Great Western Coffee Shop

http://travel.aol.co.uk/2013/08/13/train-passenger-pizza-hut-delivery-carriage-station-newport/?

Full marks for enterprise to both pax and the delivery company.  I notice in the picture with the article, the table is extremely greasy and as I guess it was its last journey of the day, I imagine that the train got a good clean.  I wouldn't want to sit there next day with stale garlic and dead pepperoni wafting into my nostrils  :D (chose 'cheesy grin' smiley for its food connotations).

Nice move, can I do that with some Fish 'n' Chips? I do think the railway needs to provide more breakfast/dinner trains (the evening meals on the WAG Express are too fancy for a very fussy eater like myself though) and/or dining opertunities at stations.

My trip to Lymingnton a few years back to see the last slammers just prior to withdrawall involved using the Cardiff - Portsmouth service. Too small a train to provide anything but a trolley of course but we arrived so late that all I had for 'dinner' was some flapjack my Granmother had packed. I was not pleased.

My regular trips between Aberystwyth and Manchester over the past year weren't much better, with a sausage roll from the cafe at Shrewsbury while changing trains the best we could manage (and the cafe wasn't always open). The Swansea/Cardiff - Manchester route should be an Intercity service (with rolling stock similar to the WAG Express) in my opinion, 2/3-car 175s just aren't sufficent for linking such important cities.

On the other hand, car travellers often have the option of stopping at a motorway services for dinner (although on the Manchester trips this year by car, there was nothing much between Oswestry and home (in Pembs.). On train dining would therefore be an advantage of rail travel, saving journey time by eating on the move, though in cases of short trains early/late openning full-dining facilities at stations might be the more feesable option. This is another concern I have about IEP, the kitchen/buffet appears to be in the first class driving vehicle. Just a trolley for standard class passengers then?

Interesting picture though, Port Talbot to Manchester with a 158 (the route is normally all 175 except one return trip on Saturdays as far as I know).

I fear that anything more than a very occasional use of this technique would lead to all sort of issues with the time that a train pauses in a station, and there's a potential effect of the safety of station operation


We could also have all trains stop for a meal break during longer journeys - long distance coaches do it already, and I believe at one time it was proposed that all trains stop for at least 10 minutes at Swindon to allow people to get / buy refreshments - in fact I think the propel was actually implemented for a time ;D


But there's no difference in table grease quotient for a pizza delivered in through the door at Newport and one purchased at or near Paddington station and taken onto the train by passengers.

It's very interesting to see the starkly different rules here between First (bus) and First (train).  On trains, by all means take your own food and drink [except alcoholic drink on the last train off Weymouth].  On buses, you can be threatened with arrest for even drinking water, and indeed that's happened to one of our members I recall [again, exceptions.   It's OK if you're pregnant]

Difference in length of journey, I suspect.

At the risk of stirring up a whole hornets nest, might I suggest we have a 'hot food' carriage perhaps next door to the buffet where people can eat their own hot food,purchased on or off the train, in the same way that we have a 'quiet' carriage. We can't always ignore it when our ears eavesdrop,  our olfactory organs operate  or taste buds tickle tormentingly. I would not eat normally hot takeaway food, eaten with the fingers, on the train, out of consideration for my fellow passengers.

When they got to build Swindon the GWR were running short of money. The contractor offered to build the station for free if he had the catering concession and made all trains stop for 10 minutes at Swindon.

This situation lasted until the 1890's when the GWR decided they needed to loose their reputation for being slow (the fast route to London then was to take the Midland and South Western Junction Railway (MSWJR) train from Swindon Old Town to Andover and take a London and South Western Railway (LSWR) train to Waterloo).  The GWR therefore had to buy out their contractor.

Similar situation on the Midland Railway at Normanton in Yorkshire. Crack Midland expresses stopped for a ' refreshment break'. The story goes that the soup was served at boiling point so that customers found it too hot to eat, left most in the bowl, and the soup was recycled for the passengers on the next express!

Should you visit Normanton station today ( midway between Wakefield Kirkgate and Leeds) you will not encounter any of the grandeur that was the Midland's Dining Rooms. Long since demolished leaving bare platforms and a bus shelter.

Full marks to your history lesson there ellendune.
They spent so much going through Sonning that the cash ran out!
Well done.

Or possibly simply an Old Curmudgeons carriage where only people who complain about other people's habits are allowed - like chuffed and me  ;D.

I'll see you there!

Me too!

At this rate we'll  be able to hire a complete train! Any more budding Victor Meldrews out there ?

A - silent carriage
B - quiet carriage
C - Cyclists
D - People with dogs
E - For people who wear so much perfume they give others headaches
F - Family Carriage
G - Hot food eating carriage
H - Club car.  For people who want to talk but don't like hot food smells, children, cyclists, dogs or people eating perfume.

Problem - I want to travel with my child and my dog ...

Could we have a carriage for tolerant people who just want a seat, and to be allowed to get off if the train brakes down?

Not many years ago after the Exeter-Salisbury-Waterloo route 'on train' catering was 'dumbed down' with the full Restaurant/Kitchen cars replaced with trolleys it was still possible to have a proper cooked breakfast on these trains by in advance telephoning either Yeovil Jn or Sherborne station buffets where your desired refreshments would be freshly prepared and delivered to your train where ready cash was exchanged for the meal.
It was excellent service and something an entrepreneur might like to introduce(!!) on the scanty remaining trolley refreshment services on the long distance SW to NW/NE/Scotland Cross Country trains....where in the 1970's the Restaurant/Kitchen car stewards on the 0730 Plymouth to Edinburgh 12 coach train served THREE sittings of cooked breakfasts between Plymouth and Bristol ..the smell of bacon & eggs through the train was magic !

