Roland Perry wrote:
In message
-sept
ember.org, at 17:10:39 on Sun, 10 Sep 2017, Recliner
remarked:

But they are implementers, not policy-makers.

Yes, particularly where DOR was concerned: Adonis was the policy maker.

I don't know to what extent he micro-managed the policymaking, rather
than delegating it to Holt and her teleported-in senior team.

For example, did he decide specifically to scrap the restaurant cars, or
was that just collateral damage of a policy to "balance the books,
however unpopular"?

I had thought that had already happened before DOR took over, but I think
you're right, it was DOR that done it.

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/east-coast-anger-as-yorkshire-rail-dining-is-axed-1-3083684

NX had previously axed restaurant cars on MML and Anglia, and probably
would have done so on EC had it kept the franchise long enough to do so.

I don't know when they last had fully functioning restaurant cars but
Midland Mainline's service was terrible when I started using them in
2005. While they did have a "bistro" type paid-for food offering, they
never solicited orders and all they wanted to do was offer free drinks
and snacks. Only south of Derby when on a down service.

When EMT inherited the franchise they still operated a "First with
Breakfast" ticket, but the staffing for the restaurant and buffets was
in crisis and they ended up shuttling catering crews between either
Market Harborough and London, or Derby and London.

It didn't help that EMT didn't want the newly arrived POS/credit card
machines, so for a while they only accepted cash, and receipts were
written on the back of a napkin.

Not sure when EMT threw in the towel completely, but they are
Stagecoach, not NX.

I thought the restaurant cars had been cut before Stagecoach took over from
NX?


I know nothing about the Anglia catering service.

I think it was Adonis who instructed that free food and drinks be provided
to First pax instead, similar to Virgin's WC offering.

The free "food" is pretty pathetic, even more so at weekends.

Yup. Has it changed much since VTEC took over from EC? My first weekday
experience of it will be in a couple of weeks.