On a train journey, what would you consider a 'meal'?

[OliviaStabler]

I booked a first class return ticket as I was travelling a long way and the train company advertised a meal on both sections of the journey with that ticket. It was a bit more expensive than the standard class fare but with food and coffee I thought it was a bargain.

So I get to the train and I ask about catering. I get told that, as it is a weekend, there is no hot meal but a trolley of sandwiches and wraps etc will come round several times during the journey. This sounded fine.

The first time I see the trolly I pick a sandwich and a packet of popcorn. The sandwich was tiny but so was everything else on offer but as they supposedly come round several times, I was not worried. The trolly came by 30 minutes later and I ask for a sandwich. However I was met by the mother of all cat bum faces saying she has other stops to carer for and she walked off.

Was I being unreasonable? I picked the more expensive ticket as it had a 'meal' included. A tiny sandwich and a small pack of popcorn is not a meal to me.

This is about an agreement (with payment) between OP and the rail co. Not an excuse to food-shame another woman.

A meal I think should mean sandwich, some sort of side like a salad, fruit / desert, drink and a snack (nuts/ popcorn / olives).

That isn’t what I eat for lunch, but what I would expect having PAID for a first class meal on a train.

Elesaar, you always so judgemental?

I took a 4.5 hour journey on Virgin once. A sandwich and a packet of popcorn would not be adequate as a meal for that whole journey.

I would have found that very stingy and I would have been disappointed but some people round here never miss an opportunity to stick the boot in

When I've travelled on Virgin first class, they've had on offer a normal-sized sandwich or wrap plus crisps, fruit, cake and sometimes a small packet of nibbles, plus pretty unlimited tea and coffee and drinks including gin and wine. Plus you can use their first class lounges which have had snacks available. Seemed fine to me.

I don’t understand train travel It’s millions of pounds - how do you get a reasonably priced ticket?

This is London to Edinburgh first class prices - for one leg of the journey

I think personally I would complain. If the ticket was more expensive because you were getting a "hot" meal then a hot meal is what you should have got. Or it should be advertised that hot meals are not available at weekends, therefore you should have got a cheaper ticket if all your were being offered were small sandwiches and packet snacks.

Sounds stingy, but I would rather buy the cheapest of tickets, take on my own sandwiches and a big bag of crisps and look forward to a hot meal when I got home....but thats just me!!...XX

Our train line does the equivalent of plane food. Unlimited tea and coffee/drink. Fruit, muffins and sandwiches a few times per leg of journey and a small hit meal.

Las

It depends where you're going and what time of day. I travel on Virgin West Coast regularly and often book in advance so a 1st class ticket can be had at a fair price. Weekends are hopeless for food, though, because then they just hand out what they call a 'snack pack' of nibble-type things - I think because people can upgrade (which costs an extra £20, someone was asking) they can't judge the supplies they might need onboard for anything more ambitious. They do normally come round with the drinks trolley a few times, though.

During the week there's 'proper' hot food, i.e. an actual main course-type meal, at certain times, but I never seem to be travelling then. Their staple seems to be 'bacon baguette, soup or fruit salad'. The catering used to be much better but it's really declined over the last few years. Service is generally really good and very cheery though, so I'm sorry you encountered someone so unhelpful, OP. I would politely complain to Virgin and they'll probably send you a voucher.

We paid £20 each for first class weekend upgrade one way recently.

The meal was a snack box with mini chocolate fingers, mini pretzels and crackers type stuff.

And they ran out of those so we got nothing...

Oops. Last time I travelled down from Edinburgh the train in front broke down so we had their passengers board at York, they even let standard passengers into our first class (how very bloody dare they!!! ). The stewards were very careful to make sure the incomes didn't get our free sandwiches , drinks and coffee though.

I came back first class on Eurostar one evening and was pleasantly surprised to get dinner , hadn't even realised it was included.

