Modern Model of Food-service Management in Railway Transport

Roza Timakova

1,2

and Evgeniya Samoylova

Ural State University of Railway Transport, Yekaterinburg, Russian Federation

Ural State University of Economics, Yekaterinburg, Russian Federation

Keywords: food service, RW-catering, passenger service, railway transport, service, catering.

Abstract: In the competitive environment of the transport industry, the issues of providing passenger service in railway

transport have become conceptual importance. The change in the trajectory of the tourism and hospitality

sector development aimed at the domestic tourist market and the reduction in air traffic at this stage due to

objective reasons allows Russian Railways to strengthen its position. The developed food service management

model based on the proposed innovative solutions of a product, marketing, process, and organizational nature

is a potential resource project for the formation of a customer-oriented service. As a niche product service, an

improved branded concept of the RW food is proposed as a result of the building new service standards, the

use of innovative production technologies, the digitization of customer services and business processes, and

the improvement of the quality of service, which will contribute to the promotion of a complex product in

railway transport—passenger transportation, and growth of the economic efficiency of the Russian Railways.

1 INTRODUCTION

The sustainability of the transport system is primarily

determined by the volume of freight and passenger

traffic and the quality of transport services.

According to MGI, the total value of infrastructure

assets for the development of infrastructure should be

70% of GDP; in the Russian Federation, their total

value has reached 61%. According to the

Comprehensive Plan for the Modernization and

Expansion of the Main Infrastructure for the period

up to 2024, about 40% of the investments will be

directed to infrastructure, including transport

(Markova, 2021), which will ensure the intensive

development of the transport system and its customer

focus.

Currently, effective business strategies are

focused on customer service and, accordingly, on

effective service technologies. Unlike other modes of

transport (air and bus ones), the duration of travel by

rail transport is significant, which determines the

direction in the service strategy. According to

(Misaeva, 2021), the increasing popularity and

accessibility of railway tourism for residents of

various regions of Russia and the revival of railway

tourism as a new business area as a result of the

technology of using direct cars in passenger tourist

trains are one of the possible measures to accelerate

the restoration of pre-crisis traffic volumes.

Consolidation and creation of interorganizational

relations of public authorities, regional structures, the

Russian Railways, tour operators, and other

enterprises operating in the hospitality industry,

contributes to the promotion of mutually beneficial

areas of this activity: from sharing resources

(managerial, informational, material, labour,

financial) to improving work efficiency, building up

the investment potential of territories in the context of

pandenomics and pronounced positive dynamics of

the overall and the average degree of satisfaction

(Timakova, 2021).

The study of the technological features of the

organization of servicing passengers traveling by rail,

including for tourism purposes, shows the need to

consolidate structural units at the Russian Railways to

create a single service product. The product line

offered by the Russian Railways for its passengers

includes a standard set: ticket sales, including the cost

of bed linen, transportation, accommodation,

catering; sale of printed and souvenir products and

sanitary and hygienic supplies. However, in a

competitive environment, a new quality of services,

in particular catering services, is being formed, in

order to increase profitability and to improve the

efficiency of the enterprise. Against the backdrop of

the established mentality of passengers: meals on

trains are expensive, it is more reliable to take food

with you or to buy at stations along the way of the

train, there is a need for food and experiences, in

108

Timakova, R. and Samoylova, E.

Modern Model of Food-service Management in Railway Transport.

DOI: 10.5220/0011579800003527

In Proceedings of the 1st International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference on Transport: Logistics, Construction, Maintenance, Management (TLC2M 2022), pages 108-113

ISBN: 978-989-758-606-4

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

accordance with the expectations of customers of

different target groups. It is known that at present, a

sustainable consumer behavior model of the

population is also projected through gastronomic

preferences. Thus, according to (Rogach, 2020), more

than 55% of the surveyed foreign respondents note

that they always purchase tours based on online

reviews containing photos of beautiful meals. At the

same time, 31% of respondents confirm that they also

always take pictures of their food in a restaurant or a

cafe and 15% of respondents post such photos on

social networks. It is the positive reviews about the

food service that often become the basis for choosing

a tour for 30% of respondents and always—for 17%.

