Great Western Railway: on-board catering, buffets, Travelling Chef, Pullman - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[Tim]

I reckon travelling Chef is pretty good.  Not too expensive (cf cup of tea with fake milk for ^1.60!) and on journeys of less than two hours a full restaurant isn't really needed.

IFAIR, TC^‡(resolve) is not a franchise commitment so FGW^▸ (First Great Western) should be congratulated for doing it at a time when other TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) are downgrading catering much further.

A plea to any FGW managers reading would be to a) publicise this service better, and b) keep up the consistancy with no more chopping and changing.

[broadgage]

There are also some mouth watering new options on the Pullman menu; always amazes me that such high quality fare can be prepared in a kitchen moving at upwards of 100mph. Paddington to Bristol via Taunton or Exeter for a slap up lunch coming up, methinks!

I think that you will be out of luck !
"Paddington to Bristol for a slap up lunch" Only two trains from Paddington have a Pullman, the 18-03 and the 19-03, no more lunchtime pullmans regretably.
Unless of course you know something I dont about re-instating any Pullmans.

[broadgage]

And you can't generalize about all new trains having less room than old ones; the Adelantes were very generous in this respect and the First Great Western (FGW^▸ (First Great Western)) High Speed Train (HST^▸ (High Speed Train)) refurbishment has better legroom than the BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) interior (this isn't a subject for debate, it's factually correct). Yes there have been horrors like the Voyagers introduced but the same body shell with a different interior specification gave us the Meridians as used by EMT^» (East Midlands Trains - about) which are very pleasant trains to travel in.

I find your statement that the recent First Great Western (FGW) High Speed Train (HST) refurbishment has more legroom the BR interior to be suprising, but would defer to your superior knowledge re this.
However it is beyond doubt that the refurbishment resulted in less leg room, less luggage space and fewer table than existed before the work.

I also remember the High Speed Train (HST)s being a backward step in terms of total train length, and space per passenger, over the loco-hauled stock used previosly.


Edit: VickiS - Clarifying Acronym

[Tim]

[quote author=inspector_blakey link=topic=5508.msg52535#msg52535 I find your statement that the recent FGW^▸ (First Great Western) HST^▸ (High Speed Train) refurbishment has more legroom the the BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) interior to be suprising, but would defer to your superior knowledge re this.

It is certainly true that the First Great Western (FGW) High Speed Train (HST) refurb squeezed more seats in not by reducing leg room (and that is a good thing at least), but by making the seats more upright and thinner (IMO^▸ (in my opinion), OK on short trips, not so good for more than a couple of hours)'

Edit: VickiS - Clarifying Acronym

[devon_metro]

Yum

Ribs
5 meaty ribs in a tasty BBQ sauce                                                    ^5.95

Shame the omelette has gone up, I was going to get one, seems ill have to pay more!!

[Btline]

Not since February they haven't, when Turbos took over the weekday Worcester and Malvern off-peak diagrams they weren't already covering. Why do you keep repeating this old, tired, inaccurate statement?

But if they are Turbos, my original argument about there being no First Class standard seats/freebies is comes into play!

[JayMac]

There are also some mouth watering new options on the Pullman menu; always amazes me that such high quality fare can be prepared in a kitchen moving at upwards of 100mph. Paddington to Bristol via Taunton or Exeter for a slap up lunch coming up, methinks!

I think that you will be out of luck !
"Paddington to Bristol for a slap up lunch" Only two trains from Paddington have a Pullman, the 18-03 and the 19-03, no more lunchtime pullmans regretably.
Unless of course you know something I dont about re-instating any Pullmans.

Ooops. My bad. I was of course referring to those two services and should've said dinner. Could be lunch in the other direction though on the 1200 and 1255 ex Plymouth.

[willc]

Not since February they haven't, when Turbos took over the weekday Worcester and Malvern off-peak diagrams they weren't already covering. Why do you keep repeating this old, tired, inaccurate statement?

But if they are Turbos, my original argument about there being no First Class standard seats/freebies is comes into play!

I wasn't referring to your previous post - I was referring to the one repeating a tired, inaccurate statement, rather like the ones you kept posting about poor punctuality, long after FGW^▸ (First Great Western) was hitting its targets.

As for your previous post, the Cotswold Line is a completely different kettle of fish from Virgin's Birmingham route. Of course there are lots of Virgin advance tickets - they have a train with 439 seats to fill every 20 minutes between Birmingham and London - almost a third of those seats are first class, so they have to find ways to fill them.

The Cotswold Line has roughly one train an hour off peak, with 250 or 470 seats to fill, most of which are likely to be full on the Oxford-London leg of the journey anyway, so FGW don't need to go to great lengths - or great discounts - to fill seats.

Where FGW offers higher frequencies and has more seats to fill, eg Bristol and South Wales to London, then it too offers advances.

And most people's journey choices are dictated by the need to get somewhere, not what food and drink, whether 'free' or not, may be on offer along the way. Chiltern manage perfectly well without first class, or any sort of catering offer for most of the day - or have you gone off them too?

[JayMac]

I have just perused the new winter Travelling Chef menu. Looks good (despite the odd smelling pistake. Blinins? Blaguette?) Quite a variety and not overly expensive. May have to find an excuse to travel first class in the near future, as some of the options look quite difficult to eat out of a cardboard box!

Prices still fairly reasonable (even with the omlette increase!) There are also some mouth watering new options on the Pullman menu; always amazes me that such high quality fare can be prepared in a kitchen moving at upwards of 100mph. Paddington to Bristol via Taunton or Exeter for a slap up lunch coming up, methinks!

If journey planners are to be believed, it would appear that one of the two up Pullmans (1200 ex PLY^» (Plymouth - next trains)) is being withdrawn from the December timetable change leaving just the 1255 ex PLY. The down services (1803 & 1903 ex PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains)) still show as running. Don't know how this is being worked re: staff rostering.

Can anyone confirm that the 1200 up Pullman is being withdrawn?

[broadgage]

It would not suprise me if the Pullman on the 12-00 is to be withdrawn, the long term trend seems to be roughly one less restaurant per timetable change.

[6 OF 2 redundant adjunct of unimatrix 01]

avoid the ham and cheese panini at all costs! its not horrible its just tasteless and rubbery and its not even a panini its a bagette made from dodge bread made worse by the microwave, sorry fgw but somethings need reporting

[Mookiemoo]

avoid the ham and cheese panini at all costs! its not horrible its just tasteless and rubbery and its not even a panini its a bagette made from dodge bread made worse by the microwave, sorry fgw but somethings need reporting

Add to that the nuked cheeseburger that drips grease down your arm.  The mozarella and basil panini also suffers from the same flaws as the ham and cheese.

However if you do want something hot, those nuker bowls of chilli stuff arent bad! And quite low in calories.

[vacman]

avoid the ham and cheese panini at all costs! its not horrible its just tasteless and rubbery and its not even a panini its a bagette made from dodge bread made worse by the microwave, sorry fgw but somethings need reporting

Yes but thats not from the travelling chef though.

[JayMac]

....its a bagette made from......

Don't you mean 'blaguette'? 

[inspector_blakey]

Aaah. Those buffet paninis. There was a brief period after the refurb when they were cooked in a proper panini oven thingy and were very good (I ate them on at least two occasions - the breakfast one was quite impressive). Then the breakfast paninis disappeared, possibly along with the ovens. And it's been hot floppy bread in a plastic bag ever since. Eaurgh.