Wow what a change from up to the 70's (pre HST) Kitchen car, Restaurant car, Buffet car, as well as first & second class cars added to all Penzance trains at Plymouth! No problem coupling/ uncoupling them, maybe very slight jolt on coupling sometimes!
HST - First Gwr later made proper meals for first class only.
Imo it is too long a journey without a meal being available.
Should be at least a 9 car train with some form of catering for all.
Ah yes, the longstanding practice of portion working west of Plymouth and the removal of/addition of the buffet-restaurant car and several passenger coaches from/to the formations of London trains there. I wonder why they used to do that... never mind that trains then took even longer to get to Penzance.
Pullman dining on FGW/GWR has never been for first class only - it is subject to availability of seats. Unless you have a first class ticket you are probably going to be turned away on the busy early evening pair of trains out of Paddington, but are more likely than not to get a Pullman meal on most of the other services if you want one while travelling standard class.
It's a strange one, they didn't have catering on the 27 push-pulls but introduced it at some point with the 47 push-pulls.
Considering how short a journey it is/was it must've been deemed as being able to make money.
Making money is not the point of much on-train catering provision. It is seen as part of the service offer on board. Breaking even or minimising losses is usually the best you can hope for and plenty of TOCs have pulled the plug even on trolleys in recent years.
What am I expecting? Well many travellers on this route have rather higher expectations than a ginsters pasty from pumpkin. People would like the likes of M&S or the odd small supermarket like Sainsbury's. It's easy to criticise and tell us to make do if you don't actually use the route regularly but people's expectations have moved on when it comes to food and they expect quality and choice . Choice is certainly not something you get at many stations down here when compared with stations up country.
Anyone with high expectations when it comes to food choices will have been sorely disappointed visiting just about any on-train buffet/shop, whether on GWR, Virgin, East Coast or anywhere else, for a long time now.
Some sandwiches, a couple of things that can be microwaved, crisps, cakes and sweets... which is not a lot different to what you can get from the trolley on a morning peak IET where bacon rolls have been provided in the catering stores to be bunged in the microwave.
Travelling Chef - an attempt to offer something between a basic buffet and a Pullman meal - died a death on FGW because it lost lots of money.