Rail firms offer up better fare

With poor service, delays and sky-high fares, travelling by rail may seem unappetising, so train operators have come up with an action plan: revamping their buffet menus.

GNER and Anglia are spending a total of £250,000 on haute cuisine and table linen in an attempt to win back jaded customers.

GNER, which runs the line from King's Cross to Edinburgh via York and Newcastle, today launches a restaurant service and gourmet menu crafted by Harvey Nichols's head chef Richard Allen.

Passengers delayed outside Darlington will now be able to sample summer salad with asparagus; free-range chicken breast with Cajun spices and mango salsa on a bed of sweet potato pur?e; and a raspberry gratin with Armagnac and fresh mint.

Meanwhile, Anglia Trains, from Liverpool Street to Norwich via Colchester and Ipswich, offers Thai-spiced monkfish, pan-seared tilapia fillets, and moules marini?re.

If passengers' mouths aren't watering, perhaps it's because they have seen it all before. In a bid to improve what he called the "curled up, cardboard BR sandwich", Sir Clement Freud created a 1990 range including poached salmon and Chinese leaf with a dill and mustard sauce. They cost a third more, and shared BR's fate.

Fran Critchley, of the North-East Rail Passengers Committee, said: "We do hear customer service, including the food, is second to none. But there are passengers of GNER whose main priority is for the trains to get in on time, to be able to get a seat and for the fare to be reasonable."

At least commuters can be confident they'll be stuck on a train long enough to fully appreciate the exquisite food.