Trains to London

[Onacuctustree]

I live on a mainline to London.
I want to book a train for the week after next.
There is nothing.
Apps I have tried,the Trainline, Avanti..
What is going on?
Is it because of strikes,so trains might be there if I just show up?
Or are they full?
Shouldn't it be quite easy to get a train to the capital city with 2 weeks advance notice?

London can’t stand you either.

When you hate London so much, that you never lose ANY opportunity, no matter how unrelated, to tell people how much you hate London...

Indeed. <picks random backwater town to slag off>

Depending where you are, would it be worth trying to get over to the East Coast Main Line and travel on LNER? Eg from Leeds?

DP is working in London next week and booked tickets yesterday from Leeds for £60 return on fixed trains, or you can get an off peak flexible ticket for about £125. There seems to be plenty of availability.

In two weeks it's half term (in much of the country, I'm not saying it's the same everywhere) so I don't know if that makes a difference?

Avanti are shit. The end

I actually travelled down to London on Monday morning and due to head back to the NW this afternoon. Avanti still can’t say whether 2 trains supposedly leaving Euston between 5 and 6pm will be running 😡

It's a journey we make regularly on the west coast line and the service just gets worse by the week.
I really miss Virgin and have had to resort to catching the National Express bus a couple of times which takes hours.
Funnily enough I managed to purchase Crewe to London yesterday for this weekend for £60 one way. Just praying train turns up.

You can if there are staff on the train there to sell you tickets. I often take trains and never get my tickets checked, so where would I buy the ticket on the train? You can easily see how people who get on the train without a ticket can also lie about where they got on (can't say I haven't done that before...).

You must be made of money. If I did that on the London train like the OP is asking, it would cost me £146. If I booked online a couple of weeks ahead, I can do it for under £30.

Avanti is partly owned by the Italian government

I mean I love Italy as a holiday destination but if you are looking for organisational ability we should maybe have tried harder to rope in the Koreans or Japanese.

Avanti west coast is appalling. I went a while ago and someone was sat in my seat. But they also had a ticket for it. They’d double booked the whole train down to London. It was ridiculous. Virgin were a million times better and their trains so much nicer too.

I tried to book Crewe to Manchester other week just said not available or the train might be cancelled anyway !, this was Trans pennine express

Avanti are shit but I have to say I've used the train loads in Italy and it's been amazing - efficient and good value.

Maybe YOU can always get on a train and just pay the fair when you get on. Sometimes you can’t, they only let on people with tickets ( Christmas).
If you’re disabled or have kids you might need to have a seat, or seats and you might need them together. I always paid for my small children to have a seat as I couldn’t think of a worse way to spend 6 hours than with a small child squashed on your lap on the floor. .

I have been trying to book Crewe to London the half term week. I've given up!

Avanti cannot staff the trains. They seemed to be canceling every other train as well so 2 loads of people on 1 train - really unpleasant. They are shite.

ime when the trains eventually get released tickets will be ££££ because everyone will try to book at once.

Drive.

Not so on my line. You pay the penalty fare or the actual fare whichever is the higher.

We're going to Nantwich tomorrow (from London). Booked everything else months ago. Couldn't book a train. It's via the ridiculous one -train-an-hour Avanti West Coast.
I couldn't deal with the uncertainty and now we're driving. Their franchise needs to be removed immediately. It's not as though it's an important line or anything!

Well they do now have a government of the political descendants of someone who supposedly made the trains run on time.

If you’re disabled or have kids you might need to have a seat, or seats and you might need them together

Need them together? Do you book train tickets like cinema tickets where you choose your seats?

Sorry if that seems like a stupid question, I've only taken trains around the SE of England and never known or seen anything about booking particular seats. I don't think there's an option to on the trains I've taken. You just sit wherever and if they are all taken you stand

For trips on two main lines from 'the North' to London, many people book for a particular train because of the cost, as in my example above where if you just turn up and get a standard ticket, its £145 each way, this is the only option if you want to go on a peak train, ie one that gets into London before about 10 am, whereas you can go much cheaper on an off peak train, especially if you book a certain train and this generally requires seat reservations.

This is what people are talking about, but we can just get on if travelling locally or middle distance, eg from Leeds to Manchester.

Well, the reason is that our train lines are run for profit by unscrupulous companies that squeeze them for profit and give zero shits about the country or the public service they are meant to be providing. Bit of a blind spot for the Tories and their growth agenda that they support for profit public services; we don’t have a functioning train line between London and Manchester, must be great for growth.

Ah thank you this makes sense

I think Avanti have cancer lots of trains because they don't have enough staff to run them.
I couldn't get a ticket for a train from London to Glasgow the other day.