Food on the train

Specific board for this popular undertaking.
Tiggertoo
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Food on the train

Post by Tiggertoo »

For those who have taken the train from Inverness to Kings Cross after riding LeJog, is food available to purchase on the train?
Asking GWR this is like pulling teeth - painful and leaving an empty space.
Oldjohnw
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Re: Food on the train

Post by Oldjohnw »

This line is run by LNER, at least for the through trains. Various portions are available eg Scotrail to Edinburgh then LNER.

There always was good refreshments on this service and apparently there still is:

https://www.lner.co.uk/the-east-coast-e ... /catering/
John
Tiggertoo
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Re: Food on the train

Post by Tiggertoo »

Perfect! Thank you John.
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Mick F
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Re: Food on the train

Post by Mick F »

Self catering.
Buy stuff before you get on the train.
Sarnies perhaps.

Couple of bottles of wine too, and you can pick up Costa cups to drink it from for free.
Mick F. Cornwall
Tiggertoo
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Re: Food on the train

Post by Tiggertoo »

Maybe, but it is an 8 hour plus journey.
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Mick F
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Re: Food on the train

Post by Mick F »

What time do you leave?
Can you not have a decent breakfast before you go?

I can go eight hours plus from breakfast, with a quick lunch of a sarnie or something, right until the evening meal.
8am breakfast, a quick lunch, and evening meal at 5, 6, or 7pm.

Why pay through the nose for food on a train?
Mick F. Cornwall
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mjr
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Re: Food on the train

Post by mjr »

Mick F wrote: 28 Jul 2021, 6:46pm I can go eight hours plus from breakfast, with a quick lunch of a sarnie or something, right until the evening meal.
8am breakfast, a quick lunch, and evening meal at 5, 6, or 7pm.

Why pay through the nose for food on a train?
Once you've had food poisoning from innocuous-looking cheese sarnies bought pre-boarding but kept too long on a hot train (which had no catering, which is why I bought ahead), you appreciate on-board buffet fridges/eskys that bit more.

£2 for a mug of porridge, £4 for a panini and £6 for a sandwich/coffee/crisps meal deal isn't that much more than some high street chains. LNER are not too bad.

I still think it's insane that GWR have one or two kitchens on most express trains but no buffet service. Just the terrible trolleys.
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PH
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Re: Food on the train

Post by PH »

I wouldn't rely on it, even at the best of times the catering isn't always as advertised, in these times of staff shortages it's possibly more likely to be unexpectedly closed.
There's plenty of stuff you can take with you that's both easy to carry and will survive an 8 hour journey. I've spent most of my working life taking a packed lunch, without refrigeration, it isn't uncommon.
Tiggertoo
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Re: Food on the train

Post by Tiggertoo »

What time do you leave? Can you not have a decent breakfast before you go?
So, breakfast over by 6:00AM to get a taxi down to Inverness in time for the 9:00AM train. Get to the station as soon as I arrive to start queuing for the train to be sure to get a place for my bike box. I'm already stressed about this so no going anywhere to buy a 'sarnie' or get any booze. 3 hours gone already since breakfast.
Arrive at Kings Cross around five PM, find a cab, arrive at the hotel in Bayswater around 6:00 PM. Unload, get settled in, maybe have a shower - maybe not - leave hotel and find a restaurant - I have a favourite on Praad Street. Hopefully sit down to eat by 7:00PM.
13 hours since breakfast, so no sarnie will sustain me for that long - no matter how greasy it is.
I need to buy food on the train. :P
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Re: Food on the train

Post by PH »

Staying at a B&B? See if they'll do you a packed lunch, many do,
st599_uk
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Re: Food on the train

Post by st599_uk »

Mick F wrote: 28 Jul 2021, 6:26pm Self catering.
Buy stuff before you get on the train.
Sarnies perhaps.

Couple of bottles of wine too, and you can pick up Costa cups to drink it from for free.
At the moment you're only allowed to remove a face mask to eat items bought from the on train catering.
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Re: Food on the train

Post by PH »

st599_uk wrote: 28 Jul 2021, 8:15pm At the moment you're only allowed to remove a face mask to eat items bought from the on train catering.
In England there is no longer a requirement to wear a mask at all on the train, though it is still advised.
I've been on four trains since July 19th, one LNER, I haven't heard anything about not eating your own food.
DaveReading
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Re: Food on the train

Post by DaveReading »

st599_uk wrote: 28 Jul 2021, 8:15pm
Mick F wrote: 28 Jul 2021, 6:26pm Self catering.
Buy stuff before you get on the train.
Sarnies perhaps.

Couple of bottles of wine too, and you can pick up Costa cups to drink it from for free.
At the moment you're only allowed to remove a face mask to eat items bought from the on train catering.
Prior to the recent relaxation of the rules, some train companies were discouraging passengers from eating on board (and hence having to remove their masks), but I've never heard of any restriction on bringing food onto the train.

Where did you see or read that ?
Richard Fairhurst
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Re: Food on the train

Post by Richard Fairhurst »

mjr wrote: 28 Jul 2021, 6:50pmI still think it's insane that GWR have one or two kitchens on most express trains but no buffet service. Just the terrible trolleys.
Yes. It’s particularly insane that the kitchens take up space on services which never needed a hot buffet service - e.g. the five-coach services up the Cotswold Line to Oxford and Worcester - yet are crying out for better bike spaces.

Rip out the kitchens from the five-coach units, replace them with bike/luggage spaces, and make sure the Penzance services are diagrammed for nine-coach units with kitchens.
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axel_knutt
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Re: Food on the train

Post by axel_knutt »

Tiggertoo wrote: 28 Jul 2021, 6:28pm Maybe, but it is an 8 hour plus journey.
I've done the journey, but I've no idea what food they sell, because I was eating the same sandwiches etc that I eat any other day on the bike.
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