Within this email there are short updates on:

• Catering resuming onboard our trains
• Trial of our new ‘Let’s Eat – At Our Seat’ app
• Use of face coverings onboard and in stations
• Aberdeen and Inverness services resume

Limited catering resumes onboard

We are working hard to reintroduce a full catering offer onboard our trains. In the meantime, from today (Thursday), we have introduced light refreshments on all our services.

Those travelling in Standard Class will be able to visit the Café Bar to buy hot and cold drinks, as well as some pre-packaged snacks. In First Class, customers can collect free hot drinks or water, biscuits and crisps from the kitchen area. The purchase or consumption of alcohol is still not permitted on our services.

Let’s Eat – At Your Seat trials to begin

In addition to the temporary measures noted above and in a first for the UK rail industry, this August LNER will begin trials of an ‘at-seat’ catering offer onboard our trains.

The service will enable customers to order and pay for food and drinks from their phone in the comfort of their own seat, with items brought to them by a member of our onboard team.

The digital in-seat app can be used by customers in both Standard and First Class and will provide an additional layer of confidence and reassurance to those who would prefer to stay seated for the duration of their journey.

At Seat Ordering will be in addition to and complement our existing onboard food and beverage services.

Let’s Eat – At Your Seat was developed by Edinburgh-based company QikServe and is the first project to come out of the LNER FutureLabs accelerator programme, which is fast tracking the development of digital innovations to improve customer journeys in the rail industry.

Updated face covering rules

As you’ll be aware, face coverings have now become mandatory in shops and retail outlets in England. They were already mandatory in shops and when using public transport in Scotland.

As guidance from the Department for Transport is that this applies to transport hubs in England, we are asking our customers to wear a face covering when they are in any of our stations whether that’s on the concourse, in the Travel Centre or on a platform – unless they are exempt. This is of course in addition to face coverings being mandatory when on board.

To encourage customers to wear a face covering, we’d love to see you wearing your design. Tweet us @LNER and use #TrainFace to show us your covering in action. We’ll be sharing some of our favourites.

As we mentioned within our previous update, we have recently launched regionally-inspired face coverings to raise money for our charity partner Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM). These are available for customers to order. Our first three exclusive designs, manufactured on our route, have been hand-illustrated to celebrate some of our most popular destinations – Edinburgh, London and Newcastle.

Further timetable uplifts

We can confirm that from Monday 3 August we are reintroducing our full Aberdeen and Inverness services. This is following the successful reintroduction of all our intermediate stops between Edinburgh and Aberdeen last week.

For services across our route, customers are now able to book journeys up to 4 September.

If you have any questions about LNER, please let us know. We can be contacted via PublicAffairs@LNER.co.uk

The latest coronavirus information can be found on the dedicated page on our website lner.co.uk/travel-information/coronavirus-travel-information/ and Twitter @LNER

Questions relating to tickets and personal travel should continue to be directed to our Customer Service Team.