What cooking facilities are onboard? And why are they even needed if the shops are all being removed eventually?
Catering kit is basically standard buffet set-up: microwave oven, hot water supply, but without a counter, just space to park the trolley between trips up the train. I presume the intention is to offer same first class complimentary hot food as they do now on Voyagers, such as paninis and breakfast baps, hence the oven. Not clear whether standard class will be able to order hot snacks from the trolley stewards though.
TCC, as one of the picture captions says, means trailer composite catering. Composite is long-standing railway terminology for a coach containing more than one class of accommodation, in this case first and standard, though these
XC▸ ones and some in Hull Trains' Pioneer sets are about the only ones operating on the modern railway.
I think that apart from a driving trailer coach in the Class 442 electric units (I'm waiting to see if these survive the 442s' return to action with Southern), the last new build composites were
BR▸ Mk1 coaches.
Fewer toilets. Hmm, well let's wait and see on that one. As has been discussed elsewhere,
FGW▸ sets have a nasty habit of running out of water in the tanks if turnarounds are cut short, even with a few more toilets available to start with. And XC's long routes, conflicting with all manner of other services, have a habit of picking up delay minutes, so maybe it won't look such a smart idea on a summer Saturday, with a packed train that got turned back fast after arriving late somewhere in the South West and is out of water on reaching Yorkshire, with a good few miles still to go to reach Newcastle or Edinburgh.
