After years of being accused of riding the Brussels gravy train, members of the European parliament are about to step aboard a real one.

A Eurocrats-only express service will be launched next month to ferry MEPs and officials in luxury at 186mph between one European parliament in Brussels and the other in Strasbourg. The buffet car will, of course, be fully stocked.

The Strasbourg Express will leave Brussels for the first time at 9.57am on Monday, July 7. Each return journey will cost the taxpayer about £158,000, but the fare-paying public will be banned. MEPs will pay £170 for a return ticket, but will then be reimbursed.

“The public will not be able to buy tickets or use this train,” said Thalys, the high-speed train operator that will run the service.

While ordinary passengers make do with a rickety scheduled service known as “the cattle truck”, which has no refreshments, Eurocrats can enhance the enjoyment of their journey with a choice of fine French, Australian and Chilean wines.

Whether gravy will actually be served is a moot point, but along with popular Belgian beers, savoury snacks will be on offer.

Every month, when the European parliament moves to Strasbourg, the “train of shame” will leave Brussels on a Monday, returning the following Thursday, with up to 377 MEPs and officials travelling each way in three spacious carriages.

It is widely seen in Brussels as a gimmick to boost the French, whose insistence on maintaining the second parliament in Strasbourg makes such journeys necessary in the first place.

The service will begin in the first week of France’s European Union presidency and is intended to symbolise a greener and more pleasurable way of doing business while President Nicolas Sarkozy is in charge.

Eurocrats have been ordered to take the train rather than one of two 90-minute flights that are usually laid on for the same commute at a slightly higher cost of £162,000 a month.

Some officials are looking on the bright side. “At least there’ll be a buffet car in this one. You can’t even buy water on the current train. You wouldn’t transport animals in it,” said one.

Buffet car or not, the staff unions are complaining that members will be forced to return to Brussels from weekend breaks on Sunday evenings instead of Monday mornings so that they can be ready to board.

Worse still, lunch may have to be curtailed. An internal staff memo, seen by The Sunday Times, warns that the arrival of the train at 1.36pm in Strasbourg will “deprive colleagues of their midday break and the possibility of a proper lunch”.

Martin Callanan, a Tory MEP, said: “The journey to Strasbourg is a complete waste of everybody’s time and money.”

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