Another fantastic day with Avanti

[Glasgowbusguy]

Looking like at least 40 mins delays out of Glasgow central station today on Avanti

 

[BurtonM]

There are times I've been at Euston and have worked out my departure platform, and noticed an arrival at an adjacent platform, so the barriers are open. I've therefore walked onto "my" platform and - after checking that the cleaners have actually done their thing - boarded the train.

Last time I did this, I found the platform on RTT, and went there - there was an open, unattended gateline. The train wasn't open yet, but there was nothing going on inside.
A member of Avanti staff asked me if I was waiting for the train, I said yes and showed him my ticket, he seemed a bit surprised I knew which platform to go to (he might have asked how I knew, I don't recall). He asked me to leave the platform and escorted me off, making me wait for the scrum.

It's absolutely moronic that they let the scrum keep happening, I really don't get what stops them just letting people on the trains sooner.

 

[frodshamfella]

The last two times I've travelled to London, I've used LNWR from Acton Bridge via Crewe. The fare is much more reasonable than Avanti from Runcorn. You also seem to able to get a reservation which seems to be a last minute thing with Avanti

 

[gazzaa2]

The last two times I've travelled to London, I've used LNWR from Acton Bridge via Crewe. The fare is much more reasonable than Avanti from Runcorn. You also seem to able to get a reservation which seems to be a last minute thing with Avanti

That service from Crewe to Euston has been crush loaded the last few times i've used it, since the problems have built up with Avanti. At least with Avanti you have the option of upgrading to Premium for a less claustrophobic journey. The key is the price though and the LNWR are generally more punctual.

 

[Skie]

Last time I did this, I found the platform on RTT, and went there - there was an open, unattended gateline. The train wasn't open yet, but there was nothing going on inside.
A member of Avanti staff asked me if I was waiting for the train, I said yes and showed him my ticket, he seemed a bit surprised I knew which platform to go to (he might have asked how I knew, I don't recall). He asked me to leave the platform and escorted me off, making me wait for the scrum.

It's absolutely moronic that they let the scrum keep happening, I really don't get what stops them just letting people on the trains sooner.

If you're hard faced and just get on the train as soon as you have the opportunity then the onboard crews don't seem to mind. It's the Euston based lot who chase everyone back behind the gates and generally give the place a bad rep.

 

[Skiddaw]

If you're hard faced and just get on the train as soon as you have the opportunity then the onboard crews don't seem to mind. It's the Euston based lot who chase everyone back behind the gates and generally give the place a bad rep.

They're an odd lot aren't they? All the other Avanti staff I've come across are lovely but some of the Euston bunch really do seem to go out of their way to be unhelpful. Don't know what they're putting in their tea but whatever it is it obviously doesn't taste good.

 

[Peter0124]

My experiences with Euston have actually been positive, and have been allowed on the platform early for my trains etc.

 

[Bletchleyite]

FlixBus still have some seats to Victoria from £29.99.

Given that Flix's market position is below both Megabus and NatEx I can hardly imagine them being much better than the Cally!

I'd pay a LOT to avoid an overnight coach journey. £100 definitely. Though obviously it depends on your means.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

There's this piece on the Guardian web site today about a journey from Brighton to Bangor, out Saturday, back Sunday, costing £589 (1st class return).
It's just one of many recent broken journeys, written up by a journalist who is in the vanguard of criticism of Avanti and other north-western operators (along with mayors Burnham and Rotheram), for the damage to the local economy.
His return journey (Sunday) from Bangor was cancelled at "no notice", although the railway must have been well aware of it earlier.
Today was especially difficult because (I believe) of over-running engineering works, but it has not been properly explained what they were, or their effect.
Avanti didn't run its first Holyhead-Euston of the day but RTT doesn't offer any explanation.

‘Masterclass in poor service’: rail passenger hits out at Avanti over £589 ticket

Performer criticises operator over cancellations in journey after paying ‘eye-watering’ price for first-class Brighton-Bangor return

www.theguardian.com

A rail passenger who paid an “eye-watering” £589 for a return train ticket from Brighton to Wales has hit out at operator Avanti West Coast for cancelling parts of his journey and providing “a masterclass in poor service”.

