Avanti West Coast cancellations

[Wiganlad]

And no seat reservations on any trains in standard class - SVR rtn Wigan to Birmingham £53.20 best fare £171.00. I have tried every train between Friday and Monday and apart from the first and last train not a chance.
So if you are trying to Get from Wigan to Crewe it's via Manchester?

 

[paul1609]

What's the revenue loss of Avanti pulling out of Liverpool altogether? They have a basic train service provided by LNWR.

 

[duncanp]

Unbelievable and very sad frankly. Time something was done , DFT need to sanction staffing increases , this is ridiculous.

I think this is all coming to a head now.

Problems seem to be getting worse, with disruption that was largely confined to Sundays spreading at first to Saturdays, and now to every day of the week.

I said elsewhere on these forums that three successive trains from Birmingham New Street to London were cancelled this afternoon (15:50, 16:30 and 16:50) right in the middle of the Commonwealth Games.

I wouldn't mind betting that Avanti have their franchise taken away from them before the end of this year.

 

[Kite159]

What's the revenue loss of Avanti pulling out of Liverpool altogether? They have a basic train service provided by LNWR.

I suspect if you get rid of all Avanti services, that hourly stopper won't cope due to overcrowding.

 

[tomuk]

I think this is all coming to a head now.

Problems seem to be getting worse, with disruption that was largely confined to Sundays spreading at first to Saturdays, and now to every day of the week.

I said elsewhere on these forums that three successive trains from Birmingham New Street to London were cancelled this afternoon (15:50, 16:30 and 16:50) right in the middle of the Commonwealth Games.

I wouldn't mind betting that Avanti have their franchise taken away from them before the end of this year.

They don't have a franchise to takeaway they are operating under an ERMA at the beck and call to the DfT I suppose the DfT could refuse them an interim National Rail Contract.

 

[Moonshot]

I think this is all coming to a head now.

Problems seem to be getting worse, with disruption that was largely confined to Sundays spreading at first to Saturdays, and now to every day of the week.

I said elsewhere on these forums that three successive trains from Birmingham New Street to London were cancelled this afternoon (15:50, 16:30 and 16:50) right in the middle of the Commonwealth Games.

I wouldn't mind betting that Avanti have their franchise taken away from them before the end of this year.

How would a new operator solve the problem of drivers not working their rest days?

 

[Efini92]

How would a new operator solve the problem of drivers not working their rest days?

By bringing in agency drivers

 

[Moonshot]

By bringing in agency drivers

 

[northwichcat]

I wouldn't mind betting that Avanti have their franchise taken away from them before the end of this year.

They don't have a franchise to takeaway they are operating under an ERMA at the beck and call to the DfT I suppose the DfT could refuse them an interim National Rail Contract.

What good would DfT taking back the franchise and giving it to OLR do? They tried that with Northern and cancellations are higher than they were under Arriva.

 

[duncanp]

They don't have a franchise to takeaway they are operating under an ERMA at the beck and call to the DfT I suppose the DfT could refuse them an interim National Rail Contract.

How would a new operator solve the problem of drivers not working their rest days?

I get the feeling that there is a breakdown in relations between staff and management at the moment, and that morale amongst staff is very low.

A conssequence of this is that staff will only do the bare minimum that they have to, and will not do anything voluntary such as overtime or working on rest days.

You have to ask the question as to why TOCs like LNER are not having similar issues.

I get the point about there not be a franchise to take away, but there needs to be a new management team at Avanti, so that staff relations can be improved.

If there are better staff relations, then perhaps things will start to improve.

 

[Moonshot]

From a passenger perspective I guess the alternative is to catch the Birmingham New Street train and change there for the Euston train? Unless anyone knows a better way?

 

[childwallblues]

There is a 1F10 0728 departure from Crewe arrive Lime Street 0804. This should form 1A15 0847 to Euston.

 

[SJN]

I get the feeling that there is a breakdown in relations between staff and management at the moment, and that morale amongst staff is very low.

A conssequence of this is that staff will only do the bare minimum that they have to, and will not do anything voluntary such as overtime or working on rest days.

You have to ask the question as to why TOCs like LNER are not having similar issues.

I get the point about there not be a franchise to take away, but there needs to be a new management team at Avanti, so that staff relations can be improved.

If there are better staff relations, then perhaps things will start to improve.

Well after their tweet on Sunday, I would imagine they’ll have even less people volunteering to do OT to cover for people on annual leave.

 

[Statto]

From a passenger perspective I guess the alternative is to catch the Birmingham New Street train and change there for the Euston train? Unless anyone knows a better way?

Or change at Crewe instead, as can get the LNWR Trent Valley service if there's no AWC services.

 

[Efini92]

I get the feeling that there is a breakdown in relations between staff and management at the moment, and that morale amongst staff is very low.

A conssequence of this is that staff will only do the bare minimum that they have to, and will not do anything voluntary such as overtime or working on rest days.

