Fawning rail chiefs have laid on extra cushy restaurant cars for military chiefs attending this week’s Nato summit — just weeks before axing meals for the public.

First Great Western’s (FGW) Travelling Chef is one of the last restaurant services on British railways, but the privateer will derail the service next month in a bid to cut costs.

Rail union RMT has been campaigning to save the service, which it says is much-loved by the travelling public.

Campaign postcards have flooded corporate and parliamentary postbags — with MPs urged to sign an early day motion backing the campaign.

In July the Star revealed that FGW had cooked up an astonishing spin on its plan to wield the axe, claiming it was instead pioneering a golden age of railway “fine dining.”

FGW has insisted it will replace the meals with a “service more suited to the choices being made by our customers.”

But new trains set to be introduced in 2017 under the Intercity Express Programme will not be equipped with even a buffet car.

“The hypocrisy and double standards of FGW directors will be lost on no one,” said RMT acting general secretary Mick Cash.

“If the Travelling Chef service is good enough for Nato bureaucrats and 

global leaders like President Obama it is good enough for the rest of us. The union wants the plans withdrawn.

“We also want assurances from both the company and the government that catering services, guards and in-house maintenance arrangements will be protected when the new fleet of Intercity trains is introduced.”