Virgin revisits catering

Virgin is set to restore a full catering service on its London to Glasgow route from September, when a fleet of high-speed tilting trains makes its debut.

A spokesman for the company said that it had previously stopped the catering service on Virgin trains due to a lack of customers and replaced it with a complimentary airline-style meal service for first-class passengers.

"Now we are going to see if there is a market for the traditional restaurant car," he said.

From 27 September an … la carte restaurant service will be available to all Virgin passengers on four trains a day. The 402-mile journey will take four hours and 40 minutes.

Menus are being developed and finalised, and if the service is successful, it will be extended to other trains on Virgin's London to Scotland route.

If other train operators' experiences are replicated, then the Virgin service should be popular. Great North Eastern Railway's (GNER) services from London to Aberdeen and Inverness has restaurant cars offering 100 services each weekday and a catering turnover of £17m.

GNER's menus include dishes by chefs John Benson-Smith of Hazlewood Castle in Tadcaster, and Andrew Pern of the Star Inn, Harome, North Yorkshire.