Avanti West Coast Reviews 

Don't believe I've ever been moved to write anything on trust pilot but this is my second adverse experience with this company. They notified me via email that they had cancelled my train. I asked for a refund via the link sent. I made alternative travel arrangements. The following day they emailed to say they had reinstated the train they had previously cancelled - Now they won't give me my refund (!?) They are asking for pictures of a paper ticket I never had cut up (!?) Unbelievable. I ended up travelling with LNER who were pretty decent. In my opinion I would avoid using Avanti if at all practical and possible.

The worse service, most expensive, always late, no customer service, terrible terrible company … how can they get away with it?

The government should seriously encourage more competition on the London to Manchester route instead of allowing passengers to depend so heavily on what feels like a monopoly operator. When one company dominates such an important route, passengers are left with little choice despite extremely high fares, repeated disruptions, cancellations, and restrictive refund policies.

Yesterday’s disruption showed exactly why competition is needed. Thousands of passengers were left struggling while still paying premium prices for unreliable services. In any competitive market, companies would be forced to improve reliability, customer service, pricing, and compensation policies to retain customers.

At the moment, passengers often feel trapped paying very high prices while receiving a level of service that does not justify the cost. Essential intercity travel should not become a stressful experience where customers are expected to simply tolerate cancellations and poor communication because there are limited alternatives.

More operators and stronger competition on the route would likely:

- Improve reliability and accountability
- Reduce excessive ticket prices
- Improve refund and compensation policies
- Encourage better customer service
- Give passengers meaningful alternatives during disruption

Passengers deserve a rail network that works in their interest, not one where they feel powerless due to lack of competition.

Went to have a nice day out train cancelled. Absolute shambles. 1 star reviews everywhere. Embarrassing

We can't remember when we last had such a smooth train journey; in both directions. The trains ran on time, were extremely clean and comfortable, and the staff kept passengers well informed.

No loos train delays freezing cold. It is an hour to Euston and I am bursting to go to the loo. I have had to walk 6 carriagss to find one with only a queue of 3. What kind of service is this? Cl

Dreadful staff, terrible service, zero positives every single day of my commuting hell life. Muggins here pays 15k plus per annum for a season ticket. To start with the trains are never on time often because the staff haven't turned up for work, the trains are dirty, the staff are about 10% engaged and helpful, most of them, especially the ones at Euston station are particularly useless hanging around doing bear minimum work and not even doing their jobs properly, checking tickets, informing customers of issues. Not only that but staff are rude, on numerous occasions I have witnessed highly unprofessional and inappropriate behaviour towards passengers, clear cultural issues within the organisation. Nobody cares, that's the main issue. Nothing ever improves or gets done, is anyone accountable?

Dreadful. It is rare that I would highlight an individual however I am going to single out the manager or Avanti Train West heading to Euston from Stockport his approach to customers. I arrived early at Stockport and asked one of the staff there if it was ok for me to to take the earlier train. They looked at my any time single and said yes it was fine and so I boarded the 804 instead of the 824. I won’t name the train manager although I will be writing to Avanti West; was just so dismissive and rude. Actually the mistake largely sat with National rail who had advised me to board the train. He was disinterested, lacking in any kind of empathy and charged over £40 to remain on the train. Above all, it was the attitude. I would not recommend Avanti for many reasons - Manners cost nothing at all.

Absolutely awful train company.. our train from Euston was cancelled.. no one had bothered to let us know. Euston to Stockport.. member of staff told us to get on the train before the cancelled one.. we were then met with the most rude and obnoxious train manager.. who told us we had no right to be on the train and proceeded to charge us a £10 admin charge each… she was condescending and arrogant.. complaint has gone in and a request for the ‘ admin’ fee to be returned
Never again would we use this joke of a company.. there are alternatives Avanti.. and we will use them

The seats on Avanti West Coast trains are so uncomfortable it's mind blowing. They have a weird shape and the foam is like sitting on concrete. My arse and spine felt like someone had kicked me off the thing by the time I got past Milton Keynes. My trip from London - Manchester and then back again was horrid because of it. At £150 return, disgraceful. Sort it out. I am honestly never getting on one of them again. Foam don't cost much Avanti. Bad reviews do!

Dreadful journey from Preston to London, uncomfortable, stuffy, packed full and with people having to stand, no hot food, no hot drinks, and a very angry aggressive unpleasant member of staff. While we struggled to get to our seats ( we had mistakenly got into the wrong carriage ) This horrible man followed us and shouted at us to stop. He then began to berate us and was very threatening. He said we had "almost" knocked somebody over...???!!! We were totally unaware of any such incident. If we had bumped into someone, we would certainly have apologised. He pointed and shook his finger in my husbands face, and said, "if I see you do that again, I will throw you off the train" ..... we were stunned by this dreadful, unacceptable, aggressive so called train guard. We are two ailing pensioners for goodness sake, not two rampaging teenagers ! We eventually found our seats, and sat there for the rest of the journey in shock. The journey itself was just horrid and to have staff members like the guard on there as well was the icing on the cake. What an appalling company, we have never experience anything like that before. That will certainly be our last ever trip with avanti trains.

andy . mellors @ avantiwestcoast . co . uk
CS/CEO, 
So I have finished my last journey with your obnoxious unaccountable company populated with obnoxious arrogant staff and I am pretty sure Thuggish violent 'security' staff

Two things before I finish

1. The abuse I suffered 18.04.26 at New Street was ths result of over officiious Customer aherrmmm 'Service' Maggie and 'security'Mr 'Thuggy' pretty sture he was AWC. if the loss of a reservation (how dare I ! Sorry I am not perfect like your staff, joke 'Ceo' ! You appear a bit slow going on AWC performance)  justifies in your minds  (it doesnt in mine) then why were my tickets were checked on your precious trains ONCE and the reservations were not working out or return ? 
Great quality system 'Ceo'

2. Had a great weekend in London. How can TFL be so friendly, helpful and professional on one of the biggest weekends of the year (as indeed do all companies appear apart from  from AWC) what makes your lot so special ? My guess is useless underpeforming ' Managers' and a  'CEO' whom doesnt seem to care.

