6. Catering

Are there any concrete plans to improve the woeful trolley service.
This issue has been raised in many previous meet the manager sessions but no improvements have resulted.
If the trolley appears at all, it is generally static, thereby removing the alleged advantage that it will pass ones seat.
If the train is formed of two 5 car units, then if the trolley appears at all it will be in the other unit.
On a full length train, the trolley gives up before passing through the whole train.

And what happened to the promised greatly improved trolleys with provision for keeping hot food hot and cold drinks cold ?

Please see previous "meet the manager" discussions for details of the promises previously made.

And was promised ISTR^▸ (I seem to recall/remember) but never delivered beyond a small scale trial that produced the expected result that it was uneconomic.

Does "reviewing" mean reducing ?

Interesting point raised about if you are travelling on a long journey you would purchase items in advance.
That is all very well if there is the ability to purchase items (early travel makes it nigh on impossible), additionally majority of stations don't have sufficient facilities to purchase anything either

I was on an LNER^» (London North Eastern Railway - about) service from Newcastle recently, they had an app on that service where you could order items and be brought to your seat

There is ... broadgage ... nothing to stop you starting such a thread; we already have logging threads for a couple of lines.     I cannot speak for GWR about monitoring such a thread on catering, but I would be surprised if they didn't if it gathered traction and didn't become a knocking shop.

Also, it’s only human nature to be less inclined to post when the trolley service is provided as advertised.

From personal experience, as an estimate, I would think I see a trolley 90% of the time I am travelling over an hour on an IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) route that has advertised catering.

My perception is that is has worsened slightly throughout this year as more services seem to be single staffed due to staff shortages and therefore first class complimentary service is prioritised.

Text I have typed from the recording of the Zoom session - please forgive typos.
DM - Daryn McCombe, GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)
TL - Thomas Lydon, GWR
GE - Graham Ellis
BC - Bryony Chetwode
CB - ChrisB

Question 6

DM: Catering there has been some challenge - it has not been at the consistency or level we would want it to be. Some of that is about making sure we have the right number of hosts on out trains, and Rachel our new customer services director is reviewing that at the moment and we are making some progress in terms of recruitment. Specifically we are recruiting weekend hosts - people to work at the weekend only so that we can protect the weekend catering offer. We should not be operating static services unless the train is full and it should be a last resort - the trolley should be going through the train and, yes, if the host can't make there way though a static service is better than no service. That should not be the first port of call. If there's anything like that happening, please do let us know so we can follow up with those individual hosts and find out whey from their perspective.

We are in the process of reviewing the food and drink offer in both standard and first class so Rachel and Amanda who's [] director are reviewing that between them and looking to make some updates. Question asked about bacon and sausages - I've heard some rumours but I'm not committing tonanything

GE: As a corollary onto the side of this ... one of the questions asked of me and if I'm heading onto a train especially if I'm not going very far (I don't know where the catering will be) I tend to try to buy my supplies at the station. I understand that the station outlet at Warminster closes at the end of this month, and I understand that the one is Westbury is very concerned that they are still having to pay rent, even for the month when the station is closed and they will have no business going through. Some of your outlets are very concerned at your business practices during strikes and during those things there; they feel there should be some some of consideration.

TL: Can we take that offline because it's a commercial things. I believe we have been in discussions with the tenants but this is not something for the forum.

GE: This is general concern. Even in Swindon. Is there any commitment to have station caeting?

DM: How to make best use of retail outlet up for discussion. We are keen to maximise for commercial and customer5 reasons.

GE: Reading follow up question - does "reviewing" mean "reducing"?

DM: No - it means enhancing. The purpose of the review is to make sure it is better.

TL: (personal comments) I recently went to Japan - fantastic - but no on train catering. No table provision. Some of the things we hold onto in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) as the golden virtues - well - are we due a cultural shift?  But this is NOT about us doing this - it's about how we can better the offer. - how we can deliver what we say we are going to deliver, and how we can enhance it without increasing any subsidy needed from the taxpayer.  Personally, if I were travelling on a long journey and knew I would want something I would buy it before travelling.

DM: We have just reviewed the pullman menu and it's the same people who are now reviewing the first class and standard class catering.

