Station refreshments

Text 1: Ten Minutes for Refreshment, by Barnaby Coote

An original essay written in a nineteenth-century voice; a period simulation, not an archival document.

Of all the institutions of the railway, none is so universally abused as the refreshment room, and none, I think, so richly deserves it. The train stops for ten minutes. Two hundred passengers leap out and charge the counter, behind which three young ladies of icy composure regard them as a general regards a mob.

The tea is scalding, so that one cannot drink it in ten minutes, and costs sixpence, which one cannot afford to leave. The pork pie has been upon the counter, I am credibly informed, since the opening of the line. The sponge cake is of a dryness that would be remarkable in a desert. I saw a stout gentleman attempt a Bath bun, fail, and leave it upon the counter like a defeated general abandoning his guns.

And yet we buy. We have no choice. The company knows that a hungry traveller between Rugby and Crewe will pay any price for anything, and it charges accordingly. We grumble, we gulp, the bell rings, and we run back to the carriage with our mouths burnt and our purses lighter.

Text 2: Six Minutes to Change, by Megan Lyall

An original contemporary article.

Everybody complains about station food, and everybody is right. You have six minutes to change trains. You and four hundred other people sprint to the one open kiosk, where a teenager with headphones round her neck serves you with the weary calm of a hostage negotiator.

The coffee arrives at roughly the temperature of the sun, so you cannot drink it before the train leaves, and costs four pounds, which you cannot bear to waste. The sandwich, an egg and cress in a triangle of plastic, has a use-by date that is technically today. The croissant has the texture of a roof tile. I watched a man in a suit wrestle with a flapjack for a full minute before surrendering it to the bin.

But we keep buying. What else are we going to do? Everybody knows that a hungry commuter stranded at a junction will pay anything for anything, and the prices prove it. We moan, we burn our tongues, the announcement comes, and we run for the train, poorer and no less hungry.

Both writers describe buying food at a railway station.

What are the similarities between the writers’ views of the food and the experience of buying it?

Draw on evidence from both texts to support your answer.