Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
XC are so long-term grim I'd probably either not travel, drive, or if an option fly.
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Avanti West Coast cancellations
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And if it’s an rail enthusiast saying that - you can only imagine what the other passengers must be thinking (not a good long-term outlook for the railways)
In reality, I doubt the TOC’s care (they seem to assume passengers will just keep coming. They did when they told everyone do **** off during the pandemic, and they do now).
For a solution to this, would running the Glasgow north of Preston one hour and running the Edinburgh via Birmingham every other hour work?
Not ideal for long distance but serves both and would be considerably more reliable, albeit I imagine the Scottish press would be in uproar at the suggestion of a 1tp2h service to each city.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
Another option might be to run an Edinburgh-Carlisle shuttle with a single 9-car Pendolino to keep route learning up. Deliberately time it as as bad a connection from the Glasgow as possible (if you can manage 59 minutes both ways, great) which means hardly anyone will use it, and they'll do what you actually want them to do here - go into Glasgow and use ScotRail to Edinburgh or use LNER instead. That way it can be the first thing to be canned if needs be.
Or even just run it as an ECS route learner.
Or even just run it as an ECS route learner.
Southern Dvr
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There’s at least one Pendolino running around with a creative alteration on the front end. Apparently it’s operated by ‘Anti West Coast’
Trainbike46
Established Member
But Edinburgh has a good alternative in the form of the LNER service for the south, whereas Glasgow doesn't have that, so if Avanti is unable to serve both Edinburgh and Glasgow, it should serve Glasgow only
you'd hope that TPE and Avanti came up with a way to make their combined timetable give maximum benefits for the routes?
Bertie the bus
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Edinburgh doesn't have a good alternative for the south. Edinburgh has a good alternative for London. Not everybody wants to travel to London.
Goldfish62
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It really is terrible. How on earth can't they still not even run a 60% service level?
1015 from Manchester to Euston cancelled this morning giving a two hour gap when ordinarily there would five trains running during that time.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
The vast, vast majority of people do, or can travel via London if it makes sense for anywhere from about Rugby south.
voyagerdude220
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There appear to be several Avanti trains this morning reported to be full and standing. Some have been declassified, also some without any catering available in either First or Shop.
At least one diagram has Voyagers to Manchester too.
Goes on to do the 16.23 to Edinburgh later
td97
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So it does two routes fully under the wires. Hopeless.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
It's needed to keep traction knowledge up.
Snow1964
Established Member
Doesn’t really make any sense to me either
how can they not get to 60% with no overtime
it’s equivalent of a 35 hour week, normally being operated as 35 hours plus 23.5 hours overtime, and surely Avanti don’t base their timetables on staff doing average of 58.5 hours per week
The Edinburgh service at that time always runs with Voyagers though. I believe it's to provide Polmadie with them. Sometimes IIRC when the Edinburgh service is cancelled or runs as a 390 then one of the Glasgows gets voyagered instead.
Hopeless indeed. What possible explanation/excuse can there be for this when you have a COP21 Pendolino promoting Avantis green credentials !
Falcon1200
Established Member
Yes indeed.
Edinburgh has two LNER trains an hour to London plus Lumo's alternative, an hourly XC service to the South West via Birmingham, plus TPE trains to Newcastle and Manchester Airport. Glasgow as stated already has a far inferior Anglo-Scottish service, therefore making it even worse in favour of Edinburgh cannot be justified.
LNW-GW Joint
Veteran Member
From RTT, starts as ECS Barton-Shrewsbury, then to Euston and to Manchester (return), then Edinburgh via Birmingham and ECS to Polmadie.
Matched by a Polmadie-Edinburgh ECS, 0852 Edinburgh-Birmingham-Euston, then 1526 to Blackpool via Brum and back to Birmingham, and ECS Barton.
2x10-car Voyagers.
All passenger workings are under the wires except Shrewsbury-Wolverhampton.
1020 to Manchester Full & Standing from Euston with First Class declassified.
1023 to Edinburgh also Full & Standing from Euston with Premium Standard declassified.
Likely to be the norm for the foreseable future !
