Railways give away 'airline standard' meals to attract customers back

Since January 2018, Vietnam Railways Corporation has provided airline-standard meals for passengers. In addition to rumors of “taking advantage” and selling to passengers like “prison food”, the leader of this corporation affirmed that the cost of meals will be paid by the railway, and ticket prices will not be increased to attract passengers to return.

Treat guests, no ticket price increase

Since January 2018, Vietnam Railways Corporation (VNR) has provided airline-standard meals for passengers. In addition to rumors of "taking advantage" and selling to passengers like "prison food", the leader of this corporation affirmed that the cost of meals will be paid by the railway, and ticket prices will not be increased to attract passengers to return.

In recent days, the news that the railway industry provides meals for train passengers has created a lot of conflicting information. Many opinions say that the railway industry selling meals in the ticket price makes passengers have no choice, and some even commented that the railway is repeating the "prison food problem" like the previous passenger bus.

Chairman of Vietnam Railways Corporation (VNR) Vu Anh Minh said: Meal costs will be included in ticket prices, but the railway industry will bear this cost and not increase prices for passengers. According to Mr. Minh, meals are one of the efforts of Vietnam Railways Corporation to increase service quality while maintaining or even lowering ticket prices.

Currently, passengers prepare their own food or have to go to the service car on the train to eat.

“We have built new trains, cleaned and renovated stations, trained flight attendants at aviation schools... and now we are providing more meals while keeping the ticket prices the same. Our goal is to add more services to attract customers and increase output. The profit per customer may decrease, but when there are many customers, we can make more profit,” said Mr. Minh.

Mr. Minh explained that the termination of providing meals on trains in 2007 was not simply because passengers did not want to use this service of the railway at that time, but partly because the railway industry wanted to increase profits per ticket. “Up to now, despite many efforts, the number of passengers has decreased (currently, the transport rate of the railway accounts for less than 1% - PV). We realize that the most important thing is to have a large number of passengers coming to the railway, not the maximum profit per passenger,” Mr. Minh said.

Answering the question of why not reduce ticket prices and let passengers save money to choose whether to buy meals or not like low-cost airlines, Mr. Minh said: Airlines have a travel time of a few hours, some people need to eat, some do not. "Traveling by train takes a long time, most passengers need to eat when it's time to eat. That's why we do it on a large scale" - Mr. Minh said.

Currently, Vietnam Railways has completed the negotiation process with the supplier, Tan Son Nhat Airport Services Joint Stock Company (Sasco). Accordingly, meals will be provided on a pilot basis on 6 SE trains (the highest quality train type currently) on the North-South route.

During the day, depending on the time, passengers will be provided with a main meal (valued at 35,000 VND) and a side meal (25,000 VND/meal). The main meal includes: Rice with salty food (meat, fish, eggs) or fried rice, fried noodles, fried pho; each portion has soup, fruit, and drinks. Side meals include dumplings, sticky rice, wet rice cakes or rice rolls and drinks. The menu takes into account regional culinary factors, for people who eat normally or are vegetarian. Mr. Minh said that due to the long travel time on the train, the meal is also increased in volume compared to air travel.

Don't make a mess

Through a preliminary survey, many passengers are excited about the new plan of Vietnam Railways because they will no longer have to "buy rice from a pot and water from a jar" every time they take the train or have to go all the way to the food car on the train to buy a meal.

Answering the question, “Do you want a discount on your ticket or a new meal from the railway industry?”, Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngan (an office worker at 60 Ly Thai To building buying a train ticket at Hanoi Railway Station) said: “With the SE train price of more than 1 million VND, a discount of a few tens of thousands is not significant. If there is a meal with guaranteed quality, it will be better.”

One of the typical meals that will be provided free of charge by the "ship".

Ms. Ha, a passenger who had the opportunity to take the train to Quang Binh last summer, also said that having an extra meal was reasonable because with more than 10 hours on the train, her family really needed to have dinner for convenience.

According to Prof. Dr. Bui Xuan Phong, Chairman of the Vietnam Railway Economics and Transport Association, Vietnam Railways' decision to "treat" passengers to additional meals on the train is a brave decision, aiming towards a civilized service.

“The scene of passengers preparing their own meals on the train or the train staff cooking and selling on the train… is a service that was suitable in the past. Nowadays, a neat, clean, convenient meal, rich or poor, eating the same is a civilized trend. Therefore, I strongly support this way of doing things” – Professor Phong said.

However, Mr. Phong said that although the railway's cutting of profit per passenger to increase passengers is a strategic move, if not drastic, it will be counterproductive.

“The meals of the aviation industry on the Hanoi - Ho Chi Minh City route have recently been worse than before. If the railway industry relies entirely on aviation quality, does not closely monitor and implement resolutely, and considers meals for show, with low value, it will continue to fail” - Professor Bui Xuan Phong warned.

According to Tien Phong Newspaper