Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

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MiltonKeynesClaret93
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Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by MiltonKeynesClaret93 » Thu Jul 07, 2022 2:45 pm

Hi all!

First post in quite a while, but wonder if this might be of interest to anybody.
I work for Avanti West Coast, and we're introducing a loyalty program for frequent travelers who book their travel directly with us called Club Avanti. I've made a point for the company to engage with supporters groups across the Premier League and the EFL about this, as there are plenty of great perks involved for people who get to several games a season.

Initially, members of the outgoing Traveler program inherited from Virgin Trains are being invited, but anybody who registers an account with Avanti West Coast now or already has one and agrees to receive marketing communications from the company will receive an invite.
Like any airline frequent flyer or high street loyalty program, it's completely free and just rewards repeat customers for booking directly with us when they travel on our trains.

Club Avanti.PNG
Club Avanti.PNG (200.32 KiB) Viewed 5211 times

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by ClaretTony » Thu Jul 07, 2022 2:50 pm

It was the extortionate fares on the west coast line that kept me away from some games last season - more than double what I was paying on Virgin pre-pandemic.

With a lesser southern bias to our fixtures this season, it’s not going to be as much of an issue.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by ClaretMov » Thu Jul 07, 2022 2:54 pm


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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by MiltonKeynesClaret93 » Thu Jul 07, 2022 2:57 pm

Great stuff - I should say there are other benefits to booking directly with AWC. Within the department I sit we've introduced automation around things like delay repay, so you'll automatically be refunded if you were delayed by over 15 minutes on a journey. No booking fees either.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by claretonthecoast1882 » Thu Jul 07, 2022 2:59 pm

Shame it is a minimum of 75 miles, will use Avanti for Wigan away from Preston :D

Could have saved £1

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by MiltonKeynesClaret93 » Thu Jul 07, 2022 3:01 pm

ClaretTony wrote:
Thu Jul 07, 2022 2:50 pm
It was the extortionate fares on the west coast line that kept me away from some games last season - more than double what I was paying on Virgin pre-pandemic.

With a lesser southern bias to our fixtures this season, it’s not going to be as much of an issue.
There's a noticeable lack of advance fares available on services at the moment and I'm not sure why, though I have my suspicions.
Pendolinos are being refurbished at a rate of 1 a week at the moment though, and each are having 1 First Class carriage converted to Standard. Timetabling and rostering is becoming a lot more manageable now too, which will allow for services to be confirmed and tickets to be released much sooner. The combination of those two things should see far far more availability of the cheapest fares.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by ClaretTony » Thu Jul 07, 2022 3:02 pm

MiltonKeynesClaret93 wrote:
Thu Jul 07, 2022 3:01 pm
There's a noticeable lack of advance fares available on services at the moment and I'm not sure why, though I have my suspicions.
Pendolinos are being refurbished at a rate of 1 a week at the moment though, and each are having 1 First Class carriage converted to Standard. Timetabling and rostering is becoming a lot more manageable now too, which will allow for services to be confirmed and tickets to be released much sooner. The combination of those two things should see far far more availability of the cheapest fares.
But the cheapest fares are more than double than they were in the 2019/20 season. They’ve priced me out unfortunately.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by jrgbfc » Thu Jul 07, 2022 3:06 pm

If we're going to London we always go from Leeds now, as Tony says the fares with Avanti are a joke.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by MiltonKeynesClaret93 » Thu Jul 07, 2022 3:07 pm

ClaretTony wrote:
Thu Jul 07, 2022 3:02 pm
But the cheapest fares are more than double than they were in the 2019/20 season. They’ve priced me out unfortunately.
In a lot of cases, you're not wrong. Some of Virgin's lowest fares were unbelievably cheap.
All I can recommend, if you ever wanted to explore the option again, is to look at Railcard options (though I assume you would have anyway), and to sign up for ticket alerts.

https://www.avantiwestcoast.co.uk/ticke ... ket-alerts

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by ClaretTony » Thu Jul 07, 2022 3:10 pm

MiltonKeynesClaret93 wrote:
Thu Jul 07, 2022 3:07 pm
In a lot of cases, you're not wrong. Some of Virgin's lowest fares were unbelievably cheap.
All I can recommend, if you ever wanted to explore the option again, is to look at Railcard options (though I assume you would have anyway), and to sign up for ticket alerts.

