Line dining

My parents used to work for British Rail. My mother was a tea bag drier and my father used to weld the crusts on to the pork pies," said the late, great comedian Eric Morecambe.

Railway catering has long been the butt of jokes, and visiting York's National Railway Museum it's easy to see why, in typically British fashion, we found a rich vein of humour in our quiet suffering.

Here, the legendary curling British Rail sandwich is revealed in all its glory. A 30-year-old document outlines precise instructions on how to prepare and fill the sandwich. Two-thirds of the butter and at least one-third of the filling had to be placed along the diagonal line where the sandwich was cut to make it appear better filled. But BR was still selling more than eight million sandwiches a year by 1993, its last full year as a publicly owned company.

So, 10 years into privatisation, what's changed? Well, there's been a huge increase in the variety of food served on trains. And some rail companies are genuinely passionate about catering and service. Great North Eastern Railway (GNER) has asked chefs from restaurants along its North Yorkshire route to devise dishes, including John Benson-Smith, from Hazlewood Castle in Tadcaster, Andrew Pern of the Star Inn, near Helmsley, and Tom and Eugene McCoy from McCoys at the Cleveland Tontine, near Osmotherley.

GNER is also serving dishes created by Loch Fyne Restaurants, while Great Western's menu includes asparagus ravioli, fresh pizza, and chicken salad with lemon grass and ginger. Anglia Railways serves Lavazza coffee, organic sausages, and hot towels to freshen up after a meal. All in all it's a far cry from the egg-and-cress sarnie and instant coffee from days of old.

But while privatisation might have fragmented Britain's rail network, the collapse of Railtrack means it's now going to consolidate. The Government wants one train company to operate out of each London terminus, instead of three or four. New franchise agreements will whittle down the present number of train companies from 22 to about 12. It's likely to spell good news for GNER, Anglia Railways, Great First Western, and Virgin, which all provide on-board catering. Larger franchises will also mean more business for their individual suppliers.

The Greater Anglia franchise will be the first up for tender next spring. If Anglia Railways wins, its suppliers will benefit from the added business of trolley services on Cambridge and Stansted Express routes. Anglia's suppliers include regional companies, such as Kettle Crisps, Direct Catering sandwich makers from Norwich, Adnams brewery in Southwold, Suffolk, and Lane Farm in Woodbridge, Suffolk

The desire to have a greater control over the menu was one of the reasons why Anglia dropped Compass-owned Rail Gourmet in 1999. The Compass subsidiary controls the lion's share of rail catering, with 83% of the purchasing and delivery market. Anglia catering business manager Darren Fennah explains: "We weren't getting the benefit of purchasing power and decided we could do it cheaper and better in-house. We moved our operation from Liverpool Street to Norwich and cut delivery and rental costs. We sorted out local suppliers, built up an infrastructure, set up a store and changed it all over one weekend. It's given us greater control of our menus."

In theory you could ask Rail Gourmet to source food from specific requested suppliers, Fennah says, but at a cost. Rail Gourmet has its own business interests and preferred suppliers to look after and besides, Fennah enjoys the personal relationships he's built up with his Norfolk and Suffolk suppliers.

Anglia is an unusual case. With a journey time of just under two hours from London to Norwich, there's no overpowering obligation to have a full dining service. The company even serves afternoon tea. It seems chairman Jeremy Long has a passion for on-board dining and insisted on improving the service.

Last year £50,000 was invested in new cutlery, crockery, menus, and napkins. Originally dining cars were first-class carriages, but they've now been declassified. It's first-come, first-served, and buying a cheap day return and choosing to eat on the train effectively means passengers are upgraded to first class. The all-day catering service makes Anglia a dream for hungry commuters with a healthy expense account. You can enjoy a full cooked breakfast (£13.95) on your way to work, and a three-course dinner (about £25) on the way back.

But for staff, the short journey presents challenges. In the most extreme case, the chef and staff would have 40 minutes to serve 24 three-course dinners if the dining car suddenly filled up at Colchester, but this is unlikely.

Virgin has taken an airline-style approach to its food service. Light snacks, and an unlimited supply of drinks, are included in first-class ticket prices, which, for example, can vary from £79 to £277 for a London to Glasgow return. Philippa Cresswell, director of service development, says the meal service is an added customer value and not an obligation because there's a walk-in shop on board.

Extensive customer research has shown that most customers don't want a full meal, according to Cresswell. "They've paid first class so they can work and don't want their space cluttered up with food," she says. Nevertheless, until 9.30am a full cooked breakfast is the most popular option. After that it's a sandwich for lunch, and bacon and egg pasta salad, Greek salad, or chicken, leek and potato pie for dinner. The food is served to a full capacity of 172 passengers from heated trolleys.

GNER offers 100 restaurant trains every weekday, a rise of 52% since the company started services in 1996. Development manager Nick Spencer says a commitment to quality and service comes from being part of the Sea Containers Group, which also includes Orient-Express trains and hotels. The company has recently had visits from Norwegian and Hungarian railways curious about introducing top-end dining to their networks. GNER uses ingredients and recipes from producers along the East Coast main line. Items from its current menu include Loch Fyne sea bass with fresh rosemary, roasted artichoke, cherry tomato, olive and shallot (£15.50) or haggis wrapped in an oven-roasted chicken breast, served in malt whisky gravy (£15.95).

