rail travel-Euston-Edinbu rgh Aggressive Travellers

ayse, i found cheaper flights, but depends on dates.
can't you squash a few essentials into a carry-on bag.
and/or keep a stock of clothing etc at your daughter' s ?
i know someone who often flies to ireland, never has luggage. saves time as well as money.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=HScWSuCag-U
My son sent me this, says it all I think!

welbeck

ayse, what about flying ?

I used to fly to Bristol but it’s become more expensive to take a suitcase. The last time it was £170 return whereas the train is currently £117. If I went with few extra clothes it would be much cheaper but I don’t know how I’d get on at my daughter’s with no extra clothes 😬.
DH, travels by National coaches, so that’ll be my next travel plan, at least till the rail dispute is sorted.

I have to say to OP that it’s a bit much for people to buy an extra ticket to use it for their luggage.

Several PPs have commented this. It only seems unreasonable in the context of expecting the train to be massively overcrowded, which it shouldn't be.
Otherwise, if someone pays for 2 seats and puts a case on one, so what. It doesn't matter at all if everyone else gets the seats they paid for too.
The train company is at fault, not the passengers.

Bus companies seem to manage to organise this sort of thing, why can't train companies?

At least long distance trains still have guards - it would be much worse when it is driver only trains.

It sounds like it couldn't be much worse.

I hope you put in a complaint Bea.

ayse, what about flying ?

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

This makes the case for guards on trains even stronger. There is no way that anyone should ever feel intimidated on a train.

we travel between London and Oxford. The trains are ancient,uncomfortably hard seats, no sockets or wifi, often only 2 carriages, to Marylebone or Paddington. Its expensive.
We have moved to the Oxford Tube double decker coach, quiet, civilised, wifi, cheap, every ten minutes, Marble Arch, Victoria, bliss.
Of course when there is a train strike at the weekend they are full up, but one would expect this.
I had a surreal, nightmarish journey from Leeds to London a couple of years ago, stranded. It was a journey I made regularly, this was THE END, cold, miserable, traveller that I was.
LNER service, awful, Kings X neck from scanning the board, thought, I will take the NE coach! next time, so I did, took longer but more comfortable, no slamming doors, shouting, cold draughts and it pulls into the bus station, ideal.

Not only impecunious students travel by coach these days, many older people like me. Booking in advance always much much cheaper.
I’m old enough to remember separate carriages, sigh.
OP this is train travel today, suitcase on seats? no wonder people were cross, it could have occupied the space of the tired passenger

I got ticket price refunded on one occasion as I took a photo on my phone and sent it to the train company, commenting that, as they could see, I was travelling in the bit by the toilets with 10 other people and I had my face in someone's arse (I was on the drop-down seat). I have a back and hip problem and there was no way I could have stood throughout the journey as many others were doing - the aisles were rammed and no-one could get to the toilet if they had wanted it - no-one could get on and off, as it was packed. It was a disgrace.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

[Mattsmum2] that sounds like a perfect journey..you would have been very shocked yesterday although the disabled assistance service @Euston was excellent with the buggy and actually escorted me onto train ..it went downhill from there.

Yet another example of the wonders of privatisation of what is an essential service. It is probably too late now, but to my mind, the money being spent on the irrelevant vanity project that is HS2 should have been spent on vast improvements on the existing network. It made me claustrophobic just reading about the OP's journey.

Ayse I agree with you
Our Railway system may have been the first in Europe but it is one of the worst now.

Having received my vouchers from Cross Country for compensation I decided to use them within the given year.
Tried to book online. No good you can't add vouchers when booking online
So I phoned National Rail enquiries to be told to go to my nearest booking office as they couldn't sell me tickets with vouchers over the phone.
It took me an hour by bus journey into
Edinburgh thats ok I have bus pass and time
The booking hall for advanced journey s has long gone and the woman at the counter told me she couldn't sell me an advance ticket due to the strikes but I could pay £177 for the return trip to Nottingham.
I love my son but it sounded far too much for me for a weekend.
Not to be daunted and still with this £50 voucher, I went back to Waverley the following week where another clerk sold me a return ticket using the vouchers for £46.

This time I was careful not to travel at a weekend and not too near Christmas.

