East Coast franchise - ongoing discussion, merged topic

[whole diary]

[JayMac]

_{And not only posted here because of the rather fetching photo of the Chairman.}

Ms Holt certainly scrubbed up better than the loco in the background of that picture!

[caliwag]

Travelled YRK to KGX and back today...on time, excellent service and quality food, both ways...nae complaints: should stay public to my mind just as a benchmark. It'll only get picked up by some asset-stripping private equity outfit who'll sack half the staff and close down the messy bits like Aberdeen and Inversnecky...you watch!

[JayMac]

Bumping this thread as East Coast are further improving their 1st Class offering in May 2011.

From the guardian. Part of a much larger interview with the fragrant Elaine Holt:

Appropriately for a state-owned business, any drama surrounding the route these days is more reminiscent of the British Rail era: punctuality, problems with train doors, getting the catering up to scratch, and grappling with a new timetable. Holt says that, contrary to industry gossip, the timetable is on track for 22 May, bringing a four-hour service to Edinburgh and complimentary hot meals in first-class. "It's not just a new timetable, it's a new product."

[Brucey]

However they now charge for more than 15 minutes Wi-Fi in Standard, which was previously free throughout the train.

[JayMac]

Their free Wi-Fi in standard was a nightmare when I and a friend used it, earlier this year. Speedtest gave us readings little better dial-up. My 3 dongle performed much better.

I do hear things have improved though, so maybe the investment in that improvement has come at the cost of having to charge customers in Standard.

At least East Coast have Wi-Fi. CrossCountry still haven't made good on their franchise commitment to install it on their fleet. They are now over a year late with this commitment and have already been fined once by the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) for this breach of their franchise agreement. They are still arguing there are technical difficulties installing it on the Class 220/221. Maybe they should give Virgin or East Midlands a call. Virgin have managed to install it on their Vomiters and EMT^» (East Midlands Trains - about) have also begun rolling it out on their, technically very similar, fleet of Meridians.

[SDS]

I still remember the days of FGW^▸ (First Great Western) when you could get free cans of orangina/coke/fanta etc. That went when certain managers were spotted putting crates of cans into the back of their cars. Now of course nothing was proven (or disproven), but they just withdrew the cans.

[Louis94]

I still remember the days of FGW^▸ (First Great Western) when you could get free cans of orangina/coke/fanta etc. That went when certain managers were spotted putting crates of cans into the back of their cars. Now of course nothing was proven (or disproven), but they just withdrew the cans.

I was wondering why they stopped doing free cans of coke in first class!

[IndustryInsider]

certain managers

As in Train Managers or Management Managers?  Or are you not at liberty to divulge...?

[SDS]

Well in those days TMs^‡(resolve) were called Senior Conductors, (I think the cans went back that far) or something like that!

[John R]

Cans were withdrawn less than 2 years ago, as they were still available when I started commuting to Swindon.

[Mookiemoo]

I still remember the days of FGW^▸ (First Great Western) when you could get free cans of orangina/coke/fanta etc. That went when certain managers were spotted putting crates of cans into the back of their cars. Now of course nothing was proven (or disproven), but they just withdrew the cans.

I was wondering why they stopped doing free cans of coke in first class!

from what I have been told unofficially - they were sick of people taking several cans to consume during the day

Easy to solve, pop the can on handing over

but no, they through baby out with bath water

[willc]

Bumping this thread as East Coast are further improving their 1st Class offering in May 2011.

From the guardian. Part of a much larger interview with the fragrant Elaine Holt:

Appropriately for a state-owned business, any drama surrounding the route these days is more reminiscent of the British Rail era: punctuality, problems with train doors, getting the catering up to scratch, and grappling with a new timetable. Holt says that, contrary to industry gossip, the timetable is on track for 22 May, bringing a four-hour service to Edinburgh and complimentary hot meals in first-class. "It's not just a new timetable, it's a new product."

Bignosemac, would you call Mark Hopwood "fragrant"? Though not, so why Ms Holt?

And you and The Guardian seem to have been taken in by her spin team.

What they are also doing when introducing "complimentary" first class meals is withdrawing all restaurant car services. So if you are in standard, taking a nice short hop, say London to Edinburgh, all you can get by way of hot food is a microwaved something from the buffet. And even in first it will only be snacks at lunchtime. They are adopting Virgin's approach, so there won't be anything like Travelling Chef available, which for a firm operating journeys the length EC does is pretty poor, to put it politely.

See Barry Doe's column in the current issue of Rail for a dissection of the demise of the restaurant car since privatisation. FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s Pullmans between London and Plymouth will be the last of their kind still running come next May.

[thetrout]

NXEA^▸ (National Express East Anglia) also removed the Resturant Service from their services a couple of years back...!

Although doesn't Grand Central offer a restaurant to Standard Class Pax??

[JayMac]

Bignosemac, would you call Mark Hopwood "fragrant"? Though not, so why Ms Holt?

And you and The Guardian seem to have been taken in by her spin team.

So if you are in standard, taking a nice short hop, say London to Edinburgh, all you can get by way of hot food is a microwaved something from the buffet.

Okay, maybe the comment I made about Elaine Holt was a little sexist. For that I apologise for any offence I may have caused.

As for the spin, I was just quoting what was said in the article preceded with my own comment that this is, as I see it, a further improvement for all 1st class passengers. The thread is about 'comps' for 1st class passengers, not about what is or is not available for those in Standard.

[willc]

I see, so who cares about standard getting a significantly worse service, just so long as first is getting a purportedly better one? Ever heard of seeing the bigger picture, as all the changes EC is making are related, whatever bit of the train you are sitting in?

And the "further improvement" you describe will probably offer a poorer choice of hot meals on late-afternoon and early evening trains than is currently available to first class passengers. According to Barry Doe, all there will be by way of 'free' food for first class passengers in the middle of the day, even on Anglo-Scottish trains, as part of your "further improvement", is sandwiches.

Of course, as ever, none of it is 'complimentary' anyway. So you'll still have to pay for it, even if you don't want breakfast in the morning or a meal on the way home.

Although doesn't Grand Central offer a restaurant to Standard Class Pax??

No. Was supposed to happen but never has.