1. NXEA has two obligations in its franchise agreement with regard to catering:
Stansted Sky Train Services
"The Franchisee shall, for the whole of the Franchise Term, provide and maintain on-board catering facilities on the Passenger Services from London Liverpool Street to Stansted and Stansted to London Liverpool Street (the Stansted Sky Train Services). The on-board catering services offered on the Stansted Sky Train Services shall be of a standard at least equivalent to the level of catering services provided on commercial flights provided by reputable airlines."
Norwich to London Service
"The Franchisee shall, for the whole of the Franchise Term, provide and maintain on-board catering services on the Passenger Services from London Liverpool Street to Norwich and Norwich to London Liverpool Street (the Norwich Services). The on-board catering services on the Norwich Services shall, as a minimum, include a trolley service offering light refreshments."
2. NXEA is proposing to withdraw the restaurant facility from its Norwich services by the end of February. This will be replaced by an "at seat service" that is currently being trialled. There is no contractual requirement for NXEA to continue to operate the restaurant service. Confusion has arisen for two reasons:
- At franchise award, National Express issued a press release that announced, among other things, that they would continue to operate the restaurant service.
- The "Agreed Form" passengers' charter (included in the Franchise Agreement) also includes a commitment for the continued operation of the restaurant service. NXEA has requested a change to the charter. DfT is under a legal requirement to enforce the franchise agreement reasonably, and our view is that this change cannot reasonably be refused as the commitment in the agreement explicitly and inarguably requires only a trolley service.
3. NXEA is the only operator that currently offers a restaurant service, other than a few services on NXEA.
4. The Department has typically not specified catering services in more recently-let franchises. Operators have been left to reach their own commercial judgment about what sort of catering services cover their costs-either directly or indirectly (by attracting more customers or generating more high-value ticket sales).