It isn't worth doing first class at weekends. Even at the reduced price of the upgrade, it's taking the piss. I've done it very occasionally in the week and the difference is staggering. You may as well save the money and just buy your own food before you get on. And no, I don't consider a sandwich and popcorn a meal.

We did a 3 hour journey on an indian train last year, I think the ticket was £9 including food, it never stopped! several newspapers for everyone, lots of hot tea in special little flasks, snacks, an airline type meal and cakes afterwards. I haven't wanted to eat anything I've ever seen on a British train buffet, though the breakfasts on the Red Dragon used to be good.

I travelled to London recently on a weekend on (I think) east mids and got a full cooked breakfast! I’ve never had this. It was great!

Usually I get nothing or the trolley is broken service.

I have lost all faith in these kinds of meals. Even on planes these days I take my own meals - ie proper food, fish, eggs, veg.

However from a trade descriptions point of view I think you were robbed. If the small print is so small you hardly notice that there is not much of a meal at the weekend then they probably breached the law.

I can’t recall Virgin trains first class ever offering food more than once on a journey. They certainly don’t let you have whatever you like, whenever you like, anyway.

Try first class on Transpennine from Yorkshire to Glasgow. I do that one fairly regularly (4hrs+ in total each way) and the best I’ve ever had was a Scotch egg AND a piece of shortbread. Usually it’s just the biscuit.

If you buy a first class train ticket for the catering you’re almost certainly going to be disappointed.

You just need to lower expectations OP.

Ime, Virgin 1st class do trundle through on some routes with drinks, then the 'main course' option, then the fruit/cake bit, then more drinks. So it's a sort of staggered service, as it were. But only on some routes, and not reliably - as ever, it depends on how busy they are and whether everything's working to plan....which it isn't always....

I wondered how far i'd have to read into the thread before someone made a 'greedy' comment and that they'd be positively bursting after a sandwich and bag of popcorn. I did not have to wait long!

The website says that before 11am you get a panettone and a piece of fruit; and after 11am you get a sandwich or wrap and savoury snack.

They’ve been very careful to make sure the quantity is specified; and say additional food is available at the shop.

I think they’ve treated you in line with their website; and it was probably a difference of opinion between you and the staff member as to whether a sandwich and popcorn was “plenty of food”. When they said the trolley passed through a few times; I’d have interpreted that to mean that you can get your food when you’re hungry and you don’t need to worry about getting it the first time the trolley passes, rather than thinking it meant you could eat multiple times.

Did they offer to let you pay for more food? I don’t know if that’s a service they have.

I travelled first class on the London to Edinburgh route. Only thing we got was tea water and biscuits. Are you supposed to get a meal?

@Flowerbot actually I didn’t say I would be stuffed after a sandwich and a bag of popcorn.

I said it would be acceptable as a meal, and I don’t think it is reasonable to expect more unless unlimited food is specifically advertised - which is it not. In any supermarket a ‘meal deal’ for lunchtimes is a sandwich, snack and a drink.

When I last travelled first class at a weekend, I got a cup of tea and nothing more. Absolute shite, good job I'd only paid the extra £4 to make sure I had a plug socket at my seat.

No, that is not a meal but that is what you get at weekends.

The best thing ever is the Pullman sevice on Great Western to and from Cornwall. You have to pay but the food is AMAZING. Restaurant quality and makes a long tedious joirney a total joy.

I got a Virgin train back from Manchester a few weeks ago (weekday). The ticket was £2 less than the cheapest standard class advance ticket and I got a 3 course meal and so much wine I was tipsy by the time I got to London!

On virgin east coast you can usually have a sandwich, plus crisps, plus a muffin, plus a pack of buscuits, plus a banana or an apple. Plus several large glasses of wine.

You were a bit hard done by OP!

In the week you get a meal but it is a bit small. The tagine is nice, the two chicen things are not. The macaroni cheese is nice but small. The saussage roll is nice.