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A week on from those rail journeys, I have had a response from the Chairman of the train operating company concerned…

Dear Mr Giles

Thank you for your email of the 27th July 2011, regarding our First Class complimentary food offering.  I appreciate this was written somewhat tongue in cheek, although you raise some very valid points which we need to address immediately.

After I received your email I asked my teams to investigate the issues you raised and interview the staff delivering the service. I would like to address the points raised in the order written for ease of reading.

The £25 First Class single journey certainly was good value for money for our customers. At this time we do not plan to run the same promotion, however if you are registered on our website you will receive notification of most of our up and coming offers.

Indeed, every time you board one of our trains you should be greeted by a member of our crew, the remainder of the crew will be preparing for departure to enable beverage runs to take place following departure. There is a lot of preparation involved, but a crew member should always be on hand to greet our customers. This is so important and our customers should always be welcomed on board. There was no excuse on either of the  journeys you took with us. We do currently have some issues with our newspaper suppliers at Inverness, at present the newspapers are delivered at Edinburgh where they are taken aboard. At this time newspapers should have been distributed to our customers. We are currently sourcing a new supplier in Inverness and once organised, newspapers will be available on departure from there.

I was sorry to read you felt the table for two was not as comfortable as a table for four, although the dimensions per person are the same for both styles. In fact we do receive compliments on the spaciousness of our seating and train carriages.

I must apologise for the ride quality on the 07:55, which was poor between Edinburgh and York. Our trains undergo a safety inspection each night before they enter service and they are not allowed to enter service if they have any suspension related defects.  If a problem occurs during service then the train runs at a reduced speed until it is rectified.  Sometimes, worn track components can cause poor ride quality.  This can be to the extent that it is very noticeable, but not in fact dangerous.

Keeping the track, signalling and railway infrastructure in a well maintained condition is the responsibility of Network Rail.  If poor ride quality is experienced, Network Rail ask drivers and/ or train crew to pass on the information about where it has occurred so they can make arrangements to have it inspected and corrected if necessary. Network Rail also conduct regular scheduled inspections to ascertain track condition to ensure that it is safe for use. Our Head of Fleet will monitor the situation and has asked our staff to report any further instances to the maintenance depots where it can be investigated once the train returns.

So much work has gone into delivering such a massive change; from the refurbishment of our catering facilities, preparing different menu options, preparing new operating standards for our staff and as detailed as to how our tables should be presented. Every aspect of our service has been extensively reviewed, to ensure we get it as right as possible.  Tablecloths are not part of the table set-up, however we provide East Coast table slip mats. These should provide adequate stability to stop mugs/crockery from moving when the train is in motion.

The introduction of our First Class Quiet Coach followed extensive customer research and has so far been well received. I was alarmed to read of the manner in which our crew boarded at Newcastle. Whether they had been in the Quiet Coach or not, this behaviour is completely unacceptable. This has been addressed with the crew in question.

Unfortunately the 07:55 Inverness to King’s Cross did not have a chef on board, this was very short notice sickness and we were unable to arrange a replacement chef before departure. This impacted our staff greeting customers on board (certainly not an excuse), instead the crew went immediately on board to organise what breakfast could still be served without a chef. Please be assured that all our crew are trained to provide basic breakfast options, just not the full menu range.  With the benefit of hindsight the Crew Leader should have still made a greeter available. As the crew board the train 15 minutes prior to departure, they were unable to advise customers that a chef was not on board.

The Crew Manager responsible for the crew in question travelled back to Inverness the same day with some of your fellow travellers from your morning service. Although they too were disappointed, they were very appreciative of the crew’s efforts to offer a catering service.

The departure boards should be updated if we are unable to provide a full catering facility. As we were able to offer catering provision, albeit limited the departure boards were not updated. I do offer my apologies that the bacon/ sausage sandwiches were served on untoasted bread and were not piping hot. Due to the chef not being on board, the crew did have a more limited variety of kitchen equipment to work with, which did cause delays to the breakfast service.

You should have been offered both orange juice and apple and blackcurrant juice on the ‘Breakfast’ and ‘Mid Morning’ menu. The Crew Manager has addressed the non-delivery with our supplier. I can confirm we do not offer pineapple or apple juice on our weekday menus.  The coffee served is ground and sealed for freshness prior to delivery. It is then freshly filtered and served on board.

When choosing what alcoholic drinks would be available, we looked at previous sales to determine the most popular customer choice, I’m sorry you were disappointed with our on board wine selection.

Whilst I fully appreciate your comments regarding the power sockets not being available to the aisle seats on a table for four, due to cabling constraints this enhancement would only be considered when we are overhauling the interior of our First Class carriages. This is a good point and one which definitely will be considered when the fleet is next refurbished.

I was quite surprised you could not find a menu on the table, every service I have travelled on has a menu (with our new branding on) on each table. Having checked this after I received your email, the train in question did have menus available on each table.

Although I understand the journey between King’s Cross and Aberdeen does transgress into what would be considered to be evening meal time, it was decided that the ‘All day’ menu offer, both hot and cold options, were sufficient for our customers. With each commercial decision, we must ensure the offer we provide is viable to us as a business. Of course we need to balance this decision with the needs of our customers.  The sandwich option should have been a full sandwich garnished with crisps and salad, followed by cake or fruit if desired. This has been brought to the attention of the Crew Managers and is being addressed with all on-board crews. Your comment regarding the hot variety and portions has been noted and will be considered when we next review the menus.

We have four menu rotations a month (each Wednesday), so we can ensure variety for our regular travellers. The cakes you describe are from two different rotations and would not be available at the same time. This is the same for the Greek yoghurt on the ‘Breakfast’ menu.

I take your comment regarding the serving ‘Afternoon Tea’ on our 14:00 King’s Cross departure and this is being considered as part of an overall review, currently taking place, of the offer we provide on each service.

In conclusion, I can only say that I am sorry for the number of issues you experienced on board and cannot argue with the points you raised. There are reasons why these issues occurred, although I fully appreciate that these are of no concern to you, in fact you wanted the complimentary service advertised.  The changes to the First Class offer were the biggest we’ve ever made and inevitably we have experienced some inconsistency with the food availability as you’ve described in your letter.  We recognise that an integral part of the First Class offer is delivering a high standard of personal service, every time. As such, we have invested in a significant customer service training programme that our entire customer facing on-board team has now attended.

Your feedback is important and has been passed on to the managers of the crew involved.  Thank you once again for writing to me and allowing me to personally respond. I hope you will continue to be a valued First Class customer of East Coast.  We can do better than this (and do on a regular basis) and I hope we can prove that to you one day.

 

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