Great Western Coffee Shop

Not being a morning person and not being one who eats much before lunchtime, it has not escaped my notice that it can be quite nauseous sitting in a train for nearly two hours whilst smelling cooked food! 

A bit like offices who have a no hot/smelly food at desk rule.....

Non starter? 

Suggest you contact your union rep.  :-X

there has to be a line somewhere otherwise everyone would have there own Carriage

Can I have a carriage that stops at the nearest station to my home (and the homes of 22000 others) a few times between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. please?  ;)

Never mind "a few times", even a train that stops once at Melksham during daylight hours would be a start *sighs*

As it happens I do sympathise with F.A. (as in Fallen Angel ; not the usual meaning of F.A., obviously, as that would only serve to indicate that I don't have) any sympathies at all, which would be patently untrue...)

- back when my employer used a booking system which would give us first class users an actual choice of seats, I would always specifically ask for a seat in coaches G or H, as sitting in coach F was just torture. Not that I minded the smell ; it was just that I already had more of a coastline than a waistline and the temptation was too much to bear!

In the good old days, trains had a "restaurant car" in which food was served, which many enjoyed.
Those who did not wish to dine and who disliked the smell of food, simply had to avoid the restaurant, and possibly the adjacent coaches as well, into which cooking/food smells might permeate.
Most trains now have no proper meals, but instead some have toasted sandwiches in each coach, Its called progres !

The trick is to give everyone a free glass of wine...everyone gets on superbly then. Just try sitting opposite a stranger in the restaurant car (sorry forgot we don't have them now) and I guarentee you'll be swopping business cards, phone numbers, email address's before the journey's out, because unless you've just been let out of an asylum you'll find something in common...discuss ::)

No - on an 8 car train I dont think the following is unreasonable......

Standard
* One family carriage
* One quiet/food free (has to be food free rather than not smelly food free otherwise its subjective) carriage in standard - no audible noise from any electronic device, no loud children, no food, no people talking loudly - maybe call it the library carriage - this could be A so that people are not disturbed by people going to and from the buffet
* Three normal carriages

First
* One library carriage - this could be H meaning fry ups do not have to be carried through the others
* Two normal carriage - kids allowed in but not expected to treat it like an adventure playground

Think that would probably satisfy the majority!

You've reminded me of a journey I made some time ago (back in the days of Virgin XC, anyway) where I ended up sitting opposite two loud and militant vegans on their way to a convention in Birmingham. These two characters spent much of the journey complaining at high volume about what people were eating around them, and announced to the world in general that they thought meat products should be banned from trains.

Now, I have absolutely no issue with vegans or vegetarians. I'll always respect their right to choose not to eat meat, and conversely would expect them to respect my right to do so. To cut a long story short, it was breakfast time, I was hungry and sitting near the shop. What could I do? No bacon sandwich I have ever eaten before or since has tasted sweeter than it did that morning. Remembering the looks on their faces still amuses me now!

... and I enjoyed one of the best ever breakfast-time toasted bacon sandwiches, on an HST between NLS and PAD - I was so impressed, I posted about it at the time, here: http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=2604.msg19646#msg19646  ;D

Nice one Chris  ;D

I don't think this should ever happen, for starters if you choose to sit in a quiet carriage, does that mean you are not allowed to eat on the train unless you movefrom the quiet cariage? My main concern though is if you were to inroduce such changes, then you will have people demanding carriages for those many reasons and why should for example a family carriage only for use by families (which the family carriage is not as it is open for all to use) not be allowed but carriages where you can not eat food are? Let's face it, the quiet carriage is hard enough to keep that way sometimes so this is causing potentially more problems for staff than it is worth.

rolls eyes ... then back onto the other issue of how many times have you sat down in the quiet coach to ring ring HELLO YEH IM ON A TRAIN or the old classic TOMMY BEHAVE YOUR NORMALLY SUCH A GOOD BOY which once is acceptable.... 20 TIMES IT SHOULD BE OBV THAT THE BADLY BROUGHT UP LITTLE MISFIT IS NOT GOING TO SHUT UP infact all its doing is showing that repatition is a good thing so he keeps misbehaving.... anyway my point is even if there was a no food coach it would be ignored and if they were to put one or two in thats would be 3 coaches out of use to the majority of the passengers... maybe adding your idea with the quiet zone? i hate the sound of crisps russling in the bag!!

rant over

It is the 'majority of other passenger' that are the problem anyway.  If we could remove them travel by train would be much improved.

I'll drink to that (with complimentary drinks in First Class!)

.   

Lol to be honest if I'm on a hst for less than 30 mins I stand near the door anyway... One reason it's nice and quiet and two for some crazy reason I like the feeling I get from knowing someone else will get a seat .... I always was a strange boy

In reply to the suggestion about everyone one having their own carriage, if you catch the 0447 from Bristol Templemeads to Paddington, you may well have a carriage to yourself, at least part of the way.

Food smells don't bother me that much on trains, but then I'm a morning person who is hungry at 0447.

Turning this whole idea on its head, I'd like to see how much support there is for my idea of a "free food" carriage...  ;)

Now that's an idea that has my support. But please not microwave cheeseburgers. I ain't eaten one since I found pieces of bone in one. I'd rather go hungry than accept one gratis.  :)

Well you can get half price food on the whole train if HSTs are on their last journey before going to the depot and htey still have stuff to sell  ;)