Elf ’n’ safe-tea! First class rail staff refuse to use real mugs

WHEN you pay for a first class ticket, you expect first class service.

So passengers on the newly nationalised London North Eastern Railway were disappointed when staff refused to pour tea into proper mugs – and could not serve hot food because they had not been trained to use the ovens.

Staff say they are only insured to use disposable cups for hot drinks. LNER says this is a misunderstanding.

But the company has admitted that crew cannot use the ovens on some trains, meaning they can only offer cold food such as egg sandwiches and ham hock salad. For some, this may evoke memories of the unappetising soggy sandwiches served on British Rail in the Seventies.

Last Friday, rail consultant Adrian Quine was bemused by the no-mug policy while travelling first class between Leeds and Peterborough.

He tweeted that the staff ‘claim they’re not insured to pour tea into china mug provided on the table’. They are understood to have explained they could not use mugs as they are on loan from East Midlands trains. In another tweet, Mr Quine

‘Only offer cold food such as egg sandwiches’

said ‘there was no hot food in 1st class as crew not insured on Stagecoach ovens’.

The East Coast Main Line between London and Edinburgh was temporarily renationalised last month because joint operators Stagecoach and Virgin had overbid for the franchise and could not afford to keep up repayments to the Government. The service was renamed London North Eastern Railway, resurrecting a brand that disappeared just over 70 years ago – 20 years before steam trains were taken off the tracks.

The move appeared to be an attempt to conjure up the romantic image of the golden age of the railways.

LNER told the Sunday Times its staff were in fact insured to use mugs and said: ‘The crew are probably just not familiar with this train and so decided that they would use the disposable cups’.

Today the Prime Minister will confirm the East Coast Main Line is to receive investment of up to £780million to give passengers more seats, as well as faster and more frequent journeys.

Work on improving the platforms, tracks, signals and junctions across the route will begin next year and is scheduled to be completed by the early 2020s.