People are attracted to objects/events/things that

allow them to demonstrate their desired image, while

generating positive impressions and increasing the

rating of enterprises captured in such a context.

The Russian Railways provide guaranteed

(standard prepaid) meals—it is included in the ticket

price and additional meals—depending on the type of

carriages. Additional meals are presented as a full

board basis or half board basis, to choose from

(breakfast, lunch, or dinner) and with a choice from

the menu. Along with this, certain prerequisites that

make it possible to strengthen the service component

in the implementation of the “RW food” (RW

nutrition), the so-called meals on transport (the

authors introduce a new term by analogy with in-

flight meals on air transport) against the backdrop of

the COVID-19 pandemic and sanctions measures to

limit international air traffic with the Russian

Federation, for parallel global trends have arisen:

development of domestic tourism due to the existing

steady growth in the number of citizens of the Russian

Federation to local travel within the country and an

increase in the passenger flow of such tourists, which

predetermines the purpose of the study as the

development of a modern model of food service

management in railway transport based on the

existing resource potential of the Russian Railways in

the implementation of the RW food.

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

The sources for the study were publicly available

official information resources, including the Russian

Railways website, and research literature. During the

study, basic terminology has been used, in accordance

with GOST R 51006-96 “Transport Services. Terms

and Definitions” and the state standard GOST R

51004-96 “Transport Services. Passenger

Transportation. Nomenclature of Quality Indicators»;

general scientific research methods based on content

analysis, using the deconstruction method, an

analytical approach and system synthesis, followed

by interpretation of the research results, have been

used.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Achievement of performance indicators set by the

Russian Railways is determined by an integrated

approach to increasing passenger turnover as a result

of carrying more passengers and improving the

customer service. According to the information

shown in Figure 1, it can be seen that over the past

decade, the largest passenger turnover was in 2012—

114.0 billion Pkm, followed by a downward trend due

to various reasons—increased competition from air

carriers, active development of outbound tourism,

non-competitive railway transport service, etc.

In 2020, the main factor that significantly affected

all areas of activity, including the transport industry,

was the COVID-19 pandemic (Umanets, 2021).

Under these conditions, the passenger turnover has

reached a drop depth of 48.2 billion Pkm, which

amounted to 51.5% of the pre-pandemic level in

Figure 1: Passenger turnover through the network of the Russian Railways.

100

110

120

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

Passengerturnover,

billion pass-km

Years

Modern Model of Food-service Management in Railway Transport

109

2019. However, in 2021, with the change in the travel

trajectory of the country's population and the dynamic

development of domestic tourism, the passenger

traffic through the Russian Railways network has

reached 103.4 billion Pkm, including long-distance

passenger traffic amounted to 72.0% of the total

turnover against 68.5% in 2020 and 74.3% in 2019.

In short-term forecasting, indicators can improve due

to geopolitical changes due to the growth of domestic

tourism and the active movement of the country's

population between regions. In order to consolidate

the position of rail transportation and to increase the

competitiveness of the Russian Railways, it is

necessary to strengthen the customer focus of service

departments, including food service, which, in our

opinion, can also be due to the efficiency of

activities—other activities currently bring profit to

the holding, unlike passenger transportation.

The corporate strategy of the Russian Railways

has been built, in accordance with the main objectives

of the predictive socioeconomic development of the

Russian Federation until 2030 and the Transport

Strategy of the Russian Federation for the period up

to 2030. The target business model for the balanced

development of the Russian Railways holding is

shown as the following blocks: transportation and

logistics ones, passenger transportation and service,

infrastructure, international engineering, and

transport construction, and a social one. The

Passenger Transportation business block as the center

of responsibility for providing customer-oriented

passenger service includes areas for improving the

product offer, digitizing customer services and

business processes, improving the quality of service,

and achieving economic efficiency.

