Transports of delight

P&O Stena has teamed up with Mayfair brasserie Langan's, which, for a management fee, will run restaurants on board P&O ferries. One by one, the vessels on the Dover-Calais route are having one of the famous brasseries installed on board in addition to its traditional offerings.

You might suppose this is all about improving standards, but Pat Hollis, responsible for P&O Stena's restaurants, says not. "Quality is not the issue. We were already running a very good restaurant on board. What Langan's brings is a name that people understand."

Hollis's point is that by putting an established name on board, the ferry will be able not only to improve its food, but to convince passengers that it has actually done so. The fact that Langan's attracted 1,500 diners in its first week's business - at about £20 a head for lunch or dinner - persuaded him that Stena was taking the right route.

But even before Langan's arrival, it was clear that food on board was growing in importance. The galley was the first thing the shipping line looked at when designing its new ships, to try to minimise the problem of restricted space, and dining is now acknowledged as a crucial part of the business.

Hollis says: "We now have something called ‘cruise à la carte', which is really a cruise that goes to Calais for the day, but an important part of that is eating on the ship. So, obviously, we are keen to make sure that we give our customers what they want."

This means variety as well as quality. In addition to Langan's, there is a food court, a fast food café and a coffee shop. Two courses in Langan's cost £14.50, with wine prices ranging from £5.95 for basic house wine to £17.50 for a bottle of 1996 Pouilly Fuisse by R Luquet.

The cruise idea acknowledges the fact that eating might be part of the reason for travelling, as opposed to it being a necessity because you happen to be on board at mealtimes. It represents a crucial part of the general effort to improve food on the move.

Food on trains has an image worse than any other eating experience, with the possible exception of food on planes. But, in Britain at least, attacking food offered to travellers has such an established pedigree that critics often ignore the real improvements being made, particularly in first class.

Poor quality in the past has partly been a result of complacency, which developed because passengers were a captive market. Railways and ferries, like airlines, have often seen themselves as providers of transport first, caterers second. If passengers did want to opt out, they might be able to take a thermos flask and sandwich; otherwise, there would be no choice of restaurant.

Poor food can also be blamed partlyon the difficult catering conditions onboard: cramped kitchens and limitedequipment, little storage space and strict safety restrictions. It also involves expensive short-term delivery arrangements for food and supplies.

There have been efforts to overcome all this. Train companies have recognised that they must compete with airlines in every way they can. In the lucrative first-class business passenger market, good food can persuade passengers to take the train rather than the plane between London and Manchester or London and Paris. People can also be persuaded to upgrade to first-class travel if the food on offer is better.

On the privatised remains of the British Rail network, the effort to improve food has included recruiting top chefs and wine consultants. The McCoy brothers consultancy for Great Northern Eastern Railways (GNER) is one example.

Now, cross-Channel ferry companies are turning to restaurateurs to put some life into tired on-board catering (see opposite). Airlines, too, are either trying to upgrade their meals or are abandoning food altogether in the battle to reduce ticket prices. Whatever the case, they are acknowledging that bad food isn't worth it: either provide good food or don't bother at all.

Jim Gilbert, head of catering for GNER, on the London-to-Scotland east coast line, looks after a dining car operation that uses galleys measuring just 8ft by 2ft to serve 125,000 breakfasts, 90,000 dinners and 60,000 lunches every year. Most passengers using this service are travelling first class, although dining cars are usually open to standard class passengers as well.

The food served on GNER is paid for on the train, as opposed to being included in the ticket price - as on Eurostar or the Orient Express. Prices range from £3 to £6 for a first course and from £7 to £16 for mains. Stalwarts include steak at £16.50, as well as dishes such as grilled salmon fillet or roast chicken served on onion confit with balsamic tomato sauce.

Puddings, too, seem like variations on traditional themes, such as chocolate bread and butter pudding (£4.75) and apple tart under an apricot glaze with toffee-flavoured cream (£4.95). Gilbert is coy about the net profits - although the company quotes 50% gross profit on its meals, this does not take account of wages and capital costs.

Gilbert argues that, although it is important that the food makes "a sensible return" in its own right, it is just as important that it attracts and retains passengers by creating the right "on-board experience" - a good meal might make the difference between taking the train or the plane. Certainly, it seems to be working for the 275,000 passengers who use the GNER dining cars every year.

Eurostar, which serves first-class passengers with food at their seats, places a similar emphasis on catering, and the fact that it is competing with airlines. Michael Aldridge, Eurostar's catering boss, has to organise the production of 1.8 million meals a year on more than 50 trains a day, on an annual food budget of about £18m - £10 a meal. Again, this excludes wages, tableware and other equipment, but the budget is based, Aldridge says, "on what we would like to achieve with the food", rather than any notional profit.

Indeed, at the top level, the gourmet meals provided on luxury trains such as the Orient Express are a large part of the reason people travel that way. You can't charge £1,130 for a one-way trip to Venice and not provide Champagne and all the trimmings.

The importance of food on the Orient Express has never been in doubt. Mark Ward, the on-board services manager, describes it as "a restaurant on wheels", unlike other rail services, which are "trains that serve food". Ward admires the food served by Eurostar, but he says that if other rail companies were to serve food of Orient Express quality, they would have to charge Orient Express prices.

In fact, the difference in price between Eurostar's most expensive first-class return to Paris and the Orient Express fare is not as wide as you would imagine: £429 on the Eurostar and £680 on the Orient Express. But Eurostar does offer deals that can reduce this fare hugely.

Despite having five kitchens on each train, the Orient Express faces the usual difficulties of the mobile kitchen. Ward says: "I havehad two or three chefs apply for jobs who would not fit in the kitchens. You need someone who is skinny. And they've got to deal with slow trains, fast trains and trains on hills. It isn't easy."

One indication of how far rail food has come is the interest critics have taken in it - although not all comment has been favourable.

Eurostar's catering achievements have had a mixed reception. While Ward approves of the developments, Craig Brown in the Sunday Telegraph compared it to being served food "third class on Skinflint airlines" - perhaps a bit harsh considering the menu's recent offerings of goose foie gras and roast quail.

But therein lies the problem for train food: knocking it is such a well-established national pastime that it may have to achieve near-miraculous standards of excellence to persuade diners that things really have changed.

But it does seem that the rail companies and ferry operators are starting to take the challenge seriously. Perhaps one day, its poor reputation may be a distant memory. n