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100andthirty
Member
I've got to go from Milton Keynes to Glasgow in September and have already decided to travel via London and Edinburgh. I'm currently keen to avoid Avanti and TPE - the direct options given the though Glasgow service has all but disappeared.
norbitonflyer
Established Member
Credit where it's due. Turned up at Euston early on Friday morning, complete with wheelchair and Advance tickets (bought before the need for said whelchair had arisen), only to find our train to Manchester was cancelled. AWC staff promptly whisked us down to the previous service, which was due to part in less than five minutes, and ensured we had time to get to the nearest available wheelchair space near the front of the train.
Returning on Sunday, with our booked train absent from the revised timetable, we happened to arrive at Picadilly six minutes before a London train was due out, with no real expectation of catching it, but again the staff made sure we got it even though the only remaining available wheelchair space was in Standard premium (I think it's called), right down the far end of the train.
(I had noticed earlier in the day that it was reported that some trains were running with all wheelchair spaces taken, so it was probably a good plan from their point of view to get us away to avoid stranding someone on a later train. I, as the able-bodied member of the party, was able to walk through the train to the shop and noticed that it was about 95% full in Standard class, with a handful of spare seats, although a few people were standing). There were only four of us in our Standard premium carriage.
Train was delayed over half an hour by sheep on the line, but in the circumstances it would have been a bit cheeky to claim Delay Repay!
Returning on Sunday, with our booked train absent from the revised timetable, we happened to arrive at Picadilly six minutes before a London train was due out, with no real expectation of catching it, but again the staff made sure we got it even though the only remaining available wheelchair space was in Standard premium (I think it's called), right down the far end of the train.
(I had noticed earlier in the day that it was reported that some trains were running with all wheelchair spaces taken, so it was probably a good plan from their point of view to get us away to avoid stranding someone on a later train. I, as the able-bodied member of the party, was able to walk through the train to the shop and noticed that it was about 95% full in Standard class, with a handful of spare seats, although a few people were standing). There were only four of us in our Standard premium carriage.
Train was delayed over half an hour by sheep on the line, but in the circumstances it would have been a bit cheeky to claim Delay Repay!
I am fortunate enough to be partaking in Avanti’s excellent, reliable service later today from London to Carlisle.
The 16:56 has no allocation on RTT leading me to believe it’s likely a cancellation.
The 17:10 is running and will be the contingency. Of course, as usual, it’s a 9-car, so will be unbelievably rammed leaving Euston. Can only hope that first class will be declassified as that will at least make for a somewhat bearable journey.
Avanti are putting huge numbers of people off the railway for good - EasyJet and BA must be loving this (ironically you can only shove about a third of a 390 onto an A320, yet they’ll be getting far more of the business!)
The 16:56 has no allocation on RTT leading me to believe it’s likely a cancellation.
The 17:10 is running and will be the contingency. Of course, as usual, it’s a 9-car, so will be unbelievably rammed leaving Euston. Can only hope that first class will be declassified as that will at least make for a somewhat bearable journey.
Avanti are putting huge numbers of people off the railway for good - EasyJet and BA must be loving this (ironically you can only shove about a third of a 390 onto an A320, yet they’ll be getting far more of the business!)
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
Are you on a walk-up? You could refund it and go LNER to Newcastle then Northern. You'd miss out on the beautiful Lune Valley/Shap run, but you might actually get there.
Sadly an advance booked a good while ago (for the 16:57 which was retimed).
At least I’ll get delay repay!
At least I’ll get delay repay!
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
I take it back - we now have an allocation and, guess what…
It’s a nine car!
Is there a reason Avanti keep shoving the 11-cars on the shorter routes and the 9-cars on the longer, busier routes?
I would love to imagine a demand-based approach to allocation is taken, but I imagine it’s more like:
“Eenie meenie miney mo, for this route? 9 car pendo!”
Certainly feels that way. 5 Avanti trains taken in the past week. All 9-car. All rammed.
It’s a nine car!
Is there a reason Avanti keep shoving the 11-cars on the shorter routes and the 9-cars on the longer, busier routes?
I would love to imagine a demand-based approach to allocation is taken, but I imagine it’s more like:
“Eenie meenie miney mo, for this route? 9 car pendo!”
Certainly feels that way. 5 Avanti trains taken in the past week. All 9-car. All rammed.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
Possibly because Manchester and Brum have both had their service reduced by two thirds, and so they need the 11s to even vaguely meet capacity?
Agent_Squash
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Surely 35 390s would cover the majority of ops being 11 car?
You also need to make sure they all run. A cancellation and its 1 every 4 hours.
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