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Louis Mendez’ journey back from Blackpool

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  • Remember coming back from Accrington last season and being jerked around by Avanti at Preston
    Good pub just up the station approach right in front of you otherside of road, but for the love of me have forgotten the name of it. You can see the PNE floodlights from it.
  • Remember coming back from Accrington last season and being jerked around by Avanti at Preston
    Good pub just up the station approach right in front of you otherside of road, but for the love of me have forgotten the name of it. You can see the PNE floodlights from it.
    The old Vic?
  • You are one of the good guys Louis.
    Avanti are definitely to be avoided if possible 
  • Should have stayed the night up there. I hear Blackpool is beautiful this time of year. 
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  • clb74 said:
    Avanti west coast , aren't all bad.
    Our 9 received our money back for Carlisle after nearly 6 weeks in the form of a cheque.
    A couple of us are thinking about Fleetwood in March , I can already feel my blood boiling.
    These train firms have really put me off going away games over the last couple of seasons.
    Get you back to London at 2am and you've got to fight the bustards to get you home.
    We were discussing this today on the way back.  Total bedlam at Preston when trying to get the 1200 train when no-one seemed to know which train was for Glasgow and which for Euston.  After being jerked around at Carlisle (at least I got my delay repay within a week), when Fleetwood was suggested I said I couldn’t handle Avanti again this season 
  • clb74 said:
    Avanti west coast , aren't all bad.
    Our 9 received our money back for Carlisle after nearly 6 weeks in the form of a cheque.
    A couple of us are thinking about Fleetwood in March , I can already feel my blood boiling.
    These train firms have really put me off going away games over the last couple of seasons.
    Get you back to London at 2am and you've got to fight the bustards to get you home.
    You know what to do!!!!!!!!!!
  • cabbles said:
    clb74 said:
    Avanti west coast , aren't all bad.
    Our 9 received our money back for Carlisle after nearly 6 weeks in the form of a cheque.
    A couple of us are thinking about Fleetwood in March , I can already feel my blood boiling.
    These train firms have really put me off going away games over the last couple of seasons.
    Get you back to London at 2am and you've got to fight the bustards to get you home.
    You know what to do!!!!!!!!!!
    Been there.
    Left Bromley about 6am got to Fleetwood 2.10pm
    Never to be repeated 
  • The last few seasons following Charlton away has been a nightmare with trains, why can’t this country put on a reliable service ? They charge enough ! 
  • @LouisMend

    i dont know how you would feel about  this, but there’s an article or blogpost lurking  there that I reckon would get a lot of traction beyond your usual audiences. It must happen every week to fans of loads of clubs, and the way you write is very relatable for people who may not even be interested in footie.

    The thing with the coach is downright shady. That definitely needs to see the light of day.
    It's everyone that uses them though ,Prague.
    Imagine taking two young kids on the train .
    To be told the trains been cancelled and the you no longer have a seat reservation.
    Andy Burnham has been on at Avanti west coast and the government for ages.
  • edited January 29
    LouisMend said:
    I actually find this scary and extremely aggravating. Getting stranded by a rail service on a day out should be unthinkable but happens no doubt regularly and few people get to hear about it. The saving grace here is it happened to a BBC journalist, Twitter enabled too!  I hope your story gets a wider audience @LouisMend  
    I actually thought that this morning. There are so many people with special needs, hidden disabilities, anxieties etc who could never anticipate anything to this degree and are potentially vulnerable. The level of care and support given in these situations just always seems bare minimum.

    Someone like Louis can embrace it and will become a tale for him in years to come, for others more vulnerable that could have been something they just can’t handle. 
    This is what wound me up the most. Happily, as you can all see by my Micky Apples-esque physique, I can handle myself in any confrontational situation.

    But seriously, outside Euston station at 3am it turns out isn't for the weak minded. Loads of weirdos knocking about. The only reason Avanti finally provided cabs for those of us stranded is because I kept pushing for it. They were more than happy to leave most of those people stranded there with no realistic way to get back - let alone the ridiculous palming us off from one bus to another which felt completely underhand. The two people that stayed to get cabs only knew it was an option because I mentioned it. Avanti didn't give a toss and made it as hard as possible to get one.