https://www.avantiwestcoast.co.uk/ticke ... ket-alerts
I have an old chap’s rail card but I never saw a price under £62 last season from Manchester to London. I was paying on average just under £32 prior to football being shutdown.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by RickyBobby » Thu Jul 07, 2022 3:11 pm

jrgbfc wrote:
Thu Jul 07, 2022 3:06 pm
If we're going to London we always go from Leeds now, as Tony says the fares with Avanti are a joke.
I always go from Leeds or Halifax. Avanti signify all that is wrong with a privatised monopoly. They take profiteering to a whole new level!
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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by ClaretTony » Thu Jul 07, 2022 3:15 pm

RickyBobby wrote:
Thu Jul 07, 2022 3:11 pm
I always go from Leeds or Halifax. Avanti signify all that is wrong with a privatised monopoly. They take profiteering to a whole new level!
My only issue with Leeds is the additional cost of getting there whereas I can get to Manchester on the bus without charge. You are right though about Avanti, their price increases on the west coast line are a disgrace.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by Nori1958 » Thu Jul 07, 2022 3:15 pm

ClaretTony wrote:
Thu Jul 07, 2022 3:02 pm
But the cheapest fares are more than double than they were in the 2019/20 season. They’ve priced me out unfortunately.
Don't shop for lurpak :lol: :lol:
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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by lakedistrictclaret » Thu Jul 07, 2022 3:18 pm

If I go to an away match in London, it's cheaper for me to drive to Darlington and go down the East Coast Mainline than to go Avanti from Penrith.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by mikeS » Thu Jul 07, 2022 7:52 pm

From my experience Travelling from Burnley to London via the West Coast route was always more expensive than the East coast route via Leeds.
Don't know if it's because there is a Better service and more trains Leeds -KX than Preston - Euston. Ridiculous prices even with Railcards on both services.
The whole fare system is unfair. Pun intended.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by Targetman » Thu Jul 07, 2022 10:36 pm

MiltonKeynesClaret93 wrote:
Thu Jul 07, 2022 3:07 pm
In a lot of cases, you're not wrong. Some of Virgin's lowest fares were unbelievably cheap.
All I can recommend, if you ever wanted to explore the option again, is to look at Railcard options (though I assume you would have anyway), and to sign up for ticket alerts.

https://www.avantiwestcoast.co.uk/ticke ... ket-alerts

You say that some of Virgin's lowest fares were unbelievably cheap, however East Coast Mainline fares from Leeds to London are just as cheap currently as Virgin's were from Manchester to Euston.

As ClaretTony mentioned, Avanti's prices are incredibly expensive and in some cases the trains haven't been cleaned properly, it's also quite common for toilets to be out of order.

Just take a look at the fares for our 2nd away game at Watford in August, Manchester - Milton Keynes - Watford return.
Then let me know why you think prices need to be so excessive.

Since Avanti took over from Virgin I haven't heard a single good review about the company despite fares increasing by 100%.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by Archer » Thu Jul 07, 2022 11:14 pm

MiltonKeynesClaret93 wrote:
Thu Jul 07, 2022 2:45 pm
Hi all!

First post in quite a while, but wonder if this might be of interest to anybody.
I work for Avanti West Coast, and we're introducing a loyalty program for frequent travelers who book their travel directly with us called Club Avanti. I've made a point for the company to engage with supporters groups across the Premier League and the EFL about this, as there are plenty of great perks involved for people who get to several games a season.

Initially, members of the outgoing Traveler program inherited from Virgin Trains are being invited, but anybody who registers an account with Avanti West Coast now or already has one and agrees to receive marketing communications from the company will receive an invite.
Like any airline frequent flyer or high street loyalty program, it's completely free and just rewards repeat customers for booking directly with us when they travel on our trains.


Club Avanti.PNG
You can’t join if you already have an Avanti account?

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by Papabendi » Fri Jul 08, 2022 12:33 am

Another one in the bring back Virgin camp.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by ayrshireclaret83 » Fri Jul 08, 2022 7:33 am

I get prices have all went up a little but Avanti really have went to a whole new level.

