Page 69 - Vía Libre Special - 25 Years of Spanish High Speed Rail

Catering on AVE trains; 25 years

of the best onboard service

On April 21, 1992 the first AVE left Puerta includes four types of service: breakfast, lunch and
dinner, and the snack box service, which is served at
de Atocha station bound for Seville and a brunch and tea time. Before passengers can enjoy
these meals as they travel in comfort and a top
service of six trains a day was inaugurated, speed, the logistics involved include many months
on which, depending on the price of the of work, an enormous organization, exhaustive
quality controls, the best technology on the
ticket, onboard catering was included as market for this type of services, and the quality of
raw materials which once cooked makes the AVE’s
part of the service. Today, 25 years later, Spanish omelette a rival for any served in the best
hundreds of AVE trains travel the length bars in Spain at breakfast time.
A total of 32 different set meals, between
and breadth of Spain and in Preferente lunches and dinners, are designed for the entire
year, and there are eight different lunches and eight
class every day between 5,000 and 9,000 different dinners for each of the two seasons, which
last for about six months each. The spring-summer
set meals are served.
B winter season, from October to March, although
season runs from April to October and the autumn-
these periods are approximate.
The system for organizing set meals means
Behind this service is a logistical operation which
that each week two different lunches and two
is perfectly coordinated between Renfe, Ferrovial
Servicios (the company responsible for the onboard
served on different routes and will be rotated,
catering service), and Serunion (the largest collective different dinners are prepared. These will be
catering company in Spain). being replaced by different meals the following
The catering service that Renfe offers its week, until a four week cycle has been completed.
customers in Preferente class on its AVE trains Once each cycle is finished, it starts again at the

years of Spanish high speed rail

REnFE-PATiER

Vía Libre • Special 25th Anniversary of the AVE Edition 69