CrossCountry Trains advert banned over ‘insufficient’ free food and drink claims…

First Class | EMR

With quieter carriages, comfy seats and more, our First Class tickets help you make the most of your journey to or from London.

www.eastmidlandsrailway.co.uk

Our First Class train travel offers a relaxed environment and more space to stretch out. It’s available on all our intercity services to and from London St Pancras.

Here's what's included with an EMR First Class ticket:

• Spacious, comfortable seats, each with a table
• Quieter carriages
• Plug sockets for laptops and mobile devices
• Light food and refreshments served at your table, Monday to Saturday

Catering​

Choose from a selection of quality complimentary food, tasty treats and drinks, all served at your seat by your on board host throughout your journey. Our complimentary offer will be available to First Class customers Monday to Saturday.

On our Monday to Friday morning services, you will be offered a choice of a hot filled breakfast roll which includes a gluten-free option. Whilst we will make every effort to avoid any cross contamination, there is always a possibility of trace amounts of gluten crossing over within our small galley kitchen, therefore we cannot guarantee that our breakfast roll menu items are free of gluten. The hot breakfast rolls are served along with individually wrapped snacks including pastries, breakfast bars and biscuits.

On our Saturday morning services you will receive a cold breakfast offer of a sandwich, along with a selection of biscuits, yogurts and pastries.

Please note the breakfast options are provided up to and including the following services: 10:00 leaving Sheffield, 09:50 leaving Nottingham, and the 10:05 leaving London St Pancras.

In the afternoon there will be a choice of either a sandwich, wrap or salad, cakes and crisps, along with a selection of hot drinks, waters and fresh juice. You can now purchase alcohol on board, see the full range of alcohol available below.

The food provided during our on board First Class catering service is subject to availability.

We do not offer the First Class complimentary offer on Sundays.

View the First Class menu nutritional and intolerance information.

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yorkie said:

If a passenger booked an EMR first class ticket on the basis of the claims made on the website (applicable Monday to Saturday on the route to/from St Pancras), then if food wasn't available, they would be entitled to something back.

First Class | EMR

With quieter carriages, comfy seats and more, our First Class tickets help you make the most of your journey to or from London.

www.eastmidlandsrailway.co.uk

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43066 said:

It appears that XC have now amended their website, as the ASA have acknowledged, to make clear that 1st class catering is very much subject to availability, not guaranteed etc.

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LowLevel said:

EMR do compensate for a lack of first class service on board. Not sure what it is off hand, but they do do something about it.

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LowLevel said:

EMR do compensate for a lack of first class service on board. Not sure what it is off hand, but they do do something about it.

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sheff1 said:

Yet it was Arriva who introduced the 'bistro' area on HSTs and then started to offer pre-booked cooked meals of a reasonable standard in Standard, never mind First. I had no real complaints about either. All seems a long time ago now mind you.

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Djgr said:

The key issue is not delivering what is promised and that is not acceptable corporate behaviour. You highlight lots of points which, whilst worthy of discussion elsewhere, are not really relevant.

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yorksrob said:

I was wanting to use it on the way back but got bowled out by a voyager !

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BrianW said:

It seems to me that XC might well take the view that catering, and its staffing, and the related complaints, is too much bother.

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43066 said:

Not literally, I trust .

(“Bowled out/over” has a very definite meaning on the railway!)



Indeed. In the current climate I’m sure the DfT would love an excuse to get rid of it entirely, lay off the staff etc. It has already been significantly downgraded at many operators, with Covid providing a useful initial excuse for doing so.

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yorksrob said:

I was using basher speak ! (I think).

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43066 said:

Ah okay. I’m sure you can imagine what the other meaning is .

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gingerheid said:

Can't they set up a system to offer vouchers for use at arrival or departure station if they can't provide on-train catering?

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gingerheid said:

Easyjet manage to hand out food vouchers electronically and automatically, without the involvement of any local staff presence. Perfectly possible if people are willing to put in a basic amount of effort to not treat passengers customers with contempt!
I accept though that the last condition means it's completely impossible

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trainophile said:

We've just booked the Aberdeen to Penzance experience for mid-June, in 1st. I'm glad this thread exists, we now know to buy a day's worth of food and drink before boarding.

I do hope there's hot drinks, be a bit grim for 13 hours with just bottled water otherwise.

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gingerheid said:

Easyjet manage to hand out food vouchers electronically and automatically, without the involvement of any local staff presence. Perfectly possible if people are willing to put in a basic amount of effort to not treat passengers customers with contempt!
I accept though that the last condition means it's completely impossible

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Bishopstone said:

That would require a member of staff to issue the vouchers, a second member of staff to audit/account for the issuance of the vouchers, and someone else to negotiate and oversee contracts with the third party catering outlets who'd be accepting these vouchers. This is a disproportionate way to deal with a minor problem - ie, lack of sandwiches - so 'no', I'm afraid.

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RJ said:

This really isn’t anything new.

The railway’s thing is “complementary means it’s not included as part of your ticket price, so if we don’t provide it, you have no recourse”. If they have the staff to do it, you might get a partial, or full catering service but it’s very much on a best endeavour basis.

Although understandably this isn’t made crystal clear in the advertising, this is where expectations should be set. For long journeys, best off making your own arrangements. On a recent CrossCountry journey from Durham to Bristol, we had to take an hour’s break at Birmingham because the catering service wasn’t provided, made a bit of a mess of the Advance fare arrangements for part of the journey but it had to be done.

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LowLevel said:

To be fair that position goes back a long time - however there is something to be said about the changes to consumer rights on the railway that mean it is not necessarily tenable to be like that now.

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RGM654 said:

If you can't rely on food and drink being available on the train, and don't want to take a chance, then you have to buy them before you join the train. Doesn't that largely defeat the purpose of ever providing them on board?

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Falcon1200 said:

Was it, IIRC, LNER who came out with a similar nonsense some time ago? It is nonsense, because unless the catering providers gift XC the food and drink, and the staff serving it are working for nothing, which of course is not the case, these things have to be paid for, and if not from the fares paid by passengers, where does the money come from?

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Djgr said:

It's not just about consumer rights. It's about having an ethical consumer led mindset.

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Watershed said:

Quite. If not first class ticket holders, who are they suggesting is paying for the cost of first class refreshments?

Standard class ticket holders? Taxpayers? There are no other sources of income on the railway - it's either passengers or taxpayers. And I'd be rather alarmed if standard class passengers or taxpayers are alleged to be paying for first class refreshments.

Simply put, the railway can't advertise first class refreshments in general terms, fail to provide them, and then claim they were never part of the deal. That is quite simply not how it works as a matter of consumer and contract law - and frankly, common sense.

If, like LNER, they advertise a specific menu (or no catering at all) by service then this would greatly clarify what passengers can (and can't) expect. But XC seemingly can't be bothered to do this.


Indeed. This is something that seems absolutely antithetical to the way the railway runs in Britain. It's all about operational convenience, fads and back-patting.

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