For me travelling to most home games from Scotland it’s now 3x what it was pre pandemic. Therefore it’s actually cheaper to drive and book a hotel than return in one day on the train

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by Jjjack » Fri Jul 08, 2022 8:18 am

We looked at the train for Palace and Brentford last season couldn't get fares for under 100 quid each on Avanti, drove instead.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by Jamesy » Fri Jul 08, 2022 9:03 am

I agree with Tony and others, Avanti are way more expensive than their predecessors Virgin. I now travel to London /Southern games from Birmingham with Chiltern into Marylebone. Nice trains, keen pricing.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by tiger76 » Fri Jul 08, 2022 9:24 am

As someone who hasn't travelled south for a while, I was shocked at how much the prices have been hiked compared to the Virgin days.

However as I'm unable to drive, there is few or no other viable options available.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by claretonthecoast1882 » Fri Jul 08, 2022 9:31 am

tiger76 wrote:
Fri Jul 08, 2022 9:24 am
As someone who hasn't travelled south for a while, I was shocked at how much the prices have been hiked compared to the Virgin days.

However as I'm unable to drive, there is few or no other viable options available.
We have a couple of mates come down for a game a 2 a season and they roughly pay £50 return Glasgow Central to Burnley Manchester Road and neither has a rail card, they use that tickety split website

https://ticketysplit.trainsplit.com/

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by tiger76 » Fri Jul 08, 2022 9:39 am

claretonthecoast1882 wrote:
Fri Jul 08, 2022 9:31 am
We have a couple of mates come down for a game a 2 a season and they roughly pay £50 return Glasgow Central to Burnley Manchester Road and neither has a rail card, they use that tickety split website

https://ticketysplit.trainsplit.com/
Cheers for the link. I'll make use of it next time, too late for this time as I've already booked my tickets, but very helpful thanks. :)

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by Lancasterclaret » Fri Jul 08, 2022 9:42 am

Its absolutely mental that it costs more to go by train than it does to drive

But that is where we are

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by Quickenthetempo » Fri Jul 08, 2022 9:57 am

When we played Rangers in the Saturday friendly we got return rail travel for £27 from Burnley to Glasgow.

I know the Preston to Glasgow was a flash sale 6 quid each way with Virgin but I don't see many with Avanti.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by ClaretTony » Fri Jul 08, 2022 10:01 am

Targetman wrote:
Thu Jul 07, 2022 10:36 pm
Just take a look at the fares for our 2nd away game at Watford in August, Manchester - Milton Keynes - Watford return.
Then let me know why you think prices need to be so excessive.
That’s been our preferred method of getting to Watford - have checked it out and there is no way I’ll be paying that price.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by Quickenthetempo » Fri Jul 08, 2022 11:36 am

I was going to say I have never heard a good word said about Avanti

But then I remembered my Dad went down to Arsenal for the last game of the season from Preston. He booked it a few days before so it wasn't cheap. About 1am on the Sunday morning before travel he got a message about his train being cancelled at 9am.
He got on the 10am as told and travelled back free of charge as they repaid the lot.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by Billyblah » Fri Jul 08, 2022 1:49 pm

MiltonKeynesClaret93 wrote:
Thu Jul 07, 2022 3:01 pm
There's a noticeable lack of advance fares available on services at the moment and I'm not sure why, though I have my suspicions.
Pendolinos are being refurbished at a rate of 1 a week at the moment though, and each are having 1 First Class carriage converted to Standard. Timetabling and rostering is becoming a lot more manageable now too, which will allow for services to be confirmed and tickets to be released much sooner. The combination of those two things should see far far more availability of the cheapest fares.
Looking forward to those cheapest fares MK, Boris was promising the country a big pile of cheap fares some weeks back but checking Avanti fares from Preston to Brum return at the time, it was pretty much unaffordable....cheaper driving, and that despite high petrol prices.
Would much prefer a stress free rail journey that doesn't involve pumping carbon monoxide into the environment. :D

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by aggi » Fri Jul 08, 2022 2:12 pm

Quickenthetempo wrote:
Fri Jul 08, 2022 11:36 am
I was going to say I have never heard a good word said about Avanti