Strategic planning of a public catering complex as

a result of the development of an integrated

management model is an effective way to assess the

development of the company (Timakova, 2021) and

it is adaptively applicable when planning the RW

catering concept in the food service model at the

Russian Railways.

The business process for achieving the quality of

service in the passenger transportation is shown in

Figure 2.

Under these conditions, for the introduction of

innovations, in accordance with the requirements of

GOST R 56261-2014 “Innovation Management.

Innovations”, it is necessary, according to (Makarova,

2021), to use micro- and macromodels that allow

comparing situations “as it is” and “what to do” in

order to predict the consequences. On average,

domestic enterprises spend 1-2% of their budget on

innovations.

Table 1 shows the main types of innovations that

are proposed to be introduced as a part of the

Figure 2: Block diagram of creating the quality of transport services of the quality management subsystem in the passenger

transportation of the Russian Railways.

TLC2M 2022 - INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL CONFERENCE TLC2M TRANSPORT: LOGISTICS,

CONSTRUCTION, MAINTENANCE, MANAGEMENT

110

improvement of the “food service” at the Russian

Railways.

At the same time, according to the typology, the

food service model refers to an innovative

(competitive) strategy, which increases the

competitiveness of railway transport, contributing to

an increase in passenger traffic and the development

of domestic tourism, including railway tourism.

Considering tourism as a potential resource for the

quantitative growth of a passenger traffic, it is

necessary to pay attention to the possibilities of niche

tourism products and to expand the tourist flow

through the transition from the traditional model of

the tourism product range to the strategic one, from

extensive to intensive development. It is well known

that the issues of expanding the range when selling a

tourist product are especially relevant for Russia,

where the main flow of tourists is directed to two key

destinations—St. Petersburg and Moscow

(Preobrazhensky, 2021).

In most foreign countries, on-train catering

companies in the world are owned by the carriers

themselves.

At the same time, the transfer of a part of non-core

functionality to outsourcing companies under the

customer experience management in railway

transport, when assessing the perception and

impressions of a consumer from traveling by rail, can

improve the quality of passenger service and reduce

the service product cost (Gulyaeva, 2021).

In the Russian Railways, ready-made meals are

produced by the Unified Catering Network (UCN)

enterprise (Arpicom Management Company), which,

according to a contract with the Federal Passenger

Company (FPC), JSC, provides catering services for

passengers of luxury cars on a number of long

distance trains.

On April 15, 2021, the Russian Railways have

launched a test stage of the “Concept for the Provision

of Catering Services” on long-distance trains of FPC,

JSC. Special bistro cars, which are supplied with

sterile containers with ready meals, appear as a part

of the new concept.

When forming an RW food, it is conceptually

important to take into account the existing positive

experience in creating an information system for

ordering in-flight catering, which, according to

(Pavlyukovich, 2021), will automatically change the

number of servings and the range of products in

orders depending on the change in the route of a

Table 1: Characteristics of different innovation types.

Types Characteristic

Technological

Gradual

Product

New products (RW food, additional food—assortment, packaging, new partners—

outsourcing)

New application of products (guaranteed food)

Vending machines with snacks and hot drinks

Modern mobile snack bar

Night menu, brunches, continental breakfasts

Family full board, group meals

Radical

Process

Delivery technology (RW food workshop, logistics, delivery centers, catering)

Unified system of product quality standards for outsourcing catering companies

Unified system for auditing the quality of products and services

Software (intelligent automation)

Lean manufacturing (management concept aimed at minimizing losses)

Offer of soft drinks

Non-technological

Gradual

Organization

Creation and implementation of workflow, systematization of the enterprise

(corporate code, regulations)

Operational management system (implementation of operational software, food

service standards, service, appearance)

Organization of the work of the kitchen and the trading area (regulations, regulatory

documentation, reci

e & cookin

rocess flow card, HACCP,

roduction control

)

Marketing

Promotion, valuation, communications (RW food market research, price positioning,

communication strategy, cash flow forecast)

Social

Accessible environment

Social tourism for senior citizens

Patriotic education

Modern Model of Food-service Management in Railway Transport

111

board, the change in the composition of the crew, and

the number of passengers.

