I was commuting on this line for six months until very recently from Peterborough to/from KGX in first class, certainly enough to be recognised by train staff, and weekdays seem to be far more consistent than weekends for catering in my experience.

On my early morning 06:40 starts, about 1 in 20 services are cancelled (usually due to a staff shortage), and about 1 in 12 are substantially late. Foodwise, I'd say about 1 in 15 have a catering problem: although coffee & tea seems to be consistently available (I order 2 drinks because there's only one trolley service from Peterborough to KGX), it's the bacon roll is the mostly likely first thing to go south.

On my journey back home in the afternoon from KGX, it's far rarer that anything goes wrong, although it seems to be luck of the draw whether a rather limited hot option is available to me rather than just a sandwich. Frankly, on the rare occasion in the mood for something to eat on my way home, I'll have popped into Waitrose or M&S at the station for sustenance.

I usually sit in the M coach at the end on the way home which is where the catering happens... if I'm not booted out by Rishi Sunak & his entourage!

I've hardly ever used the first class lounge at KGX: I have my commute so finely timed that by the time I exit the tube, I'll have had a text message telling me the platform my train's on and I head straight there.