Avanti West Coast

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Has utterly gone to shit.

They keep stopping selling tickets, latest is 24th and 25th September, no explanation on their website, just not selling tickets between London-Birmingham-Manchester-Glasgow. This keeps happening and yet they seem to be avoiding any scrutiny, let alone censure.

Surely time to bin them off.

 

[Chilli.s]

Think the west coast line is closed due to a cable being broken/replaced

 

[Supine]

No, it’s the staff refusing to do overtime so services cut. Don’t worry Tim Farron is on the case!

As a weekly user i can confirm they are shit.

 

[l'Otters]

Absolutely fucking useless.

Liars as well. Whatever’s going on with strike action or heatwaves their website has some slick sounding text on it which is easily verified as a bunch of shite by checking national rail or the main newspapers.

I’ve seen people on Twitter calling for the contract to be given back to Virgin, they’re that bad.

 

[The39thStep]

Burnham has repeatedly raised their 'performance' with the Government

 

[Supine]

Absolutely fucking useless.

Liars as well. Whatever’s going on with strike action or heatwaves their website has some slick sounding text on it which is easily verified as a bunch of shite by checking national rail or the main newspapers.

I’ve seen people on Twitter calling for the contract to be given back to Virgin, they’re that bad.

The same management team were retained when it went Virgin to Avanti. Only the company extracting profit changed.

 

[l'Otters]

The same management team were retained when it went Virgin to Avanti. Only the company extracting profit changed.

Oh yeah in my experience it was a shitshow with Virgin running it too.

 

[Supine]

This sums them up nicely

 

[emanymton]

Had a weekend in Londona few weeks ago. Was able to book tickets a few weeks in advance then had a message saying they had suspended tickets and could not guarantee the services I had booked on would be running. In the end the one down was OK but my return train was just removed from the timetable and I had to get a later one. How the hell can you sell a ticket and them remove the train drom the timetable? To be clear it was not canceled it was no longer timetabled to run at all.

 

[l'Otters]

Tweet has a letter from Andy Burnham and Sadiq Khan re avanti’s current failure to run a train service and dishonesty about the cause.

It is curious that the mayor of Manchester and of London are making a noise about it but not the representatives of other cities just as affected by this.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Want to travel to Manchester at the weekend in October?


Nope.




The £14bn upgrade of the line was money well spent...

 

[cybershot]

Oh yeah in my experience it was a shitshow with Virgin running it too.

Honestly never had any issues when the west coast was run by Virgin.

Since Covid I don't think I've been on an Avanti service that wasn't either over 30 minutes late or completely cancelled having to get on the next overcrowded train. That's weekday not weekend. Trains that normally run as charters have been accepting Avanti tickets!! Which is laughable.

Not saying it would be better under Virgin, but it would have been interesting to see if the staff were treated any better during Covid. As said above it's the exact same staff, but Avanti are attempting to profiteer from it to a much higher extent than Virgin did which has resulted in staff leaving and refusing to do over time.

 

[mwgdrwg]

With Virgin there was a direct train from Holyhead to London every hour. I have to change in Chester and Crewe now.

Even Tory MP's are are calling for them to lose the franchise.

Avanti: North Wales Tory MPs want firm to lose rail franchise

Only one daily train from Holyhead and London is currently running but more are pledged in December.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[platinumsage]

Want to travel to Manchester at the weekend in October?


Nope.

View attachment 345137


The £14bn upgrade of the line was money well spent...

Can’t you just buy a ticket from somewhere else?

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Can’t you just buy a ticket from somewhere else?

Yes, but it's a bit shite that you can't get a ticket from their own website, other places charge a fee.

 

[Supine]

As said above it's the exact same staff, but Avanti are attempting to profiteer from it to a much higher extent than Virgin did which has resulted in staff leaving and refusing to do over time.

I don’t think that is correct. Virgin lost it because they wouldn’t comply with pension requirements if i remember correctly. Virgin should never be seen as the good guys!

 

[alex_]

This situation is so funny, you are a big corporate, you’ve got a workforce which is prone to industrial action, you’ve got a service which if staffing levels fall to low you can’t run at all.

How could you design a situation where you give the staff even more power over your service delivery ?

“Let’s make our service completely dependent upon staff overtime.”

These companies are so stupid

 

[platinumsage]

Yes, but it's a bit shite that you can't get a ticket from their own website, other places charge a fee.

Train stations don’t, nor do most train companies afaik.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Train stations don’t, nor do most train companies afaik.

I'm buying it to give to someone else, train stations don't sell e-tickets, that snip is from Avanti's website. Evolvi, Trainline etc. do have availability but charge £3 per ticket...

 

[platinumsage]

I'm buying it to give to someone else, train stations don't sell e-tickets, that snip is from Avanti's website. Evolvi, Trainline etc. do have availability but charge £3 per ticket...

Are you sure it's not because all services are suspended due to the strike?

You can normally buy tickets to any destination from any other train company website e.g. Great Western, Greater Anglia etc without paying a fee. Fuck the Trainline etc

 

[Winot]

This situation is so funny, you are a big corporate, you’ve got a workforce which is prone to industrial action, you’ve got a service which if staffing levels fall to low you can’t run at all.

How could you design a situation where you give the staff even more power over your service delivery ?

“Let’s make our service completely dependent upon staff overtime.”

These companies are so stupid

Goes back to BR days, doesn’t it? I guess contracts then roll over.

 

[Supine]

On weekends the website says

 

[Sue]

I happened to be travelling from Scotland to London the day Avanti took over the WCM. They greeted every passenger getting on with an individual panettone.