But then I remembered my Dad went down to Arsenal for the last game of the season from Preston. He booked it a few days before so it wasn't cheap. About 1am on the Sunday morning before travel he got a message about his train being cancelled at 9am.
He got on the 10am as told and travelled back free of charge as they repaid the lot.
Surprised by that. I went up for the last game of the season with Avanti and they were cancelling trains left, right and centre (including mine) and I didn't get any refund.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by Quickenthetempo » Fri Jul 08, 2022 2:15 pm

aggi wrote:
Fri Jul 08, 2022 2:12 pm
Surprised by that. I went up for the last game of the season with Avanti and they were cancelling trains left, right and centre (including mine) and I didn't get any refund.
If you still have proof of purchase, get in touch with them.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by tiger76 » Sat Jul 09, 2022 3:10 pm

Worrying signs for anyone who's planning to travel in the near future, hope everyone manages to get to their destinations.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/travel/news/t ... fb9c7fc1a

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by MiltonKeynesClaret93 » Mon Jul 11, 2022 1:11 pm

Archer wrote:
Thu Jul 07, 2022 11:14 pm
You can’t join if you already have an Avanti account?
You can - you just need to make sure you have the option to receive marketing communications enabled on your account and you'll be sent an invite in due course.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by MiltonKeynesClaret93 » Mon Jul 11, 2022 1:11 pm

aggi wrote:
Fri Jul 08, 2022 2:12 pm
Surprised by that. I went up for the last game of the season with Avanti and they were cancelling trains left, right and centre (including mine) and I didn't get any refund.
You should still be able to claim back on that mate.
https://www.avantiwestcoast.co.uk/help- ... elay-repay

Give that a go and let me know how you get on.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by MiltonKeynesClaret93 » Mon Jul 11, 2022 1:18 pm

Glad that this thread got so many responses. Always been a huge advocate for the railway and, when it's operating normally, it's a brilliant way to travel.

Club Avanti will be good for people who tend to travel regularly on the West Coast, but it's no secret that currently, other TOCs, like LNER, Chiltern, EMR etc, are in the main, offering far far cheaper advance fares.
Split-ticketing and railcards are great ways around the high prices for now, but I'm told that when rostering and rule-working issues are addressed, along with the addition of 1 standard class coach on every Pendolino, that more seats and earlier timetable confirmations will pave the way for cheaper seats again. I really hope that's the case.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by claret2018 » Mon Jul 11, 2022 1:23 pm

To be fair to Avanti, the peak prices to London haven’t changed, although they’re still very expensive. I usually pay around £200-£230 return from Preston and that’s what it was a few years ago.

I do think the service is better too. The WiFi actually works for a start.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by MiltonKeynesClaret93 » Mon Jul 11, 2022 1:28 pm

claret2018 wrote:
Mon Jul 11, 2022 1:23 pm
To be fair to Avanti, the peak prices to London haven’t changed, although they’re still very expensive. I usually pay around £200-£230 return from Preston and that’s what it was a few years ago.

I do think the service is better too. The WiFi actually works for a start.
Should get better and better in the next year or two as well. Installing line-side antennas and working towards (hopefully) an uninterrupted 20-30mbps across the network. No more failed phone calls, drop-outs, buffering etc.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by Archer » Mon Jul 11, 2022 1:28 pm

MiltonKeynesClaret93 wrote:
Mon Jul 11, 2022 1:11 pm
You can - you just need to make sure you have the option to receive marketing communications enabled on your account and you'll be sent an invite in due course.
Thank you but sorry if I wasn't clear - I went through your link and it doesn't allow me to just sign-in, I have to make a new account, is there no way to just add it now from there on an existing account?

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by MiltonKeynesClaret93 » Mon Jul 11, 2022 1:36 pm

Archer wrote:
Mon Jul 11, 2022 1:28 pm
Thank you but sorry if I wasn't clear - I went through your link and it doesn't allow me to just sign-in, I have to make a new account, is there no way to just add it now from there on an existing account?
Gotcha,

If you click ''Sign In'' from the top of the Avanti West Coast homepage (avantiwestcoast.co.uk), then go to ''My Account'' which'll appear in the same area on the page after logging in. Once your account has loaded, there'll then be a ''My Preferences'' option that you can click on.
On that page there's ''Communication Preferences'', and if you just tick the option for Email within those preferences, that will ensure you're contacted about Club Avanti.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by Rileybobs » Mon Jul 11, 2022 2:27 pm

claret2018 wrote:
Mon Jul 11, 2022 1:23 pm
To be fair to Avanti, the peak prices to London haven’t changed, although they’re still very expensive. I usually pay around £200-£230 return from Preston and that’s what it was a few years ago.

