Press release -
James Martin menu wins most innovative caterer award
Virgin Trains on the east coast took home the coveted ‘Most Innovative Caterer’ award in the Onboard Retail Category at the annual International Rail Catering Group awards.
The menu includes award winning dishes such as lemon and herb roasted chicken and flavoursome chicken curry developed in the chef’s kitchen. James Martin also developed an exclusive range of jams produced by Yorkshire based The Fruity Kitchen and a premium Black Pudding served at breakfast in the full-English.
Alison Watson, Head of Customer Experience for Virgin Trains on the east coast said: “We are so pleased to see our menu get the recognition it deserves at the International Rail Catering Group awards. We believe in providing an outstanding service to our customers onboard and working with James Martin to develop this menu has been a key part of this.
“This is another step in Virgin Trains’ journey of improving every element of our customers’ experience when they travel with us. Our new First Class carriages are rolling out on a weekly basis now and our Azuma trains are being prepared to the highest spec in anticipation of future customer needs.”
James Martin, whose roots hail back to York - a key stop on the Virgin Trains east coast service, commented: “Virgin Trains came to me with a genuine vision and passion for improving the experience they deliver to their customers and – as a frequent Virgin Trains traveller – I shared their belief that the food on offer could have a real impact on customers’ experience as a whole.”
Topics
- Art, Culture, Entertainment
Categories
- business news
- trains
- east coast
About Virgin Trains:
Stagecoach and Virgin are working in partnership to operate the East Coast and West Coast inter-city routes under the Virgin Trains brand. Together, they are on track to revolutionise rail travel across the UK.
The combined network connects some of the nation’s most iconic destinations including Glasgow, Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds, York and London.
Virgin Trains is committed to delivering a high speed, high frequency service, offering shorter journey times, more comfortable travel and excellent customer service. Customers consistently rate Virgin Trains as one of the top long-distance rail franchise operators in the National Rail Passenger Survey (NRPS) commissioned by industry watchdog, Transport Focus.
On the East Coast route, £140m is being invested to create a more personalised travel experience. We have already invested £21m to completely revamp our existing fleet and customers can now benefit from 42 additional services (22,000 extra seats) per week between Edinburgh and London. 2018 will see the introduction of completely new Azuma trains being built in the UK by Hitachi.
The West Coast route has a proud record of challenging the status quo - from introducing tilting Pendolino trains, to a pioneering automated delay repay scheme and becoming the first franchised rail operator to offer m-Tickets for all ticket types.
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