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Rail Gourmet - Hard to stomach!
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22-03-2010 7:27pm#1
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JD - what's the point of this post? You go on a train anywhere in the developed world and you're sure as hell not going to pay the rate at a major supermarket or even a corner shop.
My point is that rail catering is yet another thing that is wrong with the way our railways are operated. I don't care what way rail catering is operated in Timbuktu but I do care about the way it operates here - i.e. as yet another disincentive to travel by train. Why can't the rail catering be operated on a cost covering basis by IE rather than this nonsense? Heaven only knows a private operator might even use the incentive of cheap meals/snacks etc as a way of encouraging patronage?
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Rail catering on CIE has been a bad joke for decades and I think that the my two pics below illustrate the point. In 1977 an English MP kicked up a fuss in the House of Commons about the fact that breakfast on BR was dearer than at one of London's top hotels - Claridges - and CIE was in fact dearer than the hotel too. Remember the Irish pound had not broken away from Sterling at this time and was at parity with it.
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Silverharp2 wrote: »well maybe it is unsustainable. It would be interesting to know what the turnover per staff is compared to firstly a supermarket, a regular cafe and finally a train service. However comparing to Dunnes is a strawman imo, at least start off with a higher price Spar. I'd still think it is unfair to compare it to any form of retail, it really is a catering service not "shopping"
It should correctly be compared to FR.
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I'm sorry, but without wanting to be rude, can you not make a single post without resorting to calling for CIE's abolition? As it stands IE are in the business of running the railway by it's primary function, that is get people from A to B. Everything else is essentially a frill. If it is uneconomical in the present day to provide an inhouse catering service, and it is impossible to make it cover it's cost, then there is no reason why it cannot be outsourced. It may have been all well during the golden subsidy age where silver tea pots and personal service were all the rage and no one really knew or cared what sort of loss it was making, but in the lean current age, there's no place for excessive internal spend-and-lose on the proviso of something that can be done externally; and quite frankly, most of those prices are quite competitive when one considers that it is a premium service to be able to purchase drinks, snacks etc. on a train. Ditto if you were buying on a plane, in a cinema, at a tourist attraction. You will never ever find prices to be as low as available in a supermarket. The economics are simply against that. And I don't buy into the "CIE are the devil, and do things like this on purpose because they hate the railways" type arguments being applied to things like ditching Network Catering for Rail Gourmet, they aren't the first to outsource to offload some costs in this way, they wont be the last.
You're not Barry Kenny are you? And, yes I'm afraid I find it very difficult not to call for the abolition of CIE in every post I make about rail, and I think if you had had as much experience as I have had of them you would be doing the same.
I suspect that silver teapots were long long before the 'golden subsidy age' as you call it - which, in case you haven't noticed, we are still living in. €300 million subvention in 2008 and that doesn't include all the new capital projects. I don't maintain that CIE hate railways but rather they operate under the belief that 'everybody's business is nobody's business' and hence the mess we're in. Opening up the Western Rail Corridor at the end of this month and trying to shut down the southern end of it at the same time - not to mention Limerick/Waterford; Limerick/Ballybrophy and Manulla/Ballina. Only in Ireland. For every million those useless twits lose it means more cancelled operations; more people on trollies in A&E; less special needs assistants etc.etc.etc. CIE are part of the National malaise and need to be terminated with extreme prejudice.0 -
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Judgement Day wrote: »What on earth has that got do with overcharging - you're already paying through the nose for your train fare - Dunne's don't charge you to come into the Supermarket.
But you cant eat/drink the food you buy in the supermarket.
My can of Coke at €1.60 was worth the convenience this evening. Served to me at my seat too!0 -
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What are you referring to here? Catering or global prices? Within catering, it's run by a commercial entity, with Rail Gourmet charging (within limits) as they see fit to attempt to cover their costs. Ergo they're on par with the commercial examples. AIUI, Network Catering were less expensive, but obviously loss making. So you would have a loss making catering outfit, rather then a more expensive (seemingly viable) commercial outfit, but still for the most part offers products on par with other similar premium services? And aren't ticket prices regulated by DoT?
Yeah, you have a good point there - put it down to tiredness/narkiness on my part - I'm letting my pathological hatred of CIE/IE get the better of me. I was thinking of Network Catering rather than Gourmet Rail when I posted that. DoT don't control ticket prices but all applications to increase fares have to be approved by them. Still, I stand by my main point that regardless of who is operating the catering, it is too expensive. Too expensive means that it tarnishes the image of inter-city rail travel which already is struggling and cost price (even loss leading) catering needs to be used as a marketing tool by the railway. The outsourcing of rail catering has been a disaster. You may not know it, but in the bad old days of CIE catering - even before Network Catering - their rail catering department did outside contracts such was their reputation. I know as I hired them myself on at least three occasions. Night.
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