I do think the service is better too. The WiFi actually works for a start.
When you think about it, it’s absolutely crazy that you can get a return flight to many European cities for half the price that you can travel from the north of England to London by train.
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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by tiger76 » Mon Jul 11, 2022 3:21 pm

Rileybobs wrote:
Mon Jul 11, 2022 2:27 pm
When you think about it, it’s absolutely crazy that you can get a return flight to many European cities for half the price that you can travel from the north of England to London by train.
When you put it like that I can see your point, and this just highlights how ridiculously overpriced some train journeys are in the UK.
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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by claret2018 » Mon Jul 11, 2022 3:47 pm

Rileybobs wrote:
Mon Jul 11, 2022 2:27 pm
When you think about it, it’s absolutely crazy that you can get a return flight to many European cities for half the price that you can travel from the north of England to London by train.
Completely agree. In central Europe this journey would cost 40-50 euros
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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by Brandon » Mon Jul 11, 2022 4:47 pm

I use Trainline.com most of the time.
I got two return tickets from MK to Burnley for the Luton game, with two railcards it came to just over £90..... booking directly through Avanti would have been almost double the price.
10% off drinks and snacks won't really persuade me to join the reward scheme even though I am a thirsty boy.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by Papabendi » Wed Aug 10, 2022 9:35 am

What a shambles of a service this is proving to be

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by claretonthecoast1882 » Wed Aug 10, 2022 9:41 am

Just take the contract off them.

The crazy prizes they are asking were bad enough, now the new timetable due to not being able to attract a level of staff needed to work operate proves they are incapable of running this contract.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by Quickenthetempo » Wed Aug 10, 2022 9:42 am

I'm not sure these trains will be running for Wigan away.

Bring back Virgin.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by tiger76 » Wed Aug 10, 2022 10:31 am

Having had the pleasure of travelling Trans Pennine on Saturday, and then having to board the Avanti train due to a mass of cancellations, I'm mighty glad I'll be journeying by coach for the Norwich game, and it's also a damn sight cheaper to boot, even factoring in an overnight hotel stay.

And it's highly likely that I'll continue to journey by coach for any future trips south, and on the journey back at the weekend there was plenty of unhappy punters, several who hinted they'd also be finding alternative ways of travelling in future.

I must mention the Avanti staff on the return journey though they were 1st class, and in the circumstances did as much as they could to lighten the mood.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by claretonthecoast1882 » Wed Aug 10, 2022 10:34 am

tiger76 wrote:
Wed Aug 10, 2022 10:31 am
Having had the pleasure of travelling Trans Pennine on Saturday, and then having to board the Avanti train due to a mass of cancellations, I'm mighty glad I'll be journeying by coach for the Norwich game, and it's also a damn sight cheaper to boot, even factoring in an overnight hotel stay.

And it's highly likely that I'll continue to journey by coach for any future trips south, and on the journey back at the weekend there was plenty of unhappy punters, several who hinted they'd also be finding alternative ways of travelling in future.

I must mention the Avanti staff on the return journey though they were 1st class, and in the circumstances did as much as they could to lighten the mood.
Transpennine have been shocking lately with cancellations and the late announcement of which trains have been cancelled well in advance leaving people stuck at various stations for an hour or 2.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by ClaretTony » Wed Aug 10, 2022 10:45 am

What's happened with Avanti this weekend? Believe there have been loads of train cancellations.

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Re: Travelling for football on Avanti West Coast

Post by claretonthecoast1882 » Wed Aug 10, 2022 10:49 am

ClaretTony wrote:
Wed Aug 10, 2022 10:45 am
What's happened with Avanti this weekend? Believe there have been loads of train cancellations.
Cut services from around 4 an hour to 1 an hour and tried to blame it on unofficial strike action leaving them short staffed.

This reduction in service is until further notice starting this weekend

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