GWR 1st catering now weekdays (& before 7:30pm) only, and not for Paddington Oxford customers

[richw]

There’s an Important line you’ve missed. Starting their journey between 0600-1930. Therefore if I start my journey at 1925 I should expect catering on that journey

 

[D1537]

But how much would the standard fare have been when you booked your first class tickets? You're not comparing like for like.

Well since I only booked it last Tuesday, probably not a lot.

But since you ask, I've just gone on the LNER app and looked at the prices for a week later than we're actually going, to replicate what I was booking last Tuesday.

They're exactly the same price - £68.10 each way standard, £91.60 each way FC.

If you want to try it yourself, the dates we're going are 21st October out, 28th return.
The one I just quoted is 28th October out, 4th November return.

The trains are the 1418 PBO-EDB and 1000 EDB-PBO.

 

[AlterEgo]

Well since I only booked it last Tuesday, probably not a lot.

But since you ask, I've just gone on the LNER app and looked at the prices for a week later than we're actually going, to replicate what I was booking last Tuesday.

They're exactly the same price - £68.10 each way standard, £91.60 each way FC.

If you want to try it yourself, the dates we're going are 21st October out, 28th return.
The one I just quoted is 28th October out, 4th November return.

The trains are the 1418 PBO-EDB and 1000 EDB-PBO.

That’s a reasonable price for the upgrade, and one I’d take if I had to make that journey, but it doesn’t take into account that the standard fare isn’t great value to begin with.

 

[D1537]

That’s a reasonable price for the upgrade, and one I’d take if I had to make that journey, but it doesn’t take into account that the standard fare isn’t great value to begin with.

I don't think £68 per person (with railcard admittedly) for a 635 mile return journey is that bad to be honest. We use Peterborough as it's our closest ECML station - if we used Nuneaton and Avanti the prices are stupidly higher.

More to the point, if we drove it would be £80 in fuel plus parking, not to mention the hassle of actually driving 300+ miles in a day.

 

[185143]

last time I traveled 1st with GWR (back in february) they had just removed diet coke from the first class offerings, does anyone know if it has been reinstated? when I emailed them they said they were looking into it. No good for my diabetic girlfriend who is lumped with just water if she doesn't want anything hot

I had diet coke last week.

 

[AlterEgo]

I don't think £68 per person (with railcard admittedly) for a 635 mile return journey is that bad to be honest. We use Peterborough as it's our closest ECML station - if we used Nuneaton and Avanti the prices are stupidly higher.

More to the point, if we drove it would be £80 in fuel plus parking, not to mention the hassle of actually driving 300+ miles in a day.

I thought those were one way fares per person!

 

[KGX]

That really is pitiful. If they're going to the effort of an on board chef, why such dolly sized portions?

That's not a chef dish. That's a hot option from the Dish menu.

Unfortunately, I find LNER standards are not very consistent and it's very dependent on the chef/crew how the food is served/presented. Good crews will plate up the salad for example. Average crews just hand over the plastic tub - which is not very first class. I've seen the Sausage roll option plated up into a much more substantial option by slicing and serving with crisps on the plate. Props to that chef. It can really make a difference.

Another negative is that you get stuck with the same menu for months on end. The current main dish on dine trains is not very nice, but they only change the menu a few times a year. Not good for regular travellers.

Feel like you can't really moan or complain when you see the situation on GWR though. Be grateful for what we get, I guess.

But how much would the standard fare have been when you booked your first class tickets? You're not comparing like for like. A slightly better seat and a couple of sarnies or tiny bowl of stew or whatever aren't worth the significant uplift in price IMO.

Try sitting in standard for hours with some lovely individual playing music at full blast whilst the crew just walk past. It's worth paying for first to avoid such people.

 

[D1537]

I thought those were one way fares per person!

Haha, sorry, that's partly my fault as I didn't say "return" in my original post where I specified two people, and in the second I specified return but not for two people. Yes, the prices quoted are one way for two people with a railcard, and they're the same both ways, which of course works out as £68 return per person standard and £91 FC.

 

[JamieL]

Try sitting in standard for hours with some lovely individual playing music at full blast whilst the crew just walk past. It's worth paying for first to avoid such people.

Agree, this is the benefit of First Class (and even then its only mitigation as fare dodgers in First are fairly common on the GWR services I tend to use).

Best solution to the food issue on any Service is to bring your own - I always do this these days as you never know if the train will be declassified. I suffered this on a GLA-EUS Avanti once and was left without food or drink for the whole journey as I relied upon the First class service. Never again! M&S or Tesco before any journey these days!