GE: Certainly a need to move on - otherwise we would still have a firemen on all the trains.

BC: Please do not take away our desks. From a local authority point of view, from a passenger pouint of view, we argue very strongly when we're trying to get the modal shift to pubic transport that the ability to do something else at the same time is one of the selling points of rail - we want desks we want leisure time on board.

TL: No hares running.  That was just a personal reflection and there are no plans of that for what we want on our trains. 50 years ago we wouldn't had lots of the stuff we have today and if we were doing current trains we would probably have USB-c rather than USB.

GE: Yes - winners and losers. I spoke of speed v stops for better frequency, highlighting the MUST of a sub 3-hour service to Plymouth rather than a much more frequent one at 3 hours 15.

TL: The whole conversation this afternoon - compromises between competing needs. For some people it's about speed. For other it's stops at their station. If we stopped everywhere, it would be 4 or 5 hours. Our job is to do what's in the interest of the majority of passengers while we try to fill the needs of everyone who's using the rail. But without doubt after the pandemic the industry still needs to catch up. The things that were most important previously has changed and still more people travel on Thursday and Friday than they do on Saturday or Sunday I think, and if you thin about places like the North Downs line (which hasn't come up) we probably have 1000 school and college students using those trains every day so when we talk about engineering works during the week you have to consider that sort of thing as well so we are trying to fit a million requirments into one service. It's important we take all those things into account as we look at the outputs for the future.

GE: All on the same lines there as times are changing. I don't know how things have changed and will 5 day commuters v 3 day commuters v the rest. Things like the flexiseason tickets which I suspect haven't sold in huge quantities

TL: Don't know - that was a government lead product, born out of the pandemic and where we were at that time. I see Scotrail got rid of the peak fares for a trial but have now reverted and my regular train which is the 8 O'clock from Bristol Parkway to Swindon which then goes straight to London it is extemenly busy on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and many will be paying regulated fares so demand is different

DM: And continues to change. Six months ago if I had jumped on the 07:00 or 07:30 from Temple Meads it would =n't have been particularly busy, everyone would have had a seat. This morning, both of those trains were very, very busyGE: All on the same lines there as times are changing. I don't know how things have changed and will 5 day commuters v 3 day commuters v the rest. Things like the flexiseason tickets which I suspect haven't sold in huge quantities

TL: Don't know - that was a government lead product, born out of the pandemic and where we were at that time. I see Scotrail got rid of the peak fares for a trial but have now reverted and my regular train which is the 8 O'clock from Bristol Parkway to Swindon which then goes straight to London it is extemenly busy on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and many will be paying regulated fares so demand is different

DM: And continues to change. Six months ago if I had jumped on the 07:00 or 07:30 from Temple Meads it would =n't have been particularly busy, everyone would have had a seat. This morning, both of those trains were very, very busy..The pattern of travel continues to evolve and change. It is difficult for the industry to keep up with that. We have to get better with our data and understanding it and our passenger numbers - what they are and how and why they are travelling. I think GW^▸ (Great Western) is pretty good at that mostly but we could be better ans then making sure the planning element of the industry can be more responsive because it's very slow even for doing things like performance improvement initiatives which can take 9 to 12 months to get something into the base train plan and that could just be a small platform change than can take an inordinate amount of time. So there are lots and lots of things that go into making this up. The industry understands that to make sure those plans are being put into place

GE: The comments I have been making and shouting out loudly is that this isa time of great risk but great opportunity.   Final point from Phantom - it's well known to purchase catering supplies in advance of long journeys, but often that is well nigh impossible as the majority of stations don't have anywhere to make those purchases.

TL: Fair point and recognised. It's about recognising that we're never going to to get a solution for everyone all the time. But at the minute we are not delivering consistently enough and that's where we need to get to. This is all about a heirarcy of needs and when we come back to the first question ultimately when people purchase a train ticket that is an active decision to travel by rail because most people are choosing - especially the further you get out from London they have a choice - they want a seat and they want to get to where they are going to at the advertised time, and when we don't deliver that that other things like Wifi, catering provision - I'm not suggesting they are not important but problems come more starkly to mind if we're not delivering the travel thing in the first place.

GE: Any burning final questions?  Thank you - lots of useful stuff.  Can we have another session spring.