An interesting solution in the form of edible

dishes for environmentally friendly passenger service

is proposed for in-flight passenger service

(Kolpinskaya, 2021), which can also be successfully

used in the RW food.

Among all modes of transport, it is railway

transport that is distinguished by comfort, a variety of

accommodation conditions, the ability to provide

passengers and travelers-tourists with a range of

services (transport, food, accommodation, leisure

activities). The cars have increased comfort; they are

equipped with air conditioners or climate control

systems, comfortable seats, panoramic windows,

shower cabins. Informativeness while traveling by

rail is higher than by bus (Kosareva, 2021).

At the same time, the issues of providing

passenger service are currently becoming important

due to the expected growth in passenger traffic

against the backdrop of geopolitical changes, a

certain reduction in air travel, where the main

ideology was to reduce travel time. Passenger

satisfaction in railway transport shall be determined

primarily by the comfort of travel and the level of

development of service technologies.

In order to improve the customer service and to

organize feedback from passengers, the Russian

Railways operate a number of client servers: a virtual

reception desk, a hotline, customer support centers in

the Telegram and Viber messengers, and the Russian

Railways to Passengers mobile app. The information

obtained shall be confirmed by the results of

marketing research (Chocholac, 2018), where the

analyzed criteria were ticket prices, the convenience

of transportation, the customer service, and the train

staff’s behavior during the trip, the cleanliness of the

car interiors, the frequency of proposed connections,

and the offer of refreshing drinks during the trip.

Tutu.ru, the Analytical Center for the Trips and

Travel Service, is joining in to study the opinions of

passengers. For the period from mid-2016 to the

present, more than 475 thousand responses have been

collected, which makes it possible to form an

assessment of the service quality, the results of which

are available to all visitors when searching for a

railway ticket on the website.

According to the results of a 2020 study

(Kasymova, 2020), using Google forms, it was found

that 53.8% of respondents do not use catering services

on the train; 23.1% of them visited the restaurant car;

15.4% purchased products sold by the conductor;

7.7% chose meals included in the ticket price.

According to (Hwang, 2021), consumers who

choose an individual, rather than a fixed menu, and an

individual way of eating meals, rather than in groups,

have a higher level of perception of the functional

value of meals and satisfaction, which is taken into

account when creating a food service management

model.

An important component of the proposed food

service management model is the direction to reduce

waste in the production and sale of the RW food (as a

result of the implementation of the lean production

concept), the reasons for which can be an

unreasonable number of food orders when booking, a

late refusal of a prepaid order by passengers, order

changes, quality, temperature of the meals, etc.,

which is consistent with the opinions of a number of

authors (Gao, 2021; Gladysz, 2020).

The most important problems of food service and

organization of the RW food include: non-

standardized menu of regional catering shops

throughout the entire route of the railway train, high

cost of raw materials, design features of railway

transport (restriction on the location of food sets)

(Zyukina, 2020). The modern food service

management model should be based on service

standards.

The proposed business model for food service

management includes the following elements:

marketing and analysis of the food service standards

system state at the Russian Railways, goal setting,

designing the food service system, preparing to

ensure the system operation, implementing the

process, monitoring the quality of the process at

Figure 3.

In the process of implementing the food service

model, the basic principles of ВУК (Russian:

Всеобщее управление качеством), or TQM

(English: Total Quality Management) should be

taken into account. With this approach, the consumer

assessment process can include an assessment of the

quality of not only the results obtained, but also the

internal (production) processes of the transport

company, as well as the quality of service by

personnel (Lavrov, 2018).

