§ 10. Mr. Crouchasked the Secretary of State for Transport whether, pursuant to his introducing the inquiry into standards 220 in motorway service stations, he will take steps to review standards of catering on British Railways.
§ 21. Mr. Shepherdasked the Secretary of State for Transport whether, pursuant to his introducing the inquiry into standards in motorway service stations, he will take steps to review standards of catering on British Railways.
§ Mr. HoramThe Railways Board has already commissioned consultants to examine various aspects of train catering and it is currently introducing experimental changes in accordance with the consultants' initial findings.
§ Mr. CrouchI thank the hon. Gentleman for that reply, but is he aware that, notwithstanding Mr. Peter Parker's statement that he lives with the realities of competition, if one travels from London to Liverpool it costs more than £5 to have dinner and 17p to have a cardboard cup of powdered coffee? How is it possible, with these prices, for British Rail to have made a loss of £2½ million on its catering last year? Does he not think that someone is being taken for a ride?
§ Mr. HoramThe hon. Gentleman will know from all the publicity that prices have been reduced on some items of British Rail catering, and that is probably very welcome. There are also changes in the menus and snacks that are available. I never have the £5 meal on British Rail, though I occasionally have a very good breakfast, which is rather expensive but of very good quality. If I want some lunch, I have a sandwich.
§ Mr. ShepherdWill the Minister ask the consultants to look into two specific areas that need improvement—first, the provision of catering facilities on long-distance cross-country routes, as these are often absent, and, secondly, the absenteeism and other factors that conspire to the non-inclusion of catering facilities on inter-city trains? I am sure that he will agree that this is absolutely maddening, especially when one has scheduled one's day on the basis of having a meal on the train.
§ Mr. HoramOn the journey between London and Newcastle I have occasionally been in the same predicament as the hon. Gentleman has obviously been 221 in from time to time. I note what he says with some feeling.
§ Mr. SpriggsThe Question is about standards of catering, and there is no restaurant in the country that could do anything to beat what British Rail does on the route between London-Euston and Glasgow.
§ Mr. HoramMy hon. Friend's wholehearted support for British Rail catering is well known and is taken very well in some parts of the House. I have had some of the best breakfasts of my life on British Rail.
§ Mr. Giles ShawIs the hon. Gentleman aware that the answer to the question posed by my hon. Friend the Member for Canterbury (Mr. Crouch) might have been obtained if the House had seen fit to accept my Bill last week? Can he explain why some price reductions are to be found only on short-distance lines? Is he aware that coffee that has been reduced in price from 17p to 15p is to be found only on Eastern Region, on the journey to Peterborough, where the Under-Secretary lives?
§ Mr. HoramThe hon. Gentleman's knowledge of these matters is clearly comprehensive. I would not go along with his solution, which is to denationalise the catering and hand it over to private enterprise and motorway caterers, such as Trust Houses Forte. Given what Egon Ronay has said about them, I do not believe that it would be an improvement.
§ Mr. BeithIs it not an abuse of the monopoly power of British Rail catering that it is not now possible to drink tea in any British Rail buffet car, because it has been replaced by a highly-priced synthetic substitute?
§ Mr. ParkIs my hon. Friend aware that while the staff is providing the gorgeous breakfast that he is talking about, they rarely have anyone to spare to serve the coffee and sandwiches to which he has also referred? Is he further aware that when one makes inquiries, the reply is "We do not have the staff to do it"? What is he going to do about that?
§ Mr. Temple-MorrisIf we can leave £5 menus and breakfasts for a moment, the Minister will be aware that it was recently announced that catering would command greater attention from the chairman himself, Mr. Peter Parker, and that, as a result, beef, chicken and salad would be added to the sandwich fillings. Has the Minister been into any snack bars on trains lately? If he has, he will know why more and more people are taking their own food on to trains.