
- 1,914
Risk averse culture. The fear is that you might slop it on someone and burn them and they get sued.
I do recall remonstrating with the virgin on train caterers some years back that it was not environment friendly but they were adamant I had to take the bag.
If the bag is clean and has no stains I tend to fold it back as it was originally and put it back on the pile at the next visit. Sometimes I keep it and use it on a future train.
Gone are the days when I used to burn myself with Maxpax "Coffee" carrying it through the train at the reverse curve just south of Winsford.
True. But, as has been demonstrated by several anecdotes posted to this thread, it is a genuine risk.
- Status