Which East Midlands Services have at seat service

[trainsaretooex]

Hello, does anyone know which East Midlands Services have at seat refreshments services and how it is decided

 

[bb21]

Tables 1 and 2, where shown with a trolley symbol in the shaded areas.

 

[sheff1]

Which services are supposed to have an at seat service and which do is not necessarily the same thing.

In my experience the trains on the Liverpool to Nottingham section which are advertised to have an at seat service do and the staff make every effort to come through, even on very busy trains. It is extremely rare for me to travel beyond Nottingham so I cannot comment on that section.

On the Sheffield to London trains, all weekday services should have an at seat service in First and I have not encountered one which didn't. In standard they are supposed to come through with a trolley but whether they actually do is variable.

EMT don't seem to know what they want to do on the Saturday London trains. All the buffets were closed and supposedly replaced by a trolley service which, in practice, was just as likely to not appear as appear. They then reversed the policy and reopened the buffets again but stopped the at seat service in First as well as standard (except for a very small number of breakfast trains). I have not travelled on a Saturday since the recent timetable change but the EMT website seems to suggest that the trolley service is back - whether that means the buffet is now closed again ??

 

[LowLevel]

To explain briefly how it works. First class weekday at seat service is provided by in house EMT staff, as well as the Saturday breakfast trains. Standard class at seat service is provided by Rail Gourmet staff - this is on the London trains (all bar one or two late evening trains), Liverpool - Peterborough (most trains except early morning and late evening) and in summer holidays Skegness. The RG staff open the buffets of a weekend and provide first class provisions from there with there being no trolleys on the London route of a weekend.

Consequently the provision of staff in one class of accommodation doesn't necessarily mean there will be one in the other. RG's staff are paid much less than the in house EMT staff with far worse conditions as well and consequently issues like short notice sickness or vacancies can be problematic.

 

[sheff1]

The RG staff open the buffets of a weekend and provide first class provisions from there with there being no trolleys on the London route of a weekend.

Yet the EMT website states, regarding the London trains, "During both weekdays and weekends, our on board teams provide an at-seat trolley service where you can purchase hot snacks and refreshments."

 

[LowLevel]

It's been the buffets of a weekend for quite a while now. There was talk of bringing them back in the week for specific trains too but that's gone somewhat quiet.

 

[sheff1]

It's been the buffets of a weekend for quite a while now.

It has indeed. I just wondered if the wording meant a change with the new timetable. From what you say, it would seem not.