We've all seen the "I could have got to New York for less" comments on long distance Anytime fares.
This one quotes London-Munich at £260 as a comparison (single, return?).
Personally I've seen equally nasty price-gauging by airlines for last-minute flights, but the point stands that £589 is an outrageous price to pay for the service provided.
Presumably he will get a decent proportion of that back in delay-repay.
From what I can tell, he would have had to wait an hour at Bangor for the (probably packed) 2-car TfW Holyhead-Cardiff, and take pot luck at Chester and Crewe on other Avanti services to London.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It's absolutely moronic that they let the scrum keep happening, I really don't get what stops them just letting people on the trains sooner.

It is the biggest problem with Euston. It is dangerous, it is scary for children and elderly and it makes a total mockery of accessibility.

It would be very easy to reduce it by offering last minute reservations with seat selection from the TVMs and your phone like LNER do, which would mean there'd be nothing gained by rushing. (Is the problem less at Kings Cross? It certainly appears to be).

For LNR, just stop suppressing platforms. The only time it made sense to do it was when they were coupling/uncoupling at Euston but as I understand it that will cease to happen from today with almost all 350s going out from the depot as 8 car and remaining so all day. It worked fine in Silverlink days when they didn't suppress.

 

[Merseysider]

Given that Flix's market position is below both Megabus and NatEx I can hardly imagine them being much better than the Cally!

I'd pay a LOT to avoid an overnight coach journey. £100 definitely. Though obviously it depends on your means.

I took Flix from Manchester to Brum on a strike day recently.

Horrible journey - seats basically glued to each other (no armrest), no legspace, no plug socket, and the “terminal” in Birmingham was a random bus stop on the side of a freeway more than 10 mins walk from the city centre.

Re the article linked above, I saw that too. Honestly got very little sympathy for someone daft enough to pay £589 for a through ticket like that without doing any research (it took me 30 seconds to find out a simple split at Crewe would’ve saved £200...).

They’ll get a chunk back for declassification, a chunk back for delay repay and probably something on top now they’ve gone crying to the media.

Unfortunately, their experience is only deemed newsworthy due to the price paid - dozens if not hundreds of people have similarly crap experiences with Avanti every day. If every such story made the homepage there’d be no space for anything else...

 

[paul1609]

If you're short and skinny. Seat width and legroom are poor.

Im 6 ft and 100Kg so not exactly skinny and I find the seats tight but acceptable. If available I always book the extra legroom seats for an extra £4which are at something like 38 inch pitch. This generally equates all in to around half the rail fare less the 3 x Tesco Clubcard Vouchers. Sitting next to a stranger doesn't bother me.

 

[deltic]

My experiences with Euston have actually been positive, and have been allowed on the platform early for my trains etc.

I have had the same - certainly in the morning if you knew the platform your train is leaving from before it is announced they seem to think you must be a regular and I have been waved through and allowed to board

 

[Bletchleyite]

Im 6 ft and 100Kg so not exactly skinny and I find the seats tight but acceptable.

Tight isn't to me acceptable for an overnight journey.

But 6' isn't *that* tall. An average male is 5' 9", only 3" shorter than you. And I've got 4" on you and most is in the upper leg...

If available I always book the extra legroom seats for an extra £4which are at something like 38 inch pitch.

Problem with Flix is that they don't, as I understand it, reliably use the right coaches nor reliably enforce reservations.

Sitting next to a stranger doesn't bother me.

Touching strangers, or being touched by them, for a long overnight journey, definitely bothers me, not only because for me touching people is for people you're already close to, but also because on an overnight journey you should fidget lots to avoid the risk of DVT, and that's awkward if you're going to wake someone up every time you're doing it. And I don't think I'm unusual in that.

Anyway, this is a a bit OT...but in short as I said I'd spend that £100 either on a flight or a hotel!

 

[Birkonian]

7 cancelled and 10 short now, including the last two EUS-LIV trains terminating at Crewe, from which there are no onward services available to Liverpool.

My train from Liverpool Lime Street to Euston was cancelled so I got the one an hour earlier. No food or drink in 1st class because of the usual shortage of staff.

 

[yorksrob]

(Is the problem less at Kings Cross? It certainly appears to be).

