Chiltern to remove on-board catering..

[sheff1]

Fairly sure Newcastle is the only airport Greggs, and it's landside. I've never seen a Spar in an airport, including Birmingham so god knows where it's hiding.

Greggs are at Manchester (again landside), as are Spar. Difficult to miss the Spar at Birmingham I would have thought, but obviously not.

 

[takno]

Greggs are at Manchester (again landside), as are Spar. Difficult to miss the Spar at Birmingham I would have thought, but obviously not.

To be honest I've rarely had much use for Birmingham - it's been years since I lived close enough for it to be my local airport, and it hasn't got enough international departures to use it over any of the closer ones. Domestically it tends to be as quick to get the train most places, in spite of the incredibly optimistic flybe branding. On the couple of occasions I have used it I've rushed through landside desperately hoping that airside was a bit less grim.

Noticed at Edinburgh today that the meal deals airside at Superdrug (which has effectively replaced Boots) are pretty reasonable.

Anyway, back to Chiltern's invisible and soon to be non-existent catering trollies...

 

[deltic]

travelling on chiltern today London - Birmingham. Trolley made one run through train not long after departure from London. Then trolley and host sat in my coach for rest of journey without moving or even advertising it was available if people wanted to walk through to where it was for over 90mins.

 

[najaB]

travelling on chiltern today London - Birmingham...

Can you blame them for not trying if they've been told that their posts are going?

 

[swt class 450]

Has an exact date been announced yet when Chiltern Railways are getting rid of their on board catering?

 

[boxy321]

Chiltern haven't helped themselves on the loco hauled stock. Putting the buffet/open first at the London end doesn't help, few people four or five coaches back will bother to make the pilgrimage. I'm sure it would do better in the middle of the train. And it would help if they put them back to the original Mk3 buffet layout, and/or provided an attractive standing area. That grim hatchway with a view into the galley, and no view of the stock on offer must be the least attractive arrangement possible.

When is the shop/buffet open and what do they sell now? My experience is that it's always closed, at least until Solihull.

Didn't the Business Zone supplied a bacon sandwich or something?

What do the 168 provide now? Is it a trolley or nothing at all?
-----------------------------------------
Just seen above... I've never seen a trolley even down to Leamington in 10 months.

 

[IKB]

Chiltern haven't helped themselves on the loco hauled stock. Putting the buffet/open first at the London end doesn't help, few people four or five coaches back will bother to make the pilgrimage. I'm sure it would do better in the middle of the train. And it would help if they put them back to the original Mk3 buffet layout, and/or provided an attractive standing area. That grim hatchway with a view into the galley, and no view of the stock on offer must be the least attractive arrangement possible.

First class at the London end with the buffet sandwiched (no pun intended) between first and standard is pretty much the layout for every Intercity operator. If people can't be bothered to walk four coaches then they have issues (not including mobility needs, obviously).

 

[Clip]

Can you blame them for not trying if they've been told that their posts are going?

Trouble is ive experienced this before on Chiltern and it was a regular thing on Southeastern on the Chatham mainline and this is the problem with a trolley service when the staff dont seem to care - no money = no job.

 

[CyrusWuff]

First class at the London end with the buffet sandwiched (no pun intended) between first and standard is pretty much the layout for every Intercity operator.

Except Virgin West Coast, who specified the Pendolinos with the "Shop" in the middle of Standard, which is a long walk if you're unfortunate enough to be travelling on a service with no First Class Host! (Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt)

 

[boxy321]

Was at the loco end of the Marylebone train this afternoon and a buffet/shop announcement was made as we left Moor St. The poor lady was inaudible over the sound of the 68 as the volume was turned right down. I heard the word coffee at one point.

Seems she was doing the passenger announcements too.

 

[Mordac]

Has this change already been brought in? If not, is there a date for it?

 

[Bletchleyite]

First class at the London end with the buffet sandwiched (no pun intended) between first and standard is pretty much the layout for every Intercity operator. If people can't be bothered to walk four coaches then they have issues (not including mobility needs, obviously).

Or a laptop, a tablet, a phone etc. Leaving your seat is more of a faff than it used to be. To that end these days I would prefer at-seat service. But it needs to be delivered with consistency.

 

[BTU]

I think it's a shame the catering cart is going, what's wrong with just doing something for the passengers for a change? As long as it doesn't lose money then why not leave it? People often buy stuff I personally don't tend to use it but other people do and it's a nice service for people to have. Soon enough they will remove the seats and we will all have to sit on the floor in a bid to save fuel and the planet just because someone has decided it's to costly to clean them every now and then.

 

[dk1]

Travelling on the 14:57 Norwich-Liverpool the other week & the trolley boarded as usual at Peterborough at the front passing through shortly after departure & did reasonable business. Several more passengers boarded at Grantham & after 10 or so minutes she came back towards the front not stopping & when the chap behind me called her she said I'm finished when I get to Nottingham so not selling anything else now. I couldn't work that one out at all

 

[Jonfun]

Probably needed time to cash up/stockcheck before she got off?

 

[dk1]

Probably needed time to cash up/stockcheck before she got off?

I must disagree with that & it's only a trolley after all. They normally pass through directly after Grantham but this was 10 minutes later. Think she was having a bad hair day.

 

[Clip]

I think it's a shame the catering cart is going, what's wrong with just doing something for the passengers for a change? As long as it doesn't lose money then why not leave it?.

This is probably the exact reason why theyre stopping it - due to losing money.

You probably have to clear about £120 per shift just in staff costs first, then your stock needs to be bought, then you need storage - child or just a cold store depending on what you serve but will need a hot water source for both serving and cleaning, then you need to deal with the cash handling too - even if it does go through a booking office - all these costs soon start to add up and if they are not making the money then you have to subsidise it from other parts of the business and that's when you realise that whilst its nice to provide a service you cant do it for nothing.

