Avanti West Coast - Truly Britain's worst train operating company?

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Giving the contract to them instead of Virgin Trains was a catastrophic decision. Prices went up immediately afterwards. Service has been atrocious since.

Avanti is certainly up there with Trans-Pennine and Northern. Why on Earth do we persevere with the current franchise structure? If they cannot perform up to the standard required by the franchise contract then they should be taken over by the government and re-nationalised. It’s not the panacea for all of UK rail’s ills and, let’s face it, the present government couldn’t organise an orgy in a knocking shop. But when poor performance is tolerated (and some might say rewarded) and profit maximisation becomes the god, then it’s time for change. Few would argue that BR functioned superbly, but at least its main objective was public service rather than profit.

We can all agree the franchise model has failed, the whole system is designed to bleed money from Network Rail for engineering works and does little to ensure staff are load balanced. Back in the BR days you had different grades and routes and they would never allow a route to have no drivers through them all leaving to sign another route for a few extra quid.

My friend Ian named this company Ashitey. Very apt, given services are continually late, cancelled or delayed. If I wish to travel Carlisle to London I am safer travelling to Newcastle and then using the ECML how sad is that!

Avanti is the poorest long-distance ever since the privatisation of British Rail in the 1990s and it's management practices have become a textbook example to be used when telling students how NOT to manage any company. Having said that though, responsibility rests with government alone, first for disqualifying Virgin Trains' bid on, let's say rather arbitrarily looking grounds - or should I say some government ministers may have earned themselves some nice complimentary holidays? - and second for having rewarding Avanti for their ridiculous performance not just once but twice instead of stripping them of the franchise with immediate effect.

As someone who frequently uses them, I think I prefer Northern. That’s saying a lot, as if I have the time I prefer to get the bus to the lakes (from Preston) as it’s far cheaper. Takes longer but is more reliable. Also weirdly I happened to be going down to London the day Avanti took over, they gave out panettone on Preston station.

I can remember using the WCML in British Rail days and it could be hit and miss. You could go from Carlisle to London in four hours in the eighties, which was perfectly acceptable then, but often there were delays of 10 to 20 minutes, although cancellations were rare. Also some of the staff could be miserable, particularly on the stations. Catering again varied: stewed tea and miserable looking sandwiches were common, but there was a full restaurant car on peak time services and the meals were acceptable. Main benefit was the much simpler fare structure: first, second and advanced and no restrictions on travel. While we grumbled at the time, £ 30 advance return from Carlisle to London in 1988 with no restrictions on travel is a lot cheaper than the £149 off peak return that's most common now with all its restrictions. ( I know you can book really cheap tickets months in advance, but often this isn't an option and they sell out).

Avanti have done a brilliant job at turning things around in the last 18 months. Given the impact of the pandemic, and the sheer passenger numbers they move, I doubt VT would have fared much better under the circumstances. Reducing their cancellation numbers as much as they have is honestly a huge achievement in such a short span of time.

The passenger experience at AWC's managed stations has become a lot less consistent since the end of Virgin: Lancashire stations are still up to standard, but Coventry is a bit sleazy & Crewe is a downright diabolical place to get off a train with gateline staff who treat you like a criminal.

Another great informitive video, yes please to the options of pendolino's and virgin style docs up soon, both would be great, well done for taking the feedback about the time between segments, certainly flows nicer when watching. keep up the geat work and thanks for these.

First just needs to stop running train services

Enjoyed this one, thanks. Your voice makes easy listening too.

Well researched. Most informative. Yes to a video on Virgin Trains (VT) please. VT much missed.

Well, personally I believe there have been more royal cock ups in the past, such as Arriva Rail North, and First’s TPE ownership as a whole. I do agree with you, however, that AWC is severely below average. Although the new refurbishment of the 390s look amazing, it’s worsened by the overcrowding which isn’t helped by the trains themselves being incredibly tight.

Those who made the decisions surrounding the West Coast mainline franchise have a lot to answer for. Barring Virgin Trains from bidding for a service that they had been running quite successfully for 22 years just seems like one of the biggest mistakes ever made and clearly wasn't really made by consulting the regular everyday passengers or those who actually know anything about running a national train service. Most reasonably minded staff who still work on the West Coast mainline, be it on the trains or at the stations wil tell you that Virgin are most definitely missed. The biggest difference between Virgin and most other train operators was that they actually cared. Nobody or company is completely faultless, that's just unrealistic and absurd but Virgin were committed to the betterment of their staff, their service and the public as a whole.

Thames Trains were charged with many health and safety failures. Conex South-eastern was not alone, since both Govia Thameslink Railway and London & South Eastern Railway were also done for ripping of the government.

I have to travel on the WCML to get home. For the price of an Avanti Ticket is just doesn’t hold up. I always look forward to changing to the part of the journey where to change to London Northwestern. Much cheaper with a much more comfortable ride.

as a wcml local i like them. sure reliability isn't great but their staff are fantastic amd first class is unmatched

As someone who has to use Avanti, they arent all that bad. The only issue I had with them was when they cancelled 4 trains to London via New Street in a row. Apart from that, the trains themselves havent been that bad, and they havent been heavily delayed apart from 1 time when the train was delayed by 55 minutes, but not on their part, due to a points failure at Lancaster. So unless they have gotten worse in 5 weeks, I dont think they're anywhere near the same league as TPE and Northern