On GWR specifically, I don't think this 1930 service end policy is new - I remember seeing it 12 months plus ago when checking their website. However, almost every out of hours service I have been on has still had the First class trolley come through. IMHO GWR are a pretty good TOC - I can't fault their Bristol/Paddington service anyway.

 

[Fuzzytop]

That's not a chef dish. That's a hot option from the Dish menu.

Unfortunately, I find LNER standards are not very consistent and it's very dependent on the chef/crew how the food is served/presented.

Another negative is that you get stuck with the same menu for months on end.

Feel like you can't really moan or complain when you see the situation on GWR though.

Second all of this.

At the risk of going off-topic, I was served this lovely breakfast on LNER by way of comparison. It is a certainty that many aspects of the LNER first class offer are weaker than years gone by, but LNER at its worst is far better than GWR at its best. I too love fruit cake, but I'd rather chow down on this than the selection of prepackaged goodies doled out to @TT-ONR-NRN as a goodwill gesture.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Second all of this.

At the risk of going off-topic, I was served this lovely breakfast on LNER by way of comparison. It is a certainty that many aspects of the LNER first class offer are weaker than years gone by, but LNER at its worst is far better than GWR at its best. I too love fruit cake, but I'd rather chow down on this than the selection of prepackaged goodies doled out to @TT-ONR-NRN as a goodwill gesture.

That's lovely. You must have been going towards London though, as out of London, it'll be a bacon roll.

 

[railfan99]

But how much would the standard fare have been when you booked your first class tickets? You're not comparing like for like. A slightly better seat and a couple of sarnies or tiny bowl of stew or whatever aren't worth the significant uplift in price IMO.

Worldwide, though, without sounding a 'snob', doesn't first class often mean a quieter environment and no louts/bogans/miscreants?

It's a non-advertised benefit.

 

[yorksrob]

EMR have cut back their first class service - all the First Class lounges have been closed down and no complimentary refreshments on Sundays. The chef cooked breakfasts are gone and replaced by sandwiches, snack bars and pastries. The rest of day offer is improved in terms of complimentary as sandwiches are included (before it was just tea/coffee/juice/water and biscuits/cakes), however there is no longer a paid for menu of hot food.

First class aside, a lot of long distance train operators seem to be cutting on board service - in some cases this may be just staff shortages at Rail Gourmet of course - however others may be an economy measure, which is sad as to me the on board facilities on a train is a reason to pay more to travel by train compared with a coach (the other reason being the faster journey).

That's a shame. I found the paid for menu good value and a good companion to reasonably priced train tickets back in the HST days.

 

[Taunton]

EMR have cut back their first class service - all the First Class lounges have been closed down and no complimentary refreshments on Sundays. The chef cooked breakfasts are gone and replaced by sandwiches, snack bars and pastries.

You really have to wonder what the catering specification people have for breakfast in their other lives - whoever has cheese and salad sandwiches for breakfast?

 

[kcaco]

Worldwide, though, without sounding a 'snob', doesn't first class often mean a quieter environment and no louts/bogans/miscreants?

It's a non-advertised benefit.

On ICE in Germany for example First Class gets you a bigger seat/quieter environment and maybe at-seat service from the on-board restaurant. You still have to pay for the meals and drinks though.

On TGV in France you only get the seat.

 

[cactustwirly]

Offerings were so much better under East Coast.
I’m not one for the GNER pay for restaurant car lark, mind. It’s a great option but I’d rather have it as another option to the first class complimentary rather than instead of.

Arguably paid for food is going to better quality and better than free food?
It also opens up the option for standard class passengers
You can't have your cake and eat it, complaining about a product that is complimentary

 

[DJ_K666]

Tea from a trolley is always horrid anyway because the water isn't hot enough.

Or its been kept hot too long. Either way it tastes like munge. Tea should me made with fresh boiling water then Left to stand for around 4 minutes. Then the teabag (if you really must use one) is removed and the milk poured in.

In fact this should be compulsory viewing when training trolley attendants.

On ICE in Germany for example First Class gets you a bigger seat/quieter environment and maybe at-seat service from the on-board restaurant. You still have to pay for the meals and drinks though.

On TGV in France you only get the seat.

That's how I think of Standard, since mist of the louts and miscreants tend to make a bee line for First. Honestly, hanging around in their pinstripe suits hogging the seats on the bestvtrains to London...

 

[Towers]

Or its been kept hot too long. Either way it tastes like munge. Tea should me made with fresh boiling water then Left to stand for around 4 minutes. Then the teabag (if you really must use one) is removed and the milk poured in.

I have to say that in my personal experience, tea does improve significantly when some sort of teabag is involved

(Yes I know you meant leaves! )

 

[Master29]

I think GWR and catering have now become an oxymoron.