My opinion is for some reason you are deliberate to be taken back into public ownership 

Shocking 

andy . mellors @ avantiwestcoast . co .uk
Needs to earn his and get a hold of his staff
Vile, physically abusive & dangerous, I find their rediculous post about staff having feelings and being entitled to safe environment blah, blah, blah unmitigatedly hypocrisy of the highest order.
Maggie in Birmingham T.O. was an inflammatory, arragont, rude, obnixious, vile know it all. How dare she speak to a 63 year old person in the manner she spoke.
Thuggy from security attacked me, pushing me and tried goading me in it hitting him.
No chance thuggy to clever for oiks like you youth
Does anyone at AWC ever read Trustpilot ?
Surely andy . mellors @ avantiwestcoast . co .uk
should actually do something to justify his salary ? Why does he not listen to the many people who are telling him how rude his Customer 'Service' 'people' are ? Why do they think they are so much better than the people who pay their wages to be rude, offensive and violent ?
Need taking back into public ownership and get rid of about 75% of obnoxious violent staff and employ people who actually want to work and dont have this bizarre view that Customers are irritants and there to serve them in their easy jobs. The signs about staff prove Mellors only cares about his staff and not customers whom are spoken to in a vile manner and in my case physically attacked

Rude untrained staff barking orders at people. If they do not enjoy their jobs I would encourage them to seek employment elsewhere although I struggle to think of anywhere that would want them.

Avanti West Coast services were beyond abysmal. Train was 20 minutes late. We were advised that it was possible to claim a refund / compensation. However, it was impossible to register online and when I telephoned I was told I would need to speak to another adviser, but was left hanging on the phone with no response for over 10 minutes listening to music, adverts and riddles. I gave up in despair. Hope I never need to use Avanti West Coast again. Over an hour wasted this morning online and on the phone.

On 19 December 2025, there was a major disruption on Avanti West Coast due to a reported train collision with trolley. I followed staff instructions to leave the station. During the chaos, I lost my physical ticket.

When I returned, I showed my digital booking confirmation. One staff member let me through, but a manager (Nel) then removed me and forced me to buy a new ticket, even though reception staff (Emma) confirmed my ticket was valid.

I complained. Avanti refused a refund. The Rail Ombudsman reviewed my case and concluded there was "inconsistent communication" from staff but still refused compensation.

After escalating to the Managing Director's Office, they offered me £4.80 as a "goodwill gesture" for a £39.44 ticket. I declined.

I am sharing this so other passengers know: if you lose your ticket during disruption, Avanti will not help you, and their staff may contradict each other. Very disappointing service.

Update: Avanti replied to me on Twitter, repeating that 'rules are rules' and offering no real resolution. After 4 months, their final offer remains £4.80 for a £39.44 ticket. Judging by their social media responses, they have no intention of treating passengers fairly during disruption

Avanti MD office finally refused a fair refund, hiding behind the fact that the train was 'on time', while completely ignoring that their staff kicked me out of the station during chaos. They offered £4.80 for a £39 ticket. This is how they treat customers. Shaming.

I have written not so glowing reviews of this company before so it’s only fair I write a review when things go well

Start with the bad

1st class toilets don’t work AGAIN! You really need to sort your maintenance out. Gone the engineers the right budget and tools and they will make it right

Now the good

Clean
On time
Food great
Service - exceptional
All told the staff made it a great experience.

Big shout out to Michael

19:07 Euston to Liverpool lime Street. This guy is a legend.

Train was delayed by 20 minutes, due to a police “incident”, no doubt just a routine check to see if they are still in fact the worst option for cross country travel. After this, they continued to be delayed consistently at each stop, until finally realising all connecting trains that they were supposed to be getting their valued customers to on time had somehow got in front of them. Likely would have arrived in Edinburgh sooner if I’d bought a foal, raised and cared for it, broken it in, rode it, stayed at a Premier Inn, and enjoyed a lovely breakfast at a roadside pub, all before this bloody service reached Carlisle. Only giving 1 star for the bacon baps.

I have travelled about 4 time to Manchester or Crewe to London Euston return. Most of the jurneys have generally (some have not) arrived on time to Euston. All trains from Euston have been late. I have on the traing for 30 minutes and tried to get a cup of tea, no he is not ready - rude & disgraful. You need fix this! The 2053 train is just leaving now but no tea!

I have tried to raise a complaint Avanti Train Website and it says my email is not valid! I know my email address is correct!

I have recently become disabled and require a mobility scooter. This was my first venture onto a train journey. The service and staff were fantastic at both Crewe and Euston. Alleviating all our fears. Excellent service thankyou

Several times have booked 1st class to holyhead and never any service in 1st class don't even get a voucher for free coffee and sandwich from train cafe disgusting waste of money