Operator: Avanti West Coast
Headcode: 1S10
Route: BHM WVH-EDB
Class: Standard Premium
Seat: J30 J02
Date: Sunday 26th October 2026
The end of October last year saw me heading to Glasgow once again for work however, due to engineering works on the East Coast Mainline north of Doncaster and a fully booked Sleeper, I had to take a different route to normal. My route of choice was to head across to Birmingham and then catch an Avanti service from there and, with a four-hour journey to Scotland ahead of me I of course lined up a Seatfrog upgrade. Unfortunately, whilst on my way across to Birmingham, it became clear that my relaxing journey was already off to a bad start…
I was booked on 1Z85 the 1707 service from Birmingham New Street to Glasgow, however as I made my way to Birmingham, I received a notification that the service was cancelled. After a bit of investigation work it seemed the service was only cancelled from Birmingham and was instead starting from Wolverhampton, although this wasn’t displayed in simple terms for the average traveller. In fact it was the same situation for the following service and hour later and so, if I had taken the information provided on face value, I’d have had a two hour wait at New Street before a Glasgow service was provided. Ultimately things do go wrong on the railway, and these can be excused, unfortunately the poor communications to passengers can’t be!
Thankfully, having done my investigations, I had discovered there was a single CrossCountry service that departed after I would arrive at New Street and still get me to Wolverhampton in time for my connection. Seemingly staff at Birmingham were atleast providing accurate info, as there were a lot of passengers on this service all heading to connect with the Avanti and so at 1724, I joined the crowd rushing across the bridge at Wolverhampton to jump onboard the Pendolino that would take us north. With services heading south having been delayed by overrunning engineering work at Oxenholme earlier in the day, it made sense for trains to terminate at Wolverhampton to recover the delay as despite the inbound service having been over an hour late, we departed Wolverhampton northbound on time at 1732.
Having tried out Avanti’s first class offering on a previous trip to Scotland (read about that here), I had decided to try out Standard Premium on this trip, with upgrades to both being available via Seatfrog. With Standard Premium offering the same seats as first class just without refreshments or lounge access, Avanti’s Pendolinos now usually run with first class in the rear coach (when heading north) and Standard Premium in the next two. This journey to Glasgow with Avanti would be slightly quicker than my previous one as this service didn’t call at Oxenholme or Lockerbie, however even with starting at Wolverhampton there were nine intermediate stops on the trip north.
The stops at Stafford, Crewe, Warrington Bank Quay and Wigan Northwestern were uneventful and with darkness having descended prior to us leaving Wolverhampton, I was only able to see the stations themselves outside the windows. There had been no catering onboard from Wolverhampton, presumably due to the disruption, however with a crew change at Preston, I hoped this would change shortly after. Frustratingly it didn’t and the stop at Lancaster passed with the onboard shop still closed, with it eventually opening when we were in the Tebay area around 1935. When it did open I made the long walk from coach J to coach C and grabbed myself a sandwich, bottle of pop and a chocolate bar which cost £6.50. Slightly more expensive than a high-street meal deal but not too bad.
Having picked up a four-minute delay somewhere between leaving Wolverhampton and reaching our first stop at Stafford, this delay stuck with us for the rest of the journey, with us unable to get back to right time and sometimes the delay getting worse. A dark run through the Lake District meant I couldn’t enjoy the stunning scenery in this part of the world and some more uneventful stops at Penrith, Carlisle and Motherwell meant we were soon on the final stretch through the Glasgow suburbs heading towards Glasgow Central. Arriving into Central’s platform 2 at 2124, followed by the Sleeper empties into platform 10, our four-minute delay had turned into a six minute one, but in all honesty, this could have been much worse.
Is Standard Premium worth it? In all honesty probably not unless you can get a really good deal. The space and added peace and quiet are nice (I think there were two other people in my carriage for the entire journey), but with no lounge access or refreshments included, an expensive upgrade really isn’t worth it. Unfortunately, whilst the delays and change of origin weren’t Avanti’s fault, the comms were lacking and having no catering for a large part of the service, even after a crew change point, isn’t great.
Lounge 0*
Seat/Facilities 3*
Food 3*
Service 3*
Punctuality 4*
Overall Rating 13/25 (read about my rating system here!)
Flights & Times 