It is - always seem to be let onto the trains in good time at the Cross.

 

[gazzaa2]

My train from Liverpool Lime Street to Euston was cancelled so I got the one an hour earlier. No food or drink in 1st class because of the usual shortage of staff.

I went from Lime Street to Euston and back yesterday without a single ticket check and the shop was shut on the way back.

 

[800001]

It is - always seem to be let onto the trains in good time at the Cross.

Kings Cross seem to do very well at announcing platforms 20 min before departure.

But, you can also get through barriers onto the platforms and quite often see passengers stood on platforms waiting for cleaning to be conducted, and I’ve seen people sat on trains 30+ min before departure.

 

[L401CJF]

I was actually quite shocked this afternoon to find a 10 car Voyager at Chester, on time, working all the way to Euston!

I was also shocked to see the amount of direct services to Euston from Chester (some of which start at Holyhead) have been introduced from this weeks timetable change. They've practically abandoned Crewe to Holyhead over the past few months and I really don't have high hopes of them suddenly having enough staff to cover a 2 hourly Chester to Euston service.

Let's wait and see..

 

[frodshamfella]

That service from Crewe to Euston has been crush loaded the last few times i've used it, since the problems have built up with Avanti. At least with Avanti you have the option of upgrading to Premium for a less claustrophobic journey. The key is the price though and the LNWR are generally more punctual.

Yes I paid about £25 on LNWR 1st class, nothing like that on Avanti.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Yes I paid about £25 on LNWR 1st class, nothing like that on Avanti.

To be fair Avanti 1st is probably the best in the country in seat comfort terms and LNR an utter sham.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

Well AWC have 100 departures from Euston today showing in RTT. Sill 6 to depart and 9 have been cancelled with RT departures pretty lousy but NR didn't exactly give them a good start.

Last week they had 60 departures so significant increase but may have been engineering works last weekend reducing the schedule so maybe not fully comparable but first views are they've upped their game lets see what happens tomorrow.

 

[Sheridan]

I was aiming for the 1352 from Motherwell to Warrington BQ this afternoon, but it was cancelled ‘due to a problem at the depot’. I assume this just means a train failed on prep or something similar. The 1451 was formed of a service that was due into Glasgow Central at 1410 but it was 45ish minutes late and understandably didn’t go straight back out. With the previous service being cancelled I expected the 1451 to be full and standing before it reached Motherwell but it was in fact very sparsely occupied, although it got busier from Carlisle. Maybe people are being put off by the constant disruption that has been taking place over the last year or so?

 

[gazzaa2]

To be fair Avanti 1st is probably the best in the country in seat comfort terms and LNR an utter sham.

LNR tends to get declassified at weekends anyway as it's so busy the guard can't get down the train.

I don't know what you're actually paying for on those first class services. It's just the same seats. Standard Premium with Avanti is better for 25 quid.

 

[Kite159]

LNR tends to get declassified at weekends anyway as it's so busy the guard can't get down the train.

I don't know what you're actually paying for on those first class services. It's just the same seats. Standard Premium with Avanti is better for 25 quid.

Although on a 350 the seats in 1st class are different to standard class.

In my mind, they are worse than the standard class seat.

Guards sadly do have a habit of hiding away in the middle cab on those services, or they will check on departure from Crewe and never be seen again

 

[All Line Rover]

To be fair Avanti 1st is probably the best in the country in seat comfort terms and LNR an utter sham.

I disagree.

On weekends and late weekday evenings there are now only 3 forward facing seats in Avanti first class, Coach K being the only first class coach. 15 backward facing. I don't like travelling backwards.

The catering (which, aside from the "benefit" of a smaller less comfortable carriage, is all that one pays the massive premium over standard premium for), is hit and miss, in terms of both stock availability and bothering to provide a service to begin with. The moment a train is mildly overcrowded (hardly a surprise with Avanti's customary cancellations), the catering crew spend the entire journey hidden in the kitchen (better than their previous habit of reserving the whole of Coach K to themselves, I suppose?) and don't bother to serve first class ticket holders anything, or greet them. I thought the idea of limiting first class to Coach K was to provide an ultra-personalised service, a la airlines? Knocking on the kitchen door to grovel for a bottle of water is about as far removed from first class on airlines as you can get. And per mile, airlines are no more expensive than Avanti's new first class pricing!