When the HSTs were introduced on Cross Country routes, it was commonplace to travel from Leeds on the 06.05 to Plymouth and the two man crew served as many simple egg, bacon, tomato type breakfasts as required. Then on the return 13.25 Plymouth to Leeds you could have lamb cutlets or minute steak with potatoes and peas. Excellent service, enjoyable food which made the journey attractive and pleasurable. That was in Second Class and served in the buffet car (where the all table seating was also Second Class).

Now First on XC you might get a mini bacon roll (microwaved!) and a coffee/tea. In Standard class - bring your own!,

I'd rather the family carriage wasn't in F, where the kitchen is.  Those children with sticky fingers might contaminate my three course dinner on its way to Coach G.   ;D

I think that I would join you all in the Old Curmudgeons coach. I have got on some trains where the smell of food has been so strong that I've felt like saying in a loud voice "Is this the restaurant car?" Wasabi takeaways seem to very smelly.

A very warm welcome to the Coffee Shop Forum AMLAG.

Ah yes the Cross Country Grill was what it was called on services that provided hot food on Cross Country services in the 80s. I remember tables being layed up for this service in the old Mk1 restaurant/buffet carriages before Mk2f buffet/1st class carriages replaced them.

Of course stopping for a meal break would remove the convenience advantage of eating on the move. The comedy IC125 advert springs to mind:

Substantial hot meals on-the-move would certainly be a benifit of rail travel, being able to eat a cooked breakfast on the train saved me getting up earlier to eat breakfast before catching the southbound WAG Express.

Since they allow exceptions (could that be regarded as discrimination?), there can't be an important reason (particularly for drinking water, which other bus operators permit, even eating cold food is sometimes permitted I think) for banning it in the first place.

Going back to buses, I'd much rather perfume was banned than food and drink. The smell of hot food is meerly irritating, and forbiding it makes the bus service less conventient.

One of the best food offerings on BR was on the Claton Electrics when first introduced. A real minute steak in a fresh bap freshly grilled in the griddle car.

Not only were the 309 superb trains a 10 car train had lots of horses under the bonnet to complete the over 65 mph average start stop sprints between Chelmsford and Witham and Witham and Colchester. The fastest suburban servcei in the world. Who says BR coiuldn't compete on the world stage!

I've been in one of the intermediate cabs and watched the speedo we were doing 60 by the end of the platform!  I might still ahev photo of the speedo rock steady on 90 mph.

Grahame  love your list but you forgot the coach for those who want to "busy out" the spare seat to them by using it as a  handbag/shopping/laptop storage area

I say....handbag/ shopping bag ? That rather narrows down the sex of the perpetrators  doesn't it !

Could we not go further and have carriages designated as follows

A Carriage with blacked out windows for  for those who wish to hear nothing, see nothing and say nowt.
B Carriage for those commuters with one mobile
C Carriage for those with one mobile, and one ipod
D Carriage for those with one mobile, one ipod and one ipad
E Carriage for Japanese tourists who wish to take photos of each other looking over the backs of seats and sharing it around the rest of the group
F Carriage for those with one laptop and 2 mobiles that require constant checking for tweets email and all the oh so important stuff like Justin Biebers latest wheeze for alienating his fans, which must now be in single figures.
G Carriage for parents with 'nice' children who do everything asked of them first time, which makes you wonder if they have been bribed with the offer of a new bike/laptop/ Bob the builder accessory set before they even got on the train.
 H Carriage for parents of 'thank God they're not mine' children who do nothing asked of them, ever

The old Curmudgeons will stand in the corridor and tuck in their stomachs when the trolley wants to get past and reminisce nostalgically  about what it was like in their day. Anyone who dares to suggest it was actually worse, is unceremoniously cold shouldered and then thrown out at the next stop.

No!

Lol ! Originally I was going to put just handbag and then thought I ought to equal it out a bit. What I really don't get is why Primark make a point of putting "Oxford street" on the bags issued at that store but you don't see their bags with "Reading" or "Basingstoke"

I've had an Indian takeaway delivered to Havant station last week.  The takeaway (Shapla, I'd highly recommend it) is located less than one minute walk from the station.  I had an interchange time of four minutes, so asked the takeaway if they could bring it over to the station for me.  They had no problem with this and still offered the 10% collection discount as I was a "regular customer".

Not quite a delivery to the train, but the station supervisor credited me for my "wonderful idea", as he put it.

Shortly after the concession at Swindon opened it was visited by a cheroot smoking Victorian gentleman, short in stature but long in engineering skill. He wasn't impressed with the hot beverages on offer and said so in a complaint to the proprietor:

Clearly not the pizza involved in the case in the original post - but this was the state I found one pair of seats on a train from Bath to Swindon last night.  There was also a similar box dumped on the seats opposite.

Let's hope this delivery of takeaways to trains doesn't catch on!

What these people's homes must be like I shudder to think.

(http://www.mbob.co.uk/rforum/pizza.jpg)

Yeah, it really does baffle me as to how some people consider leaving stuff everywhere perfectly acceptable.  Half eaten sandwiches, pieces of fruit, pizza slices, shredded newspaper, and my personal favourite is a seat and floor covered in shells from pistachio/monkey nuts!  Oh, and don't get me started on the stuff I've discovered left in toilets...  :o