 

[RailWonderer]

Second all of this.

At the risk of going off-topic, I was served this lovely breakfast on LNER by way of comparison. It is a certainty that many aspects of the LNER first class offer are weaker than years gone by, but LNER at its worst is far better than GWR at its best. I too love fruit cake, but I'd rather chow down on this than the selection of prepackaged goodies doled out to @TT-ONR-NRN as a goodwill gesture.

Which service was this? I cannot find an exact list of what catering is served on which services apart from the vague and sometimes innacurate deli, dish, dine labellings.

Worldwide, though, without sounding a 'snob', doesn't first class often mean a quieter environment and no louts/bogans/miscreants?

It's a non-advertised benefit.

LNER is not exactly an operator associated with ASB.

 

[DJ_K666]

I have to say that in my personal experience, tea does improve significantly when some sort of teabag is involved

(Yes I know you meant leaves! )

Especially teabags of the Yorkshire variety [/slurp]

 

[Geoff DC]

I thought GWR had Cornish Tea grown in Cornwall - Yorkshire Tea is grown in India I believe

 

[142blue]

So.let me get this right...

First Class on GWR has no breakfast, lunch or meal options. Not even a sandwich?

That's shoddy

 

[Tim456]

So.let me get this right...

First Class on GWR has no breakfast, lunch or meal options. Not even a sandwich?

That's shoddy

They do offer complimentary sandwiches in First Monday to Friday but it’s very hit and miss.

 

[Stathern Jc]

That's shoddy

I agree, and I'm glad you sad that as I don't think that was the first thought that came to my mind when I looked at the GWR website.

They do offer complimentary sandwiches in First Monday to Friday but it’s very hit and miss.

That gives a bit of hope.

Last year a pal and I had been looking at what is the longest journey we could make to get back home to Inverness in a day.
So on the second Friday in September it will be from Penzance at 0815 to Edinburgh via London as Advance Firsts at £140 with railcard are much cheaper than Cross Country Standards, and then the last Scotrail (currently HST) of the day getting in to Inverness at 2317.

The 1st class complimentaries on the day will be GWR - LNER - Scotrail. There have been mixed comments about the LNER complimentaries in both this and the specific thread on that subject, but that is undoubtedly the best offering of the day.

Could have started from Penzance earlier of course, but a 5 hour first leg of the journey with just coffees and biscuits after having to skip breakfast for an earlier train was not an encouraging prospect.
So, in light of the catering offered (or rather, not offered) by GWR, it will be a train at a time which will give chance to start the day with the Premier Inn breakfast.

It's disappointing that GWR don't seem to offer anything more than the very poor range that travellers in Scotland see on Scotrail, and which many in the North avoid by planning journeys around the one daily LNER Southbound service on which you can enjoy a cooked breakfast as well as the journey.

 

[Sly Old Fox]

I haven’t seen complimentary sandwiches in first in GWR for a long time. Pre pandemic at least.

 

[fgwrich]

Haha, sorry, that's partly my fault as I didn't say "return" in my original post where I specified two people, and in the second I specified return but not for two people. Yes, the prices quoted are one way for two people with a railcard, and they're the same both ways, which of course works out as £68 return per person standard and £91 FC.

Not sure where the First Class debate started, but while I sometimes book LNER FC straight from the off, I’ve now started to use Seatfrog a lot more (even with its additional +2). Last week’s upgrade only cost me a £10 and that was in a busy afternoons service from Edinburgh to Kings Cross. Sure it’s a gamble, but more often than not a gamble worth going for.

I thought GWR had Cornish Tea grown in Cornwall - Yorkshire Tea is grown in India I believe

GWR used to have Tregothnan Tea in the HST era, but like a lot of things it seems to have been downgraded the last time I travelled with them back in May to one of the well known brands. At least the Crisps have switched over from Tyrell’s (Herefordshire) to Burts (Plymouth). From the old era, here’s a picture advertising how proud they were of their locally sourced products for the then “Great Western Larder” aka former Express Cafe. Not much of it remains.

 

[stj]

Airline catering going the same way.

 

[Tim456]

I haven’t seen complimentary sandwiches in first in GWR for a long time. Pre pandemic at least.

They are rare as hen’s teeth it must be said and very hit and miss that the First class host have them. Had a choice from three fillings on a train from Paddington to the South West a few weeks back so they are still around.

They are the same brand of sandwiches offered to First class passengers on Hull Trains.

 

[Jimini]

I haven’t seen complimentary sandwiches in first in GWR for a long time. Pre pandemic at least.

On my annual sojourn down to the south west last month, there were sandwiches available on the down service (served up shortly after we'd done the Reading stop), but not on the up (from Par to Paddington).