Good luck everyone with your journeys
Let's demand more investment. Let's write to our MPs. Save our train service
Please

Sounds like a sensible idea 🤔

I travelled from Kings Cross to Edinburgh say 10 years ago and was surprised when the train porters took our luggage, gave us a ticket and loaded it into another carriage, pretty much like an airplane. We got it no problem when we arrived in Edinburgh 🤷🏻‍♀️

I wonder how disabled people manage in such circumstances when they find disabled seating has been booked by able-bodied people? It must have been doubly difficult for them.

What a fiasco.

Avanti won’t care. They don’t care about anything. Luckily the government gave them billions in bonuses only a couple of months ago. No idea what could possibly qualify for a bonus.

There was no Ticket inspection at all during my 3hrs of hellish travel-there was simply no breathing room and some people had canoe size luggage- not joking ..another female had a Dior Box the height and width of table on wheelies ..if I cud afford a Dior box that size I would be in 1st class- shouldn’t judge I know but did wonder what was in box🤔
Shall send email to Avanti as this type of overcrowding is disgraceful, unsanitary and unsafe .. thank goodness for Abena products!

Yet another example of the failing privatized railway. Too much money going to shareholders and not enough investment. Time to re-nationalize.

Our transport system is pitiful. And a lot of the problems are due to privatisation and this holy grail of competition that is supposed to bring prices down - ha, ha is all I can say.

I once sat in the Severn tunnel for hours - the train had broken down and the rail company did not want to use a nearby spare train to shunt us out as it was a different company and would have cost loads - how ridiculous is that?

Makes me furious! In February I will have to go to Cheshire and back again - I am dreading it, but I hate long drives so have little choice.

For the last year post Covid, I’ve travelled from Newcastle to Bristol and return via Cross Country. It takes 5.5 hours and I’m never able to book a return seat. On all but one occasion the train has been packed between Birmingham and York on the return journey. Crushed in like sardines with standing in the aisles and corridors, broken toilets, nowhere for luggage and at a ‘reduced’ price of £117.00 return. On one occasion the train was not going further than York so had to swap to LNER. Fortunately, my ticket was the sort where I didn’t have to pay extra for using a different railway company.

I have to say to OP that it’s a bit much for people to buy an extra ticket to use it for their luggage. I wouldn’t be happy either tbh. However, the people complaining should have complained to a customer service person ( probably couldn’t find one).

It boils down to our railways being an absolute disgrace. I fully support the staff in their industrial action. I want sufficient staff at the stations and on board trains to help customers. I’d also like one train company (re-nationalise) so that a ticket could be used on alternative trains if necessary.

This year we were booked to travel by train to Bristol and return, 22nd December returning 29th December. I cancelled as Cross Country couldn’t guarantee service yesterday. My daughter in Bristol, out of interest, checked on the arrangements made by Cross Country yesterday. The alternative provided for travellers was Bristol to Paddington, tube to Euston and Euston to Newcastle! This could possibly count for some of the overcrowding on the OPs train. I’m still waiting for my refund!

We travelled by Megabus instead. Never again!

What an absolute disgrace. Don’t think I will be using the train until you can actually sit down on it. Where are people supposed to put their luggage? They have the nerve to raise prices, people will be hanging out of the windows soon

I haven't heard of buying a seat for luggage either.
I travel by train from Edinburgh to stay with my DC and other family in the South .

Once an elderly Spanish couple were having to stand and kept looking for a seat. The ticket inspector told them that they had no reserved seats. Only in this country could you have a ticket without a seat.
Some younger people gave up their seats to this couple.

Last year I had a journey from hell and had to stand from Grantham to York despite having reserved a seat because like the OP the aisles were impassable
The train then stopped for over an hour due to a breakdown and later an announcement told us we would be eligible for compensation due to the delay.

Finally I found a seat (not my booked seat) but the person sitting in the window seat had her large case in the foot well next to her.
I pushed her bag into the aisle enough to be able to squeeze in and felt aggrieved that her bag was deemed more important than a passenger.

I will avoid traveling near Christmas or other peak times and continue to complain if a complaint is needed.

I congratulated the train company when I received excellent service when on another occasion I left my luggage behind.

I always have the lightest bag possible so I can lift it up stairs and carry it on my lap if necessary.
Train travel is not cheap and not for the faint hearted but can be excellent.

many trains were cancelled due to over-running of works on the line, which often happens after bank holidays.
so the trains that were running were bound to be over-crowded.
all the more reason not to take up seats with luggage.