TransPennine Express (TPE) has launched a new menu for First Class passengers on its Liverpool to Newcastle services.
TransPennine Kitchen: Coast to Coast will focus on serving up hot meals influenced by famous food from along the route.
Promising locally sourced ingredients, the new menu includes a Steak and Newcastle Brown Ale pie and handmade hog roast sausage rolls from The Original Baker in Malton.
Northumberland smoked cheese features in the TransPennine double cheeseburger, and a regional cheeseboard includes northeastern specialities Harrogate Blue, Northumberland Oak-Smoked and Northumberland Nettle.
Black pudding in the full English breakfast comes from the Bury Black Pudding Company, crumpets are made by Warburtons in Bolton, and even the crisps are made in Yorkshire!
Vegetarians and vegans are well-catered for, with options including a Harissa vegetable stew and plant-based porridge.
Meals can be washed down with TransPennine Pale Ale, which is brewed especially for the rail operator by the Northern Monk Brewery in Leeds.
Coast to Coast is inspired by TPE’s West Coast Kitchen, which has been served up on services between Manchester and Liverpool and Scotland since last spring.
In addition to the new menu, TPE has recruited an additional twenty new customer hosts to the Liverpool-Newcastle route. This means sixty hosts now serve customers along the coast-to-coast journey.
Each service will carry two hosts, one serving First Class and the other dedicated to Standard Class passengers.
In Standard Class, the refreshment trolley will make three trips through the train on each journey.
With a focus on customer service, hosts have been specially trained by globally-respected, Sunderland-based expert and motivational speaker Geoff Ramm.
The results of TPE’s postcard survey show this has gone down well with travellers.
Customers have expressed a 99% satisfaction rate with the hosts’ service since the launch of West Coast Kitchen.
“We’re thrilled to launch TransPennine Kitchen: Coast to Coast, which builds on the success of our West Coast Kitchen.
Our new offering brings fantastic food and world-class hospitality together to create a First Class experience that truly stands out.”
Andrew McClements, Customer Experience and Transformation Director at TPE
Responses
Tried it , very nice I must say and OK it’s not the very best but it’s decent and the new TPE hybrids are very comfortable, I have travelled from Edinburgh to Penzance on the cross country first class service and been offered no food at all
Its takes so long on the laughingly called “Express” I’m surprised they are not offering bed and breakfast.