 

[OneTrackMind]

Just to bring this thread up to speed, it would appear 20th May will be the final day for catering across all services inc. Mainline.

I believe the catering staff themselves are not overly happy with how the whole situation has been handled...

 

[Merseysider]

Just to bring this thread up to speed, it would appear 20th May will be the final day for catering across all services inc. Mainline.

I believe the catering staff themselves are not overly happy with how the whole situation has been handled...

That is a real shame. I've purchased from Chiltern onboard and always found their staff to be wonderful.

 

[3141]

I think the real issue is that trolley catering services are not reliable. Being served at-seat is convenient, but having to wait for it is not. I regularly travel Newcastle-Leeds on XC and often either don't see the trolley at all or see it arrive ten minutes before I'm due to get off. So even though I'd have bought a tea an hour ago, I don't buy one now. It's the same on VTEC with their trolley, the number of times it's come through at Peterborough on a Newcastle-London journey is daft, but at least they have the buffet counter option. This is where serving on a plane is significantly easier: on most short-haul flights there's at most 15 rows of people to serve from one trolley, so it's easy to get to everyone fairly quickly.

Those are very much my views. When I get to Waterloo for a train and want some food, I can buy something from the many outlets on the station or I can get something from the trolley on the train. I feel I ought to buy from the trolley to help keep it profitable, but I know from experience that it may not have reached my seat by the time I'm getting off 55 minutes down the line, or it may not have much choice left on it when it does arrive. If the train is at all crowded it may not be able to start its trip down the train till after Woking. So provided I have enough time I'm likely to buy from a station outlet.

Of course the situation is different if you're joining the train at an intermediate station, where there may be no outlet or only one. In that case the trolley may be more attractive - but partway down the line may have less stock left on it.

 

[Blindtraveler]

Will the micro buffets on mainline MK3s be stripped and used for seating? I am sad about this as always found there catering very good.

 

[STKKK46]

Shame about the Chiltern buffets. Great lay out in my view, only issue I see though is without announcements people are not going to know they are there!!!

On a side note I used to travel Dorridge to Leamington daily c2009/10 and in the morning a trolley would come through. It seemed that anyone joining at Birmingham or Solihull were offered a breakfast bap, which was then phoned through to and then microwaved/cooked at Warwick Parkway, given to the catering staff on the platform and then sold to those who wanted one!
Now that's service and I can tell you it wasn't as if it was the odd one or two, there were a fair few.

 

[sheff1]

Nothing to do with Chiltern - but most of the posts aren't anyway

Travelling on a very busy, but not overcrowded, TPE to Manchester the other day an announcement was made leaving Dore that the trolley would not be coming down the train and anyone wanting refreshments should go to the front of the train where the trolley was.

I was in the front carriage and not one person came through. However, after about 15/20 mins the trolley attendant (presumably fed up with the lack of custom) took a walk through the carriage, checked out the second carriage and then returned and started a trolley service. In the standard half of the first carriage at least 6 people bought something, but clearly none of them was willing to walk a few yards forward after the original announcement.

I assume more refreshments were sold further down the train, yet a less proactive attendant would have sold precisely nothing on the journey.

 

[trainophile]

Nothing to do with Chiltern - but most of the posts aren't anyway

Travelling on a very busy, but not overcrowded, TPE to Manchester the other day an announcement was made leaving Dore that the trolley would not be coming down the train and anyone wanting refreshments should go to the front of the train where the trolley was.

I was in the front carriage and not one person came through. However, after about 15/20 mins the trolley attendant (presumably fed up with the lack of custom) took a walk through the carriage, checked out the second carriage and then returned and started a trolley service. In the standard half of the first carriage at least 6 people bought something, but clearly none of them was willing to walk a few yards forward after the original announcement.

I assume more refreshments were sold further down the train, yet a less proactive attendant would have sold precisely nothing on the journey.

I thought the point of a trolley was to take it to the customers, not the other way round. Unless the train was so packed that this wasn't possible, which you say it wasn't, I would say the attendant was shirking their duties.

 

[GW43125]

What actually is the current catering arrangement on the locohauled sets? I'm on one in two weeks and would like to know if it's worth getting something before I get on the train.

 

[boxy321]

I travel between London and Birmingham around 1/2 times a month by Chiltern and rarely see more than a dozen people buy from Mainline buffet and the trolley service is not used that much on the turbos I travel on either.

Travelling by Virgin also dont see their shop used that much either. As others have said far greater choice at stations and limited offer on board means train catering is a dying service.

What happened to Virgin's trial of allowing you to order Pizzas and picking them up on route?

How do you actually get to coach C? There's normally several walls of suitcases and students in the way in the vestibules. I have seen the Chiltern trolley once in a year of train commuting, and she was stood to the side so we could get off.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Will the micro buffets on mainline MK3s be stripped and used for seating?

Doubt it, they are proper RMBs and not retrofits, and so have small, high windows in the buffet section. Nobody would pay extra to sit there.

 

[ainsworth74]

Doubt it, they are proper RMBs and not retrofits, and so have small, high windows in the buffet section. Nobody would pay extra to sit there.

Though considering the wide range of buffet layouts that now exist it seems that making the widows larger is not a particularly onerous task. GWR have at least three on their HSTs for example! CrossCountry have a different layout again as do VTEC from EMT.

 

[Bletchleyite]

They didn't make the windows larger, they converted seated MK3s into buffet cars and dumped the actual buffet cars.

 

[nat67]

I don't think its chiltern's sort of thing to do