    Plenty of brass up there that time of night mate. They would've done a turn in one the phone boxes, depending on what you are after
  • Gribbo said:
    LouisMend said:
    I actually find this scary and extremely aggravating. Getting stranded by a rail service on a day out should be unthinkable but happens no doubt regularly and few people get to hear about it. The saving grace here is it happened to a BBC journalist, Twitter enabled too!  I hope your story gets a wider audience @LouisMend  
    I actually thought that this morning. There are so many people with special needs, hidden disabilities, anxieties etc who could never anticipate anything to this degree and are potentially vulnerable. The level of care and support given in these situations just always seems bare minimum.

    Someone like Louis can embrace it and will become a tale for him in years to come, for others more vulnerable that could have been something they just can’t handle. 
    This is what wound me up the most. Happily, as you can all see by my Micky Apples-esque physique, I can handle myself in any confrontational situation.

    But seriously, outside Euston station at 3am it turns out isn't for the weak minded. Loads of weirdos knocking about. The only reason Avanti finally provided cabs for those of us stranded is because I kept pushing for it. They were more than happy to leave most of those people stranded there with no realistic way to get back - let alone the ridiculous palming us off from one bus to another which felt completely underhand. The two people that stayed to get cabs only knew it was an option because I mentioned it. Avanti didn't give a toss and made it as hard as possible to get one.


    Plenty of brass up there that time of night mate. They would've done a turn in one the phone boxes, depending on what you are after
    No doubt just after they left Transformations....
  • clb74 said:
    cabbles said:
    clb74 said:
    Avanti west coast , aren't all bad.
    Our 9 received our money back for Carlisle after nearly 6 weeks in the form of a cheque.
    A couple of us are thinking about Fleetwood in March , I can already feel my blood boiling.
    These train firms have really put me off going away games over the last couple of seasons.
    Get you back to London at 2am and you've got to fight the bustards to get you home.
    You know what to do!!!!!!!!!!
    Been there.
    Left Bromley about 6am got to Fleetwood 2.10pm
    Never to be repeated 
    @pico has never heard the last of it!
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  • Organised a trip for a couple of Americans from Edinburgh to London. East coast was closed so via Preston, they had reservations which meant nothing, no visible help available, just rubbish. That cost about as much as their flight from the US. It means that you can't rely on train travel for anyone with a vulnerability. 
  • clb74 said:
    @LouisMend

    i dont know how you would feel about  this, but there’s an article or blogpost lurking  there that I reckon would get a lot of traction beyond your usual audiences. It must happen every week to fans of loads of clubs, and the way you write is very relatable for people who may not even be interested in footie.

    The thing with the coach is downright shady. That definitely needs to see the light of day.
    It's everyone that uses them though ,Prague.
    Imagine taking two young kids on the train .
    To be told the trains been cancelled and the you no longer have a seat reservation.
    Andy Burnham has been on at Avanti west coast and the government for ages.
    Sure, even though I have not experienced it recently, I’ve read enough about it to empathise with all of you and as a “rail advocate” it pisses me off and breaks my heart in equal measure. But the only way to get this fixed is to create the maximum amount of noise. The thing about Louis is, he’s got a nice approachable style, easy going bloke who just wanted to go to the footie and get back home safe and sound to his young family. Non footie people might find it easier to empathise with him than with something from a formal fan group - although they are important too because they represent a lot of votes. 
  • As a slight aside, when we visit the UK we try to use public transport as often as possible. Much as we both love train travel, we are finding that we are using the coach more and more. Yes it's slower and the options are more limited, but on many routes it's more reliable and so much cheaper.  

    Going from London to Glasgow in August we are actually flying as you can't book a train yet, and looking at the price of going there and back on the railway (as far in advance as you can book at the moment, in order to get an idea) it was cheaper on BA. We would have paid a bit more for the train for environmental reasons, but not being able to book now (and having no firm date as to when we could book) swung it for us.    
  • The only time I went to Blackpool I got home about 330am, although I ought to add it was an evening kickoff LOL. Got up and went to work a few hours later, I'd want a day off nowadays. I went on the coach and we detoured to the