My favourite East Coast operator was GNER, they offered great fares and generally did a good job. Those since have just reduced the on board services
GNER were good, but the high point really was DOR/East Coast. GNER would grudgingly give you a coffee and a biscuit in first class, everything else was paid for. DOR/EC changed that around and brought in an excellent first class service, which was pretty much ruined by Stagecoach the day they took over.
DOR/EC first class was genuinely worth paying quite a bit extra for, and I usually paid up. Stagecoach came in and immediately penny-pinched on everything- smaller wine glasses, smaller Coke cans, smaller coffee cups, fewer trolley runs, extreme toast rationing, no second slice of cake. When I'm paying those fares I don't want to be made to feel like a naughty schoolboy for asking for a second glass of wine. So I stopped paying those fares. I switched to Grand Central.
Operationally there was little between DOR/EC and VTEC, to be quite honest. But it's amazing how the small things distort opinions; losing 25ml-50ml of wine from a wine glass affects nothing operationally, and given the price of bulk-bought cheap plonk I highly doubt it even noticably affected the bottom line, but it changed my entire opinion of the operation. Given VTEC's rapid descent into financial armageddon, I doubt I was alone in switching.