I realise the above sounds demanding but, when pricing is set at £30 for standard class vs £150 for first class (under Virgin, it was about £45 for first class), these are the expectations that will arise.

On LNR, you get a guaranteed table that is large enough to accommodate a laptop, guaranteed power socket, a curtain/blind (LNR's trains don't have these in standard class and during summer they can be surprisingly useful), pretty much guaranteed seat and a generally quieter ambiance. It's perfect. I can work as though I'm in an office while travelling, the trains are hardly ever cancelled, they generally arrive at their destination no more than 10 minutes late and I can buy good quality food and drink, if needed, from station outlets such as M&S. None of Avanti's silly frills. For the prices charged - less than Avanti's standard class fares - it's ideal. It is closer to Avanti's standard premium offering but, unlike Avanti, I can be sure the trains (i) actually run and, (ii) when running, don't arrive full and standing throughout because the previous train(s) was/were cancelled. Standing for 2+ hours on a non-stop journey is unacceptable.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

I was actually quite shocked this afternoon to find a 10 car Voyager at Chester, on time, working all the way to Euston!
I was also shocked to see the amount of direct services to Euston from Chester (some of which start at Holyhead) have been introduced from this weeks timetable change. They've practically abandoned Crewe to Holyhead over the past few months and I really don't have high hopes of them suddenly having enough staff to cover a 2 hourly Chester to Euston service.

And the Avanti 1701 Euston-Wrexham Voyager ran last night, albeit half an hour late, the first through service on a Sunday.

 

[Falcon1200]

I checked earlier and every Avanti service from Glasgow Central was shown as running! However, looking again, 9M51 0800 to Euston via Birmingham is cancelled due to a 'problem at the depot' (Code MU). 1M08 0736 to Euston departed 28 minutes late (so at least 9M51's passengers caught it), and is now 38 minutes late at Motherwell.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I disagree.

On weekends and late weekday evenings there are now only 3 forward facing seats in Avanti first class, Coach K being the only first class coach. 15 backward facing. I don't like travelling backwards.

...

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 12 Dec 2022 ==

On LNR, you get a guaranteed table that is large enough to accommodate a laptop, guaranteed power socket, a curtain/blind (LNR's trains don't have these in standard class and during summer they can be surprisingly useful), pretty much guaranteed seat and a generally quieter ambiance. It's perfect. I can work as though I'm in an office while travelling, the trains are hardly ever cancelled, they generally arrive at their destination no more than 10 minutes late and I can buy good quality food and drink, if needed, from station outlets such as M&S. None of Avanti's silly frills. For the prices charged - less than Avanti's standard class fares - it's ideal. It is closer to Avanti's standard premium offering but, unlike Avanti, I can be sure the trains (i) actually run and, (ii) when running, don't arrive full and standing throughout because the previous train(s) was/were cancelled. Standing for 2+ hours on a non-stop journey is unacceptable.

New thread: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/2-2-first-class-i-e-swr-gtr-wmt-is-it-worth-having.240679/

 

[Andrew*Debbie]

As I mentioned up thread, I'll be watching today's Holyhead(HHD) <---> Eustion(EUS) direct service. The new timetable advertised 5 direct trains per day.
I'll also spot check other Avanti North Wales trains. In an interview, Avanti promised a new roster agreed with the unions that did not depend on rest day working.

Avanti have a new temporary timetable for today 12 December with 4 direct trains from London and 5 from Holyhead.

So far:

05:49 HHD to EUS terminates at Crewe(CRE) due to a shortage of train crew.
12:46 HHD to EUS terminates at Chester(CTR) due to shortage of train crew.

09:02 EUS to HHD delayed 42 minutes due to late crew arrival (perhaps due to poor weather in the southeast)

10:02 EUS to CTR cancled due to shortage of train crew.

12:32 CTR to EUS cancled due to shortage of train crew.


The 0530 Birmingham New Street to HHD was about 30 minutes late when it went by me at Llanfairpwll.



Not fantastic, but it could be far worse. I do feel for anyone who booked first class on the 05:49 or 12:46.