I'm on a Cross-Country train and have just been informed that "the lovely Janice...[long pause]...and the equally lovely Keith" are serving refreshments. In a startling case study of how progress can often be retrograde, Cross-Country recently removed their 'Retail Shops' - buffets to you and me - from their trains to make more room for seats. So now the 30-odd standing passengers have 6 more seats to squabble over, but the chances of getting a decent cup of coffee have been slashed for everyone. Janice and Keith must pick their times carefully, because between many stations there isn't time to push the trolley along the train, over or around the standing passengers. So even if the trolley had a built-in Italian coffee machine most passengers would never even get a whiff of it. I wonder if Cross-Country's accountants had factored in a dramatic fall in catering revenue when they made this particular decision....
Hence the return of the trusty insulated flask. For some time the flask seemed to have been demoted to a quirky accessory favoured only by fellwalkers and those slightly baffling commuters who dress like fellwalkers even when their most serious climb of the day will be steps on the station footbridge. Now, on this train, I can see at least three flasks without cricking my neck. Mine is, of course, the nearest, and I took great pleasure in filling it with freshly brewed espresso before setting off from home. No more acrid, dusty strainings at £1.60 a throw for me - I have the real thing, thank you kindly, Janice. Or Keith.
On your average British weather day (starting off cool and dry, becoming increasingly muggy in the afternoon and then with a biting wind starting up around 7pm*) the flask is actually the perfect accessory, although it is rarely utilised to its full potential. Fill it with strong coffee in the morning for a lively start to the day. Refill with a good source of tap water around lunchtime and that will see you through the afternoon with cool rehydration. Then, depending on your mood, a third fill of either a herbal tea or a decent red wine will make a long journey home much more bearable. Furthermore, if you do go for the alcoholic choice you will be ahead of the curve when it comes to these drink-free zones in public places. No booze-addled ASBO-phile would have the foresight to pack a flask, so when you spontaneously snatch an evening in the park when the sun happens to stop by, you will be all the more free to enjoy it. (Culinary tip of the day - a very dry Chardonnay is the perfect accompaniment to fish and chips.)
I keep reading that tap water is growing in popularity as a backlash against over-packaged, overpriced bottled waters with high ecological footprints and questionable ingredients takes hold. This might be true of home consumption - where access to a tap is a fair bet, but when travelling I have seen little evidence of this. There is a capitalist logic that shops and public transport franchises can make money from bottled water, but not from tap water. However I think a bigger obstacle is infrastructure. When asking for tap water at a station cafe I was served a cup of boiling water from the coffee machine, over ice to make it cold. The waitress assured me I didn't want to taste the water from the tap, and I am inclined to believe her. Despite the exemplary quality of our tap water most public buildings seem to have a 'stagnation and disgustification' facility that makes drinking water from the tap very unpleasant, if not actually unwise.
If we hold with the argument that one path to sustainability is to replace an unsustainable PRODUCT with a sustainable SERVICE, then what we need here is a revolution in drinking water infrastructure for public places. Modern government would call this a Flaskholder's Charter: all public places would have dispensing points for chilled, filtered tap water and boiling water, so one could fill one's flask at a moment's notice. And of course, most people would be
delighted to pay, say, 40p for a high quality refill, so there is money to be made.
My fellow passengers and I have just been advised that Janice and Keith intend to serve us "quickly and safely throughout our journey". Damn. Just when I was fancying a dangerously slow cuppa.....
AW.
* Not to be confused with a British summer, which largely consists of water falling out of the sky in inconvenient ways. This does not, in itself, preclude the use of flasks, and may even encourage it.
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