Avanti West Coast Reviews 

Refreshments carriage/shop is pretty much useless. Spends more time closed than open. On 4.5 hr journey, was open for about 30mins only. On way back, just started journey and they have hardly anything on board - few chocolate bars only. Very poor service. Dont advertise a shop/refreshments carriage if you have nothing on board!!!

Just had the loveliest train trip back from Manchester to London euston (work trip) and I work a service job so I know how difficult it can be to keep spirits up when everyone is tired or it’s last train of the night but the 8:14pm from Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston on 2nd April 2026 staff were stars all around. Thank you!

Absolutely disgusting and rude customer service at London Euston, outside the platforms, next to the ticket machines.

While booking our tickets to London Euston, we did not have any information that the station is going to be closed for few days and it would inconvenience us in our returning back journey. That’s why we approached member of the stuff, the guy who was sitting on the chair by Avanti Train by the ticket machines. There was also an Afroamerican lady standing by him.

I’ve genuinely asked about what would be the best option for us, and I thought he will tell us which train or which not we can use on our ticket which we already purchased.

He was rude and obnoxious, saying I should have known that the station is closed cause everyone knows that from over a year and my email should have said that.

Well, if my email would have said that, I wouldn’t be coming to him asking for help.

The lady wasn’t helpful either. They did not even understood at first what I am asking for.

They did not help us with anything. Just showed me tickets on Trainline app, which I could do myself.

So so so bad attitude and lack of communication and empathy. Absolutely disgusting behaviour.

(He was a middle aged guy, it was 11:56am and I remember he was saying he is going for his break at 12pm. No idea what his name was, but I rather not meet him ever again in my life).

This is more a criticism of the website than the very patient advisors we resorted to - although we still failed to book any tickets after a total of 3+hours. The system apparently would not accept our cards - however 3 pending transactions have appeared on my bank statement....... Frustrating!

I had a journey to London booked today, missed my connecting train in Manchester and the best they could do was offer me a ticket for £130. With empty seats on the train that are going anyway why they wouldn't put in the effort to provide better customer service and offer a discounted ticket to a customer who is visibly distressed I will never know. Awful company will actively avoid going forward.

What an incompetent and useless company. Cancelled my train from Crewe to Glasgow about two hours before travelling. Next train was showing as on time, then 20 minutes delayed, then just disappeared! Station staff had no idea and no communication. They shouldn't be allowed to run trains in the UK

This is a review based on a return journey. The extra star is for the return.
Route, from Stafford to Euston and back on a first class ticket. 12 oclock down and 1 o'clock up.
On the way down there no offer of any refreshments, nothing, and no explanation why. The return gave no ability to have a hot drink. The seats are terrible, and there is nothing first class about the experience. The price is disgusting for the standard. I dread to think what the rest of the train was like if that was the best they had to offer. We wont be using the train when travelling again. I'd rather drive myself. Their contract needs removing.

Absolute shambles. On train from Euston to Motherwell just now. Rubbish collection about 45 minutes into journey. No further colection until now almost three hours later. I decided to take the rubbish to the bar before the second collection and on way back could not move due to passengers standing in aisle. Had to stand in aisle for twenty minutes, despite having a seat booked, before I could get off the train and realight at my own carriage. Highly unlikely I will ever travel with avanti west coast again .As well as this the on board shop was closed most of the time on our journey

Diabolical when booking reserved seats. I travelled from Euston to Preston with my son who is 4, and we were giving seats A3 and A29 confused as to why you would seat a child that far away from their parent or guardian? So couldn't sit in our reserved seats and ended up having to stress and struggle with our luggage to find seats together in the unreserved coaches which I must add aren't advertised anywhere so had to find them on my own.

Avante West Coast review

Missed opportunity

The train left on time. It was a fairly comfortable ride. however, my lower back was uncomfortable and it was quite difficult to have a nap

The ride was a fairly smooth and arrived at all the stations on time. the attendant frequently came past, asking. If we had any rubbish

Our tickets were checked once we got off the train and were leaving the station.

