Avanti passengers: reduced to frustration

02 September 2022

Avanti introduced a reduced timetable recently (14 August) to ensure a reliable service so passengers can travel with greater certainty. This was a consequence of multiple short-notice cancellations on the Avanti network which has had a severe impact on passengers. The fundamental aim was to give passengers certainty and to be able to travel with confidence.

However, Avanti passengers are still left frustrated and inconvenienced as short-notice cancellations are still happening.

Passengers looking for certainty and confidence won’t find it on the Avanti website (though you can find some consumer advice on our disruption page).

Passengers who bought a ticket and made seat reservations before 8 August for travel after 14 August are informed that the previously booked seat reservations will not be valid on services in the new timetable, even if the train booked is still running at its original time.

Want to plan ahead with certainty for journeys in September? Only if you are travelling on a weekday between now and 13 September. The reduced timetable is only in journey planners up to 13 September.

However, timetables and tickets for weekdays from 14 September and into October are available on the Avanti website and app. But passengers are advised some services are still subject to change.

Weekend timetables from Saturday 10 September onwards are currently unconfirmed due to planned engineering works, making leisure trips at the weekend unpredictable.

The basic tool of information, allowing passengers to make informed travel plans is missing.

We have met Avanti, DfT and ORR to discuss issues of passenger detriment and to seek improvements. We have since written to Avanti, detailing where the passenger experience should be improved – read the letters here. See our Avanti timetable disruption page for the work we are doing to push Avanti to make those improvements.

We are also getting feedback on journey planning and experiences, from mystery shoppers and from members of our Transport User Panel .