Spencer says: "This year we've seen a more consistent demand for our food than in previous years. Historically, when Parliament goes on holiday we see a slump, but this year we've addressed this with the use of special offers." He estimates turnover this year will be £17.8m, up from £17m last year. The service is profitable and the company wants to expand it.

Paul Hinsley, product manager at First Great Western, is keen to stress the romance of on-board dining. "Hurtling towards Penzance, enjoying fine food and wine while admiring the view when the track is one metre from the sea at Teignmouth, to me is an unbeatable experience," he says.

The West Country franchise is due for tender in spring 2006, and could mean a widening of the net for First Great Western and its supplier Sodexho, which won the First Great Western contract from Rail Gourmet in 2001. Hinsley reckons that one of the key drivers in terms of the franchise is customer satisfaction, and First Great Western's renewed focus on catering and its three-tier offer will help it beat off potential bids from Thames and Wessex.

As well as a buffet on every service, nearly 300 journeys a week carry a cook-to-order chef. All passengers can order dishes such as a breakfast platter (£5.95), freshly baked pizzas (from £4.95) and toasted sandwiches (from £2.95). A further 10 services a day have a dining carriage with three-course meals at about £25 a head. Hinsley says the individual products are targeted to be profitable but, overall, food service is a cost to First Great Western.

Our culinary journey takes us back to the National Railway Museum in York. I think we can safely say the discoloured instructions on how to create that famous BR sandwich are nothing more than a historical curiosity.

Track record

• ANGLIA RAILWAYS
  Principal routes London Liverpool Street, Norwich, Peterborough, Great Yarmouth
  Purchasing and delivery In-house
  Suppliers Kettle Crisps, Adnams beer, Direct Catering, organic sausages from Lane Farm, Suffolk.
  Rates of pay Rail chef £14,000 a year plus bonuses
  Fiscal turnover (catering) 2002: £3.5m; 2001: £3.4m; 2000: £3.3m
  Service 22 restaurant services a day, Monday to Friday, including breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner. One 24-seat dining car per train. First-come, first-served.

• FIRST GREAT WESTERN
  Principal routes London Paddington, Exeter, Cardiff, Penzance
  Purchasing and delivery Sodexho
  Rates of pay Starting salary £15,000 plus benefits
  Turnover (catering) 2002: £7.6m
  Service 245 daily trips have the travelling chef service: a chef cooks food to order served at first class tables or ordered from the buffet for standard ticket holders - 10 daily services have a restaurant carriage.

• GREAT NORTH EASTERN RAILWAY
  Principal routes London King's Cross, Leeds, York, Newcastle, Aberdeen, Inverness
  Purchasing and delivery Rail Gourmet
  Suppliers Russell Hume for meat, Deli-Chef for desserts, Real Soup for sauces and soups, Trust Quality Food for tray meals
  Rates of pay Rail chef £16,500 a year
  Turnover (catering) 2002: £17m
  Turnover (ticket sales) 2002: £400m
  Service 100 restaurant services a day, Monday to Friday. First-come, first-served.

• VIRGIN TRAINS
  Principal routes London Euston, Manchester, Wolverhampton, Holyhead, Edinburgh, Glasgow
  Purchasing and delivery Rail Gourmet
  Rates of pay An average of £8 an hour for all catering staff
  Service An airline-style daily service. First- and business-class ticket holders get complimentary meals and drinks. Walk-in shops.

JOBS ON THE LINE

Jo Curtis, an Anglia chief stewardess, worked in a care home for 13 years. She qualified as a care manager but disliked the administrative workload and moved on to the trains. "I'm a people person. You get to know the regulars, like that lady who just got off at Ipswich. Sometimes we'll sit down together for a chat. It can be hard work but it can be fun, too."

John McGuire, an Anglia chef, earns £14,000 a year plus bonuses. "As catering hours go, it's good. We don't do split shifts or weekends," he says. Staff work 35 hours a week.

Perks include a pension scheme, free parking, free travel on Anglia, and a 75% discount on the rail network for you and your whole family. A year with no absences will get your pass upgraded to first class. All staff get a 3% sales commission.

Virgin chefs work 10-hour days starting at 5am. Pay averages £8 an hour across all catering jobs. The only fully cooked meal on Virgin is breakfast. Other meals are assembled or heated up, so chefs do other duties, such as serving tea and coffee throughout the day. Both Virgin and Anglia have a similar level of staff turnover. Nearly a third of catering staff leave within a year, but this includes internal promotions to train manager, driver or station manager posts. Railway personnel get rigorous health and safety training, which includes how to deal with violent or abusive customers.

Nick Spencer at GNER says working in an industry which gets a constant ribbing in the press can be wearing and people can leave for this reason. But after a career in hotels, he found railways "a breath of fresh air".