EUS-GLC Avanti West Coast – Standard

Operator: Avanti West Coast

Headcode: 1S58

Route:    EUS-GLC

Class:    Standard

Seat:     E69

Date:     Monday 18^th September 2023

Having made most of my trips to Scotland via the East Coast Mainline during 2023, a work trip in September provided the opportunity to try out a different route and see what Avanti West Coast (AWC) was offering via the West Coast Mainline. Having headed down to London on a Thameslink service, I made the short walk through the back streets from St Pancras to Euston, arriving around half an hour before my 1130 departure was scheduled to leave.

It had been a while since I had last been to Euston, with my previous visit being an arrival onboard the Caledonian Sleeper from Edinburgh (read about that here). Since my last visit, the old departure screens had been covered with scaffolding, whilst new, smaller screens now cluttered the recently de-cluttered concourse. Since this journey I’ve seen that the old screens have been replaced with a large advertising screen, making the passenger experience worth for the sake of some advertising revenue.

As is pretty standard with all journeys out of Euston (with the exception of the Sleepers), boarding was announced less than 10 minutes before departure, with a stampede forming as passengers rushed from the main concourse to platform 6. Given AWC closes the platform gates two minutes prior to departure, we were only given around seven minutes to make our way to the platform and get on board. Thankfully there wasn’t a platform ticket check for this service and the boarding rush only delayed our departure by one minute.

Taking us north to Scotland was 390124, a refurbished class 390 ‘Pendolino’, with these units being the workhorses of the AWC fleet. AWC have a total of 56 Pendolinos with just under two thirds of these having now been refurbished. Onboard, the new seats are pretty comfy and are similar to those on Lumo (read about my journey with them here). In fact, Lumo was used as a test bed for the new seats, with both companies owned by FirstGroup. The seats include large head rest, reading light and both a standard and USB socket.

With boarding complete, the train was pretty full with only the odd empty seat dotted about. I was in coach E seat 69, a backwards facing airline style aisle seat, despite having requested a forward-facing table seat next to the window, so that request went well… I could just about see out of the window beyond my neighbour, and caught glimpses of the Euston HS2 works that were in the process of being mothballed by the Government.

As we passed Wembley Yard, I was able to see DB Cargo’s car train which brings Toyota cars from factories on the continent, through the Channel Tunnel and north to Toton near Nottingham for distribution across the UK. This is one of three ‘car train’ flows in the UK, with the other two operated by GB Railfreight from Ford’s Dagenham works to Mossend in Scotland and Garston in Merseyside.

The journey north to Glasgow Central was scheduled to take just over four and a half hours, with a non-stop run down the southern section of the WCML and along the Trent Valley before our first stop at Warrington Bank Quay. Six more intermediate stops would follow at Wigan North Western, Preston, Lancaster, Oxenholme, Carlisle and Motherwell, before we arrived into Glasgow four hours and 33 minutes after leaving Euston.

With my journey taking place over lunchtime, I decided to try out AWC’s new ‘click and collect’ food order similar to the one I used onboard SNCF in France (read about that here). Unfortunately, the order got cancelled with no reason given, although I suspect that it was because one of the items wasn’t available. Heading further along the train to coach C, I was able to get a meal deal, bottle of water and a slice of fruit cake for £10.20 which would keeping me going until I got to Glasgow.

With the stops at Warrington, Wigan and Preston passing uneventfully, the stop at Lancaster saw my seat neighbour leave the train, giving me a pair of seats to myself for the rest of the journey. In fact quite a lot of people left the train at Lancaster, with the coach being around half full as we headed through the Lake District towards the border.

Having ticked off Oxenholme and Carlisle, I was expecting an uninterrupted run to the outskirts of Glasgow and Motherwell station. Unfortunately as we approached Carstairs where the line towards Edinburgh splits from the WCML, we came to a stand unexpectedly, with the overhead lines having come down between Motherwell and Glasgow Central. After around 10 minutes we moved forward to wait in Carstairs Down Passenger Loop where we proceeded to sit for a while before eventually undertaking a shunt move to get back into Carstairs station.

Disappointingly throughout the delay, the announcements weren’t great, with it taking nearly 20 minutes of barely moving before any announcement was made. Whilst I understand that the crew may not have had any information before this, an early announcement apologising for the delay and saying that enquiries were being made would have helped settled a restless train.

Given our scheduled arrival into Glasgow Central was 1603, no-one was particularly pleased when we terminated at Carstairs at 1644, and there were more disgruntled mutters as an 11 car Pendolino was emptied onto a platform where a three car ScotRail unit was waiting to take us forward. Taking a diversionary route that our AWC service was unable to take, we followed a ScotRail stopping service and eventually made it into Glasgow at 1806, more than two hours late.

Unfortunately for Avanti West Coast, they’ve received quite a low score for this journey, not helped by the 0* stars for punctuality, although I accept that the overhead line issues weren’t their fault. The comfortable seat and accompanying facilities are certainly a plus to have come from the Pendolino refurbishment and whilst the food was reasonable, it would have been better if the click and collect system had worked correctly.

Lounge              0*

Seat/Facilities     4*

Food               3*

Service             3*

Punctuality         0*

Overall Rating      10/25 (read about my rating system here!)