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Post by Eastlondoner62 on Mar 20, 2023 21:23:09 GMT
The extension has been granted as Avanti West Coasti is deemed by the DfT to have "improved sufficiently" to warrant it. Since the Recovery Timetable was implemented in December the number of cancellations has dropped from 25% to less than five percent, and 90% of all journeys now arrive within 15 minutes of the scheduled time. Avanti West Coast now operates 264 timetabled journeys each weekday, this highest level for two years. They still have some way to go, hence the extension for just 6 months. The DfT wants to see more reliable weekend services, a continued fall in cancellations and better passenger information during both planned and unplanned disruptions. A new Managing Director, the third in a year, has been appointed. Andy Mellors has previously held senior management posts at Great Western Railway and South Western Railway. On a personal level, I hope that Avanti West Coast will work on making its Advance bookings available much further out. At present it is often difficult to book more than two weeks ahead, which I am sure must lose custom as travellers will look for other ways of making the journey. I do wonder how much of the cancellation reduction is due to air capacity being used up now. Some British Airways tickets are showing £328 one way for Economy Class if you book for next week, with only a departure at 10pm being £58. There's even been cases where Economy tickets have sold so much that they're displaying more expensive prices than Business Class tickets. Anywhere in Scotland it's now a no brainer to fly, there's plenty of train vs plane videos out there and pretty much always the plane is the faster option and you're less likely to be cancelled and dumped in the middle of nowhere. The whole West Coast needs to be sorted out. |
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Post by WH241 on Mar 20, 2023 22:24:59 GMT
The extension has been granted as Avanti West Coasti is deemed by the DfT to have "improved sufficiently" to warrant it. Since the Recovery Timetable was implemented in December the number of cancellations has dropped from 25% to less than five percent, and 90% of all journeys now arrive within 15 minutes of the scheduled time. Avanti West Coast now operates 264 timetabled journeys each weekday, this highest level for two years. They still have some way to go, hence the extension for just 6 months. The DfT wants to see more reliable weekend services, a continued fall in cancellations and better passenger information during both planned and unplanned disruptions. A new Managing Director, the third in a year, has been appointed. Andy Mellors has previously held senior management posts at Great Western Railway and South Western Railway. On a personal level, I hope that Avanti West Coast will work on making its Advance bookings available much further out. At present it is often difficult to book more than two weeks ahead, which I am sure must lose custom as travellers will look for other ways of making the journey. They caused me issues last year as no returns were showing for a trip I made so was forced to book a coach ticket only for train tickets to be released a few days before I travelled. I decided to book the train after all and lost my coach fare but luckily the train was delayed so ended up with most of my rail fare back. |
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Post by WH241 on Oct 23, 2023 20:07:20 GMT
Had two awful journeys over the weekend on Avanti West Coast but in fairness both out of their control! Friday it took over 6 hours to travel from London to Blackpool because of Storm Babet and the driver having to have a half hour break at Euston then today there was delays because of a passenger incident in Scotland and cancelled trains.
Never seen trains so full as I have today and had to stand all the way back to London. On the plus side I will get compensation for both trips  |
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Post by Eastlondoner62 on Oct 23, 2023 20:31:25 GMT
Had two awful journeys over the weekend on Avanti West Coast but in fairness both out of their control! Friday it took over 6 hours to travel from London to Blackpool because of Storm Babet and the driver having to have a half hour break at Euston then today there was delays because of a passenger incident in Scotland and cancelled trains.
Never seen trains so full as I have today and had to stand all the way back to London. On the plus side I will get compensation for both trips This is why it's better to fly to Scotland or Manchester by this point. |
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Post by busoccultation on Oct 23, 2023 21:02:16 GMT
Had two awful journeys over the weekend on Avanti West Coast but in fairness both out of their control! Friday it took over 6 hours to travel from London to Blackpool because of Storm Babet and the driver having to have a half hour break at Euston then today there was delays because of a passenger incident in Scotland and cancelled trains.
Never seen trains so full as I have today and had to stand all the way back to London. On the plus side I will get compensation for both trips Last few days have been awful for train travel thanks to the weather as it ended up taking me 3 hours on Friday morning to take me from Paddington to Swindon using GWR for a journey that should have taken under an hour, where I had to go via Oxford and spend 1 1/2 hours on the Stagecoach S6 (The Gold spec MMC did alleviate on that) to get to Swindon and the return trip wasn't any easy either as the return trains back to London was limted throughout the afternoon.
Again this isn't on GWR with me nor Avanti with your situation either and was an unfortunate case of the weather screwing things over across the UK rail network across the last few days.
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Post by greenboy on Oct 24, 2023 6:13:07 GMT
Had two awful journeys over the weekend on Avanti West Coast but in fairness both out of their control! Friday it took over 6 hours to travel from London to Blackpool because of Storm Babet and the driver having to have a half hour break at Euston then today there was delays because of a passenger incident in Scotland and cancelled trains.
Never seen trains so full as I have today and had to stand all the way back to London. On the plus side I will get compensation for both trips This is why it's better to fly to Scotland or Manchester by this point. I'd definitely rather fly or drive and avoid Euston... news.sky.com/story/network-rail-failing-to-stop-unacceptable-overcrowding-at-euston-train-station-says-rail-regulator-12987047 |
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Post by Eastlondoner62 on Oct 24, 2023 7:05:28 GMT
I mentioned this a few weeks prior, but the plane is a superior experience to the train. I stepped off the plane and as there are no customs you effectively walk straight into the arrivals hall, the walk is probably a lot shorter at Heathrow Terminal 5 than it will probably be at Euston. You get complimentary snacks and a drink on top and the journey itself is only around 35 minutes. The Elizabeth Line has made travel to Heathrow so much easier too and its a lot quicker to get into Central London. Various little experiments have shown the plane is faster to Scotland, I'd like to see what any difference is to Manchester. |
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Post by WH241 on Oct 24, 2023 8:47:48 GMT
The station is busy but think those examples are more the extreme incidents. Even on Friday at the height of the storm the station was flowing pretty well this is with building work taking place. The newish mezzanine floor makes the station feel a bit more modern and pleasant. |
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Post by TNL33036 on Jun 27, 2024 1:09:07 GMT
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Post by MetrolineGA1511 on Jul 13, 2024 21:20:44 GMT
The class 805 has now entered service, but I don't know how many. I rode 805 005 earlier this evening.
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