Travellers on Hull Trains between Hull Paragon and London King's Cross can look forward to an improved catering experience on board.
A new food and drink trolley service providing at-seat service will be available in standard class while the first class offer will also see improvements.
The new menus will feature locally-sourced products from a number of well-known Yorkshire businesses and were launched at an event held at Hull Paragon Interchange Station attended by stakeholders and representatives from partnering companies.
The selection of Yorkshire's finest products includes Atom Beer, which is created in Hull. Its signature beer, Locomotion, will take pride of place in the company's beverage offering. Listers Crisps are grown, hand-cooked and packed in Howden while Henderson's ‘Hendo's' snacks will be available. Henderson's Relish originated in Sheffield and the soya and potato spicy snacks have been added in recognition of the growing number of South Yorkshire customers who connect with Hull Trains's services at Doncaster. Those travelling first class can enjoy River City Coffee which is roasted in Hull.
Nine additional on-board hosts have been hired by Hull Trains along with three service centre assistants who will work in the company's in-house operated food and drink to train logistics support operation.
The improvements to the food and drink offer come on the back of a 31% increase in passenger journeys in the last quarter, as compared to the same quarter last year. In all, 358,000 journeys were made. The open-access train operator was recently named ‘best in class‘ at an industry awards ceremony. The company received the highest accolade – gold – in the second generation new inter-city train fleet category. This achievement follows a similar recognition in 2022.
Hull Trains also serve Brough, Howden, Selby, Doncaster, Retford and Grantham en-route, with morning and evening services extended to and from Beverley and Cottingham.
Martijn Gilbert, Managing Director at Hull Trains, said: “We're delighted to bring a food and drink refreshment offer back to our standard class customers with this new at-seat trolley service. We've worked tirelessly to source a number of great products that truly represent the spirit of Yorkshire to help make the new initiative a success by providing a great experience for our customers. We're also passionate about playing our part in the communities we serve and our work on this has a strong focus on celebrating the region and supporting local independent businesses, taking their products all the way along our route to London.”.”
Allan Rice, Co-Founder of Atom Brewery added: “We're excited to be part of this initiative by Hull Trains. Bringing Atom Beer onboard gives passengers a taste of the vibrant brewing scene in Hull.”
Kevin Talbot, Business Development Manager at Henderson's (Sheffield) Ltd, said: “Being part of Hull Trains' catering line-up allows us to showcase the unique flavours of Sheffield to a broader audience. We're delighted to contribute to this exciting venture.”
Laura Platt, Co-Owner at Listers Crisps, observed: “Listers Crisps, hand-cooked in Howden, are thrilled to join forces with Hull Trains. We hope our crisps add an extra layer of enjoyment to passengers' journeys.”
Matt Pearson, Founder of River City Coffee, noted: “As a Hull-based coffee roaster, we're proud to be part of Hull Trains' effort to promote local businesses. We're confident our coffee will be a delightful addition to the travel experience.”
Great to see that Hull Trains are re-instating catering for Standard Class passengers! Maybe their masters at First Group could now turn their attention to doing soething about catering on Great Western Trains. This is almost non-existant, despite their webisite claiming it is on most of their services. In my experience, you have about a 25% chance of seeing a catering trolley on the London services, and on the long-haul Caridiff-Penzance services (five hours+) there is none whatsoever, even in First Class!. However, the Pullman dining is excellent!!