A TALE OF TWO SITTINGS: Chris de Winter Hebron compares catering and comfort on two recent train journeys - Norwich-London on One Railway and Amsterdam-Koln on DB

摘要

IT IS 25 YEARS since I was last able to directly compare a British and a German rail trip - and on that occasion the German train won hands down. After enduring faulty heating and a frozen roof-tank on the UK journey, I recall greeting the German train with 'At last I've returned to civilisation!' But much has changed in the quarter century since: would this year's comparison reach the same conclusion? My two TOCs this time were closely matched. One Railway -which currently holds the Norwich-London franchise - has improved substantially on Anglias already high reputation for comfort and catering, while Deutsche Bahn (DB) recently came top in a survey of 29 TOCs in 21 countries conducted by Actinia. Both pride themselves on providing quality food on board. Neither uses any of the big catering groups that currently dominate European rail catering: One is the only British main line TOC not to use Rail Gourmet (it sources its own fresh food locally), and DB moved from using Mitropa to sourcing its own comestibles in 2003, though it does use cook-chill catering supply companies - notably Sander Gourmet near Frankfurt and Muller-Menu just outside Hamburg.