The passenger watchdog has said Avanti West Coast is 'going to have to do better' after customers slammed the rail firm over the impact of late changes to its timetable to ‘ensure a reliable service’.
While some customers were told that they could not book tickets for some services until four days in advance because Avanti is publishing weekly timetables, other passengers have complained of ‘an atrocious mess’ after the train operator changed the time of services they had managed to book onto.
A statement on the Avanti website says that it is operating a reduced timetable on weekdays between 17 January and 25 February, ‘to manage staff shortages and ensure a reliable service, so you can travel with confidence’.
In fact, the operator is publishing a series of ad hoc timetables, which are not confirmed until less than a week before they come into force.
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Source: Avanti website 15 February 2022: Timetable changes and cancellations
Avanti initially said that its weekday timetable from 21-25 February would be available on Tuesday (15 February), and that morning its Twitter account was telling customers that the timetable would be released soon.
However, by Tuesday afternoon, both its webpage and its twitter account were stating the timetable and tickets would be released on Thursday 17 February.
In fact Avanti released tickets for next week on Wednesday.
Timetabling changes have caused particular problems for passengers wanting to travel on trains from London Euston to Glasgow that were originally due to leave at 30 minutes past each hour, including customers who had already booked on such trains.
These services have been retimed to leave at 10 minutes past the hour in order to allow time to stop at more calling points.
On Tuesday one customer complained on Twitter that even though his seat reservation, which was printed that morning, showed his train leaving at 10.30, it had left at 10,10. He said other passengers had experienced similar problems, causing ‘absolute chaos at Euston’.
Anthony Smith, chief executive of watchdog Transport Focus, said: 'If the railway wants to win back business after Covid it is going to have to do better than this.
'Getting back to passengers having 12 weeks’ notice of the timetable that will run on any given day must be a priority.'
A spokesperson for Avanti told Transport Network that while it had brought in a reduced timetable to limit late notice cancellations due to Omicron, the downside of this approach is ‘the inability to put tickets on sale as early as we would like,’ adding: ‘We can only do this once Network Rail has signed off the amended timetables.
‘When the tickets go on sale the normal range of fares will be available to purchase and we’ve encouraged customers contacting us to sign up for ticket alerts.’
However, on Wednesday morning, the cheapest single ticket from Euston to Glasgow at 8:10 on 21 February was £129.30, whereas a ticket for the same train (i.e. at the original time of 8:30) on 28 February was only £73.90.
The spokesperson added that the firm had ‘also contacted the small number of customers who had already booked to travel on these services to make them aware’.
The firm said that its 'aspiration' is to get back to a situation close to a 12-week booking window.
Many passengers buy rail tickets from Trainline and other platforms.
A Trainline spokesperson told Transport Network that it strives to proactively inform customers of changes, including highlighting disruptions to services within journey search results, emailing customers to let them know if their train is cancelled in advance, and in-app disruption notifications from one hour before a service originally due to depart for more last-minute changes.
LNER, which runs trains from King’s Cross to North East England and Edinburgh, returned to its full timetable this week.
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