Operational Challenges and Food Quality Maintenance in Railway Catering: Insights from Frontline Pantry Staff in India

Abstract

Maintaining food quality in mobile railway catering is challenging due to resource constraints, demanding service schedules, hygiene compliance requirements, and dynamic transit conditions. Limited study has been conducted on the operational challenges faced by frontline pantry workers, with most research centered on passenger perceptions. This study examines how limited resources, service time pressure, hygiene regulation issues and transit environmental stress affect food quality maintenance in railway catering operations. A quantitative survey was conducted among 150 pantry staff employed on long-distance trains operating under the Western Railway Zone of India. Operational challenges were ranked using Friedman test and the hypothesized relationships were studied using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The major operational constraint was resource limitations and service time pressure was the second major constraint. All four operational challenges were found to significantly and negatively impact on food quality maintenance, accounting for 58.5% of the variance in food quality maintenance. The results highlight the need for greater access to resources, better operational planning, better working environment and better hygiene management, to maintain good onboard food quality. This study is conducted from the front-line employee's point of view, and the railway catering and operations management literature is extended by empirical results on determining the factors affecting the operational maintenance of food quality, from the front-line employee's point of view.