In our opinion, the proposed food service model

based on formalized features will increase the

profitability of this direction in railway transport.

4 CONCLUSION

Against the backdrop of the transport market

saturation with services for the transportation of

passengers and increased competition in the current

TLC2M 2022 - INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL CONFERENCE TLC2M TRANSPORT: LOGISTICS,

CONSTRUCTION, MAINTENANCE, MANAGEMENT

112

conditions of limited air traffic and, accordingly, an

increase in passenger traffic in rail transport,

including through the active development of domestic

tourism, the issues of service efficiency in organizing

the RW food are of particular importance. In order to

improve customer service, various innovative

solutions are proposed aimed at creating an integrated

approach to the provision of services (management,

marketing, production, service standards), the use of

outsourcing and catering services, the introduction of

the concept of “lean production” in the provision of

food services, the organization of an innovative RW

food models and development of adaptive service for

different categories of passengers. The developed

business model of food service management based on

a set of technological and non-technological

innovations will make it possible to create a client-

oriented model for managing railway transport

services.

REFERENCES

Markova, E. S., Voronin, N. V., 2021. Innovation

Economics and Law 2 (17), pp. 9-18.

Misaeva, E. V., 2021. Economics and Business: Theory and

Practice 4-2 (74), pp. 26-29.

Timakova, R. T., Ergunova, O. T., Lebedev, A. V.,

Ilyukhina, Yu. V., 2021. Bulletin of St. Petersburg State

University of Economics (UNECON) 6 (132), pp. 62-

68.

Rogach, O. V., Frolova, E. V., Shcherbachenko, P. S., 2020.

Revista Inclusiones 7, 20.

Umanets, V. V., 2021. Economics of Railways 3, pp. 60-66.

Timakova, R. T., Ergunova, O. T., 2021. II International

Conference on Economic and Social Trends for

Sustainability of Modern Society – (ICEST-II 2021)

116:229, pp. 2037-2045.

Makarova, I. V., Shubenkova, K. A., Mavrin, V. G., Boyko,

A. D., 2021. Computer Research and Modeling 13(2),

pp. 381-394.

Preobrazhensky, A. B., Garkushina, N. A., 2021. Service

Plus 15(3), pp. 29-42.

Gulyaeva, O. A., 2021. Proceedings of the II International

Scientific and Practical Conference, pp. 26-29.

Pavlyukovich, D. S., Panfilov, I. A., Kosheleva, A. A.,

Sopov E. A., 2021. Prospects of Science 8 (143), pp.

33-36.

Kolpinskaya, A. A., Gazhur, A. A., 2021. Modern

Innovative Technologies in Economics, Science,

Education, pp. 248-254.

Kosareva, N. V., Adashova, T. A., 2021. Bulletin of the

Altai Academy of Economics and Law 2, pp. 61-65.

Chocholac, J., Trpisovsky, M., Kudlackova, N., 2018.

Transport Means, pp. 246-251.

Kasymova,

D. M., Yashkova, N. V., Rastegin, D. B.,

Bulganina, S. V., Lebedeva, T. E., 2020. Moscow

Economic Journal 9, 53.

Hwang, J., Kim, S., Lee, Y-K., 2021. International Journal

of Hospitality Management 93: 102750.

Gao, S., Bao, J. L., Li, R., Liu, X. J., Wu, C. F., 2021.

Sustainable Production and Consumption 26, pp. 78-

88.

Gladysz, B., Buczacki, A., Haskins, C., 2020.

RESOURCES-BASEL 9(12):144.

Zyukina, S. L., 2020. Technical and Technological

Problems of Service 3 (53), pp. 26-30.

Lavrov, I. M., 2018. ETAP: Economic Theory, Analysis,

Practice 5, pp. 135-142.

Figure 3: Business model of food service management.

Modern Model of Food-service Management in Railway Transport

113