Topic: Trains from London - any general tips, please?

[Dan The Man 28373]

Hi mate, I'm in Windsor and usually drive up for the games. Normally go all home games but didn't get anything in the ballot for league games 1st half of the season, will be going all cups and CL though so DM me if you want a lift for those

Cheers mate unfortunately have fallen down the ladder on CL & domestic cup games, so unlikely to get many tickets unless they go to all s/t holders. But will bear you in mind if my situation changes.

[MKB]

https://www.businesstraveller.com/business-travel/2022/08/08/avanti-west-coasts-schedules-to-return-to-sparse-pandemic-levels/

Not even currently accepting any reservations until after Sep 12.  I don't think there's any doubt that management at Avanti need to be kicked into touch.  They've so ruined staff relations, they can't even run anything near their previous reduced timetable.

[Craig S]

We considered the 17:30 but (a) at 13:30, there was no guarantee Avanti wouldn't subsequently cancel that, and (b) we wouldn't be back at Rebellion until nearly 22:00, so the evening headliners would be missed.  Very painful decision to leave early.  I'm a stickler for not going till the final whistle normally.

Sadly, our bar-coded 15:30 train tickets got scanned on the 14:30 train, so they know we took the 14:30.  Although that ran late and got us in to Blackpool 45 minutes later than it should have, it was before the original arrival time, so we can't claim Delay Repay.   Going to see whether I can make a claim under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 for a full refund and day's expenses since we essentially had a wasted trip, and Avanti were negligent in not determining and announcing, before we left Blackpool on Saturday morning, that they didn't have crew to run trains later that day.  (The crew going down already knew lots of trains back were going to be cancelled, which did at least alert us to check regularly.)

I've just got over a grand out of Lufthansa via MCOL, so that experience will come in useful.  Will be doing a Letter Before Action this week once I've researched if I have a legal case.

The upside was that the 14:30 got us back in time to see full sets on Saturday night from Grade 2, Cockney Rejects and Gary Numan who were all ace, and four other less well-known bands.

Really surprised you got clipped/scanned, unless it was at a barrier. Most of their staff don't seem bothered anymore to do it.

[MKB]

Really surprised you got clipped/scanned, unless it was at a barrier. Most of their staff don't seem bothered anymore to do it.

Both at barrier and on train.

[Rhi]

Just want to once again express my complete contempt for the fucking shambles that are Avanti West Coast. The service they provide is not fit for purpose. They are a joke and I truly believe it'll end up being some sort of scandal that they were awarded the contract because I refused to believe that an organisation who fail at every fucking turn were able to legitimately win a contract.

[MKB]

If you want to see what you're dealing with, this is what Phil Whittingham, Avanti's Managing Director, thought was appropriate to issue to Avanti staff today, which is a deliberate attempt to inflame rather than heal staff relations.

https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/avanti-west-coast-cancellations.233844/page-36#post-5790737

Given he's probably acting under orders from DaFT, now that the railway franchises are on management contracts, presumably this is driven from de Pfeffel down.

[bradders1011]

If you want to see what you're dealing with, this is what Phil Whittingham, Avanti's Managing Director, thought was appropriate to issue to Avanti staff today, which is a deliberate attempt to inflame rather than heal staff relations.

https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/avanti-west-coast-cancellations.233844/page-36#post-5790737

Given he's probably acting under orders from DaFT, now that the railway franchises are on management contracts, presumably this is driven from de Pfeffel down.

What does it say? Can't see without an account.

[MKB]

Sorry, didn't realise that.  It's a couple of screen grabs someone posted:

[Levitz]

Sorry, didn't realise that.  It's a couple of screen grabs someone posted:

Crazy how they are publicly trying to claim that work to rule or work to contract is 'unofficial strike action' rather than just working to your actual contract rather than doing them a favour. Not working voluntary overtime is now considered to be striking, wild.

[Rhi]

They're the fucking worst. Awful, awful company.

[RainbowFlick]

choosing not to work overtime is not "unofficial" strike action, avanti. what a shambles of a company.