TOKYO (Reuters) - Passengers on&nbsp;Japan's super-fast bullet&nbsp;trains have long enjoyed ordering coffee,&nbsp;ice&nbsp;cream&nbsp;or boxed lunches from staff pushing a&nbsp;snack&nbsp;cart, savouring the treats as they whipped past landmarks such as Mount&nbsp;Fuji.
But faced with a looming labour shortage and a trend for&nbsp;more&nbsp;people to buy food before boarding the&nbsp;train, on-board&nbsp;snack&nbsp;cart services between the cities of Tokyo and Osaka will reach the end of the&nbsp;line&nbsp;on Oct. 31.
Central&nbsp;Japan&nbsp;Railway said on Tuesday it would phase&nbsp;out&nbsp;the famed on-board&nbsp;snack&nbsp;cart services, in which a uniformed vendor dispenses beverages and light refreshments, pushing their cart through the aisles of the moving&nbsp;train&nbsp;and bowing as they enter or leave the carriage.
Snack&nbsp;and food sales have been a mainstay on the Shinkansen, or bullet&nbsp;train, since it began running in 1964, the year&nbsp;Japan&nbsp;hosted the first Tokyo Olympics, a railway spokesperson said, but it was not clear when the cart services began.
The online&nbsp;response was despondent, with "Super-Cold Shinkansen&nbsp;Ice&nbsp;Cream" trending 5th on the X platform formerly known as Twitter and "In-Train&nbsp;Service" 6th within hours of the announcement.
"I remember that I enjoyed the&nbsp;ice&nbsp;cream&nbsp;every time I got on the&nbsp;train, and when I jumped on the last&nbsp;train&nbsp;without&nbsp;eating, I was saved by the sandwiches sold there," one user said.
Passengers on first-class cars will be able to order food and drink using QR codes starting Nov. 1, the railway company said.
"While cost reductions are important for a company, on-board&nbsp;snack&nbsp;cart services are also important for the enjoyment of the traveller's experience," another user wrote.
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(Reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama, editing by Elaine Lies and Christina Fincher)

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No more ice cream with Mt Fuji: Japan train line phases out snack carts