What’s happened to England’s west coast rail line?

[kalifire]

When I was last in the UK, Virgin was running England’s west coast line and trains between Manchester and London took about 2h 7m. 

I’m looking at costs for my visit in June and I see the operating license is handled by Avanti (whatever) but it now takes over 3 hours to get between the two cities. 

What’s happened? 

[Fuzzy Afro]

Are you travelling on a specific date? Most likely there is engineering work so the trains are either speed limited or travelling on a different (longer) route.

 

 

I travel this route twice a month and trains still take anything from 2:06 to to 2:20ish

 

 

[charlierc]

Avanti is the new name for it after the company operating changed hands in 2019. But atm a Google says a London-Manchester train today is planning 2hr15-20.

Must be engineering works on the travel dates selected, which is a usual hazard on UK rail lines - I was looking at going to Newcastle next month for a football match but engineering works means no trains arriving up there before the game starts.

[efcfanwirral]

23 minutes ago, Fuzzy Afro said:

Are you travelling on a specific date? Most likely there is engineering work so the trains are either speed limited or travelling on a different (longer) route.

 

 

I travel this route twice a month and trains still take anything from 2:06 to to 2:20ish

 

 

Yep second this - I had a bank holiday one that took that long last year,  and I also noticed when I was last booking that occasionally an early one will take that long but it's back to normal later in the day. 

To be honest I've noticed nothing different apart from the logo - same trains and everything, and generally pretty reliable 

[Gnomicide]

Echo the above, going to London for a gig in March, 2hrs 5mins there on the Saturday, 3hrs plus coming home on the Sunday.

[ian the worm]

On 1/23/2022 at 6:05 PM, Gnomicide said:

Echo the above, going to London for a gig in March, 2hrs 5mins there on the Saturday, 3hrs plus coming home on the Sunday.

North is uphill right?

[charlierc]

Least you can hope trains are still running. I'm still pouting about last Friday when that bloody storm blocked everything south of Birmingham, and as I live south of Birmingham, it meant no trains to Wolf Alice for me (turns out there were no National Express coaches either).