Dinner Train, a company that offers luxury meals during organized train trips, is canceling its trips due to operational problems. The booking module on the company’s website is also not working, so it is not possible to book a new dinner. Swindled customers are complaining on review portals that they are not getting their money back immediately.
For example, the company informed a customer who wanted to go out to dinner on the Dinner Train next Saturday that it was “not possible to carry out the journey as planned”. Elsewhere, a customer complained that the train journey next Saturday would not take place and that the Dinner Train was difficult to access. Omroep Brabant and RTV Oost had already reported similar cases.
Dinner Train converted the reservations into a voucher valid for two years. After five months, guests can also redeem this voucher for a full refund. Dinner Train says it wants to compensate guests gradually in this way.
“Because we are a moving train, we depend on several subcontractors,” the company explains to customers. “Sometimes, like now, something goes wrong on one of these connections, which immediately has a significant impact on our entire operation.”
A spokesman for Dinner Train was not available for comment. The company told RTV Oost this week that payment arrears had occurred “because we have recently had more frequent breakdowns with the carriages we rent.”
Omroep Brabant’s investigations earlier this month revealed that there were also employees who waited weeks or months for payments, ranging from several hundred euros to 3,500 euros.
Dinner Train went bankrupt in 2019. The facilities and the Dinner Train brand name were subsequently taken over by a new owner.
It is unclear how long it will take the company to get everything back in order. In communications to customers, the company said it expects to launch the 2025 schedule by the end of this month. A full selection of 27 departure cities in the Netherlands should be available again.
