Great Western Coffee Shop

There are lots of alterations this morning showing as lack of buffet car/trolley service applies. All are shown as down to train fault. I reckon at least 6 separate sets are involved.

Surely this can't be due to train faults but the fact that there aren't enough sets with buffets currently?

Interesting trip to Cornwall as traveled from Taunton to Plymouth on late running XC HST and then back on FGW HST so had chance to compare trolley service.

A question why do FGW trolleys remain static and XC travel up and down the train ?

I will use a buffet (mid train) but as my favoured travelling spot is mid HST coach E  I am too lazy to walk down the train to Coach A where the trolley usually is static. I enjoyed the fact that the trolley came to me on the XC HST and being a bit peckish bought something.

I would think that trolleys would do more business on the move so what is the rationale ???

As they are a temporary solution due to no buffet being available.

There are also insurance issues with trolleys moving up and down trains after an incident afaik.

Not to mention the fact that the trolley stores have a hot water supply, so you at least get decent temperature drinks unlike likewarm XC stuff.

your correct DM ...An unfortunate accident occoured and since that the trolley has been static....XC Hst have a slightly wider aisle than the FGW ones which makes trolley passage slightly less hazardous

I knew that there would be a good reason and even more pleased to hear they are only temporary.

The 15.22 Paddington to Oxford HST had a moving trolley!!!

expect it was manned by staffed by staff employed by Railgourmet.

Even when the trolley is static it is a difficult working environment for the staff. I used one a couple of weeks ago on a busy evening train, the trolley was stuck in the vestibule while the poor attendant was having to go to and fro between it and the hot water supply in the cubby hole. With lots of passengers passing through as well as trying to queue it looked too easy for stuff to get nicked, as well as the safety hazard of hot drinks being made and passed around without any stable surface to stand them on.

And on the subject of hot drinks, why on Earth are FGW now issuing cups of tea with the teabag handed to you separately, requiring passengers to take off the lid and fiddle around with an open cup of hot water, thereby increasing both the risk and severity of any spillage? Even with the proper buffet this is bad enough if the train is crowded, but with the trolley arrangement this is bonkers. And this from the company that insists on asking us to read its safety leaflets with every announcement!

I do not know the real reason, but it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if it was due to complaints that a tea bag was in the water for too long.

Sorry for coming across like a first class snob here, but my only experience of the tea trolley to date has been in First Class - and giving the customer a cup of hot water and a tea bag etc is how it's always been done, or at least in my experience (I'm sure years ago the waiter would have poured the scalding hot tea into a bone china cup for one).

Maybe, but what might be fine for at-seat service in the relative space and calm of first class is quite another matter when you are a standing passenger in a crowded vestibule! And even if seated, the pull down tables aren't really spacious enough for fiddling around with a lid and hot water; indeed once you've had to take the lid off then it doesn't always go back on again properly, leading to leaks and spills. Milk from the little cartons can be added through the little flap that you drink through; it is only because of the tea bag that the lid needs to be taken off when the cup is at its fullest at hottest.

 ???

I can quite happily use a laptop on those fold-down tables. How much space do you need for a lid and a cup?!

This is just one of the reasons I pay for FC

If you are SC, brew it at the buffet, then transport it back with milk

 A first class ticket is a lot of money to pay just for a cup of tea.

 Might be cheaper to buy a vacuum flask.

I worked out that the season ticket, after tax, works out ^5 per day more on my line!

I don't get the tax benefit that FA does, but it's about ^6 per return journey for 2 hours of relative peace, space, a newspaper, and a cup of tea and nibble from the trolley. The irony is that the slower the journey the cheaper the cost becomes per hour of journey time. 

If there is a buffet, yes of course, but we were discussing the problems arising from buffets being replaced with trolleys in crowded vestibules...