The LNER Encyclopedia

Dining cars are to officially end, I for one will miss having a first class seat for the price of a meal.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-13472676

So very, very sad. Another example of something else being aloowed to disappear by a greedy and uncaring world run by morons and idiots. I weep for the future.

Malcolm

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Saw the report on BBC Breakfast this morning - times change and at-seat service has been a feature of flying since Imperial Airways, but the report only concerned East Coast - which is Government-owned and paid for by our taxes.

However what was interesting were the various clips the BBC showed as part of that report, some of static exhibits at the NRM but the most interesting were of actual dining car interiors during LNER days, although the stilted tones and conversation of one clip suggested that it was a publicity short. I can't find the morning news on iPlayer though...

Dining cars haven't quite finished in first class as FGW still have what they call Pullman dining on a very few services. Very pricey, too - £6.95 for a bowl of soup??

http://firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=66

They also have Will o'the wisp characters called 'travelling chefs' on other trains who will knock you up some kind of light meal if you can catch them.

Arriva Trains Wales still have a dining car on their flagship Holyhead - Cardiff train, again first class only.

Possibly the most miserable on-train catering service, in my experience anyway, is that suffered by passengers using Arriva Cross Country. No hot food at all in standard class and they now seem reluctant to offer it in first, only handing it out when asked.

Micky wrote:Apparently the new 'airline style' menu will include a Ploughman's sanwich with hand cooked crips and pre-cooked bangers & mash

And people use to moan about British Rail catering which was to my mind pretty tasty back in the 1970s with 'traveller's fare'

It certainly was Micky, and at one time children under 5 could eat for free if accompanied by an adult purchasing a full meal.

I think they put a stop to that, when hoi polloi such as myself started appearing with two under fives and getting three meals for the price of one.

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...I used to prefer, for lunch, the italian family-run (at least that's what it seemed like) The Railway Cafe across in Pancras Road under the station.

I thought that many items on the Travellers Fare menu were really good, but then I am a fan of chips with everything-style meals and always have been.

I remember having the best beefburger I have ever tasted in the mid 70s one one London station, although I think it might have been Paddington rather than Kings Cross.

To me, it was rather sad how the jokes about BR catering continued long after they had really upped their game and were producing some very decent food.

Although, with beer on trains we always swore that on up services the McKewans Export in cans tasted much better than on the northbound trains which had left Kings Cross.

We decided that this was because the Scottish brewed version did not suffer from quite so many chemicals in the water as did that from London breweries, but I am happy to be told that this is complete nonsense.

At one time Double Diamond was B.Rs. beer of choice, marginally better than gnats p*** but not as strong.
The last Kings X to Newcastle 21.00 last Friday evening had a trolly which departed at Stevenage, well it never came back after that stop, there were no train announcements, no ticket checker,I realised that after Stevenage so went into First Class, no one on the gate at Kings X and no one on the open barriers at Newcastle Central, in fact you could have travelled free.

G'Day Gents

Always got a bit of a buzz walking past one of the restaurant cars at KX back in the early seventies, and seeing the uniformed staff getting everything ready for there trip, weather it be a normal train or a Pullman, also walking past a Pullman train on a miserable day and seeing the tables all laid with white linen silver cutlery and the glow of the table lamps, something I could never afford on railwaymens pay !!

manna

Bit of a shame - cutting out dining cars is a retrograde step, to say the least.....

This means that the wine'n'dine services on certain heritage/preserved lines will become even more of a special treat......even if you get back to the same place.

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You discreetly omitted the next five words of his quote...
Cheers
Robt P.

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