You have to ask the question as to why TOCs like LNER are not having similar issues.

I get the point about there not be a franchise to take away, but there needs to be a new management team at Avanti, so that staff relations can be improved.

If there are better staff relations, then perhaps things will start to improve.

LNER had a massive recruitment a few years ago.
Avanti are massively short of staff.
The DFT could solve this by allowing avanti to negotiate with the unions.

 

[Llandudno]

Surely Steve Rotheram the leader of Liverpool City Region should be getting involved.

The MP’s won’t be bothered until the end of September when they start attending the House of Commons after the summer recess..!

 

[betraveler]

Avanti are massively short of staff.
The DFT could solve this by allowing avanti to negotiate with the unions.

I think the problems are deeper. Avanti need to ask, why do people not want to work for them compared to other toc's.

 

[jfollows]

There is a 1F10 0728 departure from Crewe arrive Lime Street 0804. This should form 1A15 0847 to Euston.

Unfortunately, there isn't, it's cancelled.
It didn’t run on Monday either; today it ran and used platform 12 at Crewe which is a bit of a faff from Longsight from where the unit starts its day.

 

[childwallblues]

There is a 1F10 0728 departure from Crewe arrive Lime Street 0804. This should form 1A15 0847 to Euston.

This unit comes off Longsight at 0556 as 5K10.

What's the revenue loss of Avanti pulling out of Liverpool altogether? They have a basic train service provided by LNWR.

Rubbish. LNWR currently have one train an hour from Liverpool to Birmingham. No where else. Any way it looks like the problem is being caused by london crews/stock not Liverpool.

 

[MattRat]

What's the revenue loss of Avanti pulling out of Liverpool altogether? They have a basic train service provided by LNWR.

That would disconnect Liverpool directly to London. Sure, you can change at Crewe or Birmingham, but that's not acceptable when talking about a service between London and a major city. Even Nottingham has a direct service.

The only way it could possibly be acceptable is if LNWR to Crewe was extended to Liverpool, if that's even possible.

 

[MikeWM]

From a passenger perspective I guess the alternative is to catch the Birmingham New Street train and change there for the Euston train? Unless anyone knows a better way?

Until a few years ago you could have gone to Manchester and hoped they had something running from there. But they removed that from the routing guide for no obvious reason other than to irritate people who'd done just that for years, and so now you can't.

 

[LowLevel]

Until a few years ago you could have gone to Manchester and hoped they had something running from there. But they removed that from the routing guide for no obvious reason other than to irritate people who'd done just that for years, and so now you can't.

If it's a flexible ticket I doubt anyone would bat an eyelid, I hadn't even noticed it had been removed. It happens regularly enough.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Rubbish. LNWR currently have one train an hour from Liverpool to Birmingham. No where else.

Change at Crewe for London. I'd be doing that anyway at the moment, it's cheaper, no silly pseudocompulsory reservations and there's a chance it might run. Alternatively go all the way to Brum and then Chiltern.

 

[DanNCL]

What good would DfT taking back the franchise and giving it to OLR do? They tried that with Northern and cancellations are higher than they were under Arriva.

But on the other hand moving the ECML from VTEC to the OLR was a good thing for the operation. LNER is a much more comparable operation to Avanti than Northern is.

 

[Agent_Squash]

But on the other hand moving the ECML from VTEC to the OLR was a good thing for the operation. LNER is a much more comparable operation to Avanti than Northern is.

Nothing really changed about VTEC moving to LNER apart from the removal of 'optimistic' revenue targets and the halting of cost cutting to meet those targets.

The management is practically the same team as it was under VTEC/Stagecoach - compared to the clean start at the top for Northern.

Of course, Avanti is pretty much the same at the top as it was under VTWC...

 

[NoOnesFool]

If it's a flexible ticket I doubt anyone would bat an eyelid, I hadn't even noticed it had been removed. It happens regularly enough.

Until a savvy RPO notices then the passenger is in deep doom.

 

[Statto]

What's the revenue loss of Avanti pulling out of Liverpool altogether? They have a basic train service provided by LNWR.

LNWR service is hardly an adequate replacement, considering that's hourly 8 car service too (when LNWR was 30 minutes, it was only 4 car service), AWC Liverpool services can often be heaving, plus the outcry would be tenfold if AWC pulled out of Liverpool

 

[HST274]

The north wales shuttle also seems to be badly affected tomorrow.

 

[NoOnesFool]

LNWR service is hardly an adequate replacement, considering that's hourly 8 car service too (when LNWR was 30 minutes, it was only 4 car service), AWC Liverpool services can often be heaving, plus the outcry would be tenfold if AWC pulled out of Liverpool

There is also a lack of decent First Class service.

 

[Statto]

Just to ask, anyone know what was the industrial relations like when the service was under Virgin, i can't remember it ever being as bad as now?