A swimming pool will attract additional sales at a hotel as people choose it over alternatives.
How many choose GWR over the alternatives because it has a buffet?
What are the realistic options? Drive? Coach?
I think this is one of the reasons why GWR are doing it, they have no competition. GNER said that on train catering loses a lot of money (that is going back some years) but on the Anglo Scottish route at least they had the air-craft to fight. Some people did select the train because they could get a full meal over the plane as they were using the dead time. I don't know why rail catering does so poorly and airline's treat it as a nice little earner. I used to travel a lot between Edinburgh and Leeds. The route had competition. Cross country which didn't have reliable catering and East Coast that did. I used to chose east coast so it did impact the choice.
Going back to Great Western and the majority of passengers.
Q. Is the journey long enough to real care?
A. London - Cardiff, Bristol probably not, London - Swansea, London - Exeter, London - Worcester and Gloucester (and beyond) possible, London - beyond Exeter yes (but that is a small % of passengers)
Q. What is the alternative?
A. At the moment none - all competing rail services have a similar offer to FGW. You are not going to select XC for a superior catering offer are you? (if the journey you want is possible with them). You could drive what is the bigger hardship traffic or no buffet? You could take the coach but it is not better than the train in terms of refreshments.
I will be interesting if Grand Union will attract people because of the service - but on the east coast the open access operator fight on price and direct trains rather than quality. In fact First groups direct service to Edinburgh will be no thrills.
Although I would be unhappy if LNER had decided they would remove the buffet, I would not stop using the train because if it. I don't understand why they can't make massive profits out of it. Sitting in coach H, very few people use it. But then London - Leeds = 2 hours. you normally have time to kill at kings cross to get what you want rather than the limited offer on the train. I used to use Great Western a lot, but never once used their buffet - the journey I used them for was too short. I may have felt differently if I was going beyond Bristol / Cardiff but they are the routes that make the company the money. Will see what Grand Union do (if they get approved and how the franchised operator reacts)