However, to my surprise towards the end of the journey, we were told that the shop was now closing. until that time, 2 hours into our journey we never knew there was a shop on board.
None of the screens displayed the shop or the menu. There were no announcements that refreshments were available to purchase

This seems like a missed opportunity for Avanti West Coast. my son and I hadn't had any lunch and we would have been happy to purchase perhaps a sandwich or a sausage roll or even a hot drink
But no opportunity was made available to us until we were arriving at our destination

So perhaps a avanti . Could make an improvement which would to announce at the beginning of the journey that there is a shop on board and refreshments can be purchased? This would be good for passengers to know that this is available, and in terms of revenue, an opportunity for avanti West Coast. However, thank you for a pleasant and the comfortable journey. And given the opportunity, we will ride with avanti again.

We booked an early morning journey through scotrail ap train was cancelled because of trees on line scotrail passed the buck because it was avanti train we were travelling on we got in touch with avanti about refund because we were over a hour delayed and after a bit of time on there site we got a full refund if you are delayed take pics of your tickets and journey as these are asked for when making your claim

Hopeless ticketing system whereby you can not buy tickets too far in advance. Today (23/03) I can not buy return tickets to Glasgow returning on 14th June as tickets not released yet. I can buy a single for 11th from London but can not buy the return ticket. Hopefully will never have to use Avanti again!

Waste of time terrible website.
This is what privatisation gets us: you sort out your journey on nationrail.co.uk, and then the Avanti website fails to work "something has gone wrong".
You try to start again directly from Avanti, but it can't find ANY stations. Not Coventry, not Liverpool Street.

in google search the first things that come up are "Avanti something has gone wrong".
Too effing right.

No seats is able to be access because of people restricting the way with bags and suitcases madness. No help was provided by people staff specially might be because im not white but paid the same amount as everyone else. What pussed me off is that if I got on a different train they will fine me for probably double the tucket i paid for but if i dont get a sit i dont get anything?? Refunded or free or whatever??? I paid £55 for this trip and the wholetime i was uncomfortable WOW

I have asked for a response to my complaint and had numerous replies that do not address the issues I have raised. I have asked for them to escalate the matter as I am not satisfied with their response and the member of their staff at customer services has ignored that request and said they have answered my complaint ! It is a shame I have to pick one star as I would go with 0 if I could. This isn’t customer service !

I received an email from AWC saying my train was cancelled, just 90 minutes before departure time. I didn’t see this message until my Uber was due to arrive (packing you know, a bit distracting).

The email offered no alternatives, only that my ticket would be valid only for either of the two preceding or the two following services, and that the cancellation was “due to lack of staff”. With the help of the Lime Street (Liverpool) information booth attendant and other passengers, I found my way on to a local service to Crewe, then another AWC intercity service to Euston.

What an appalling level of service: passengers left in the lurch at the last minute, because AWC can’t staff a train that’s been scheduled for months. But I gather from other reviews that this is the rule rather than the exception.

Take this franchise away from AWC and give it to a competent operator.

UPDATE: On the return trip, patchy internet for much of trip, and no hot drinks (on an 11:00am service).

Staff at Preston rude also we claim for a refund because train was cancelled and you charge a admin fee so how about I add an admin fee for having to claim in the first place we are first time users and would think about using you again and from reading wat others have put doesn't look like you try very hard to improve

Train delayed. Unable to access delay repay on website. Common problem as evidenced by number of complaints about website. After over an hour of trying different options to finally speak to a person had call terminated for raising my voice. This is designed and inevitable as the system is designed to infuriate. Will contact Ombudsman.

I can't say enough bad things about my experiences on Avanti West Coast trains. I frequently travel between Scotland and London and the vast majority of services I have been on are delayed at least 30 minutes, frequently by more than an hour. The service I am on just now is 50 minutes late already and we've not made our first stop yet. The train I'm on now is oversubscribed with people having to stand because other avanti services have been cancelled. Again, nothing new, just surprised this one left on time - not unusual for the Glasgow train to be cancelled and to be stuck waiting for the next one in London for an hour +. The internet is practically dial up so by the time this is uploaded I may be home (although knowing Avanti I doubt that. Can only beg the government to take this rail franchise off them and give it to someone else, anyone else.

AWC latest excuse for not dealing with my Delay Repay from December 2025 (AWC-CR-3191020) is that they can't process it because they don't have the information required as my form "must have got lost in the post"

I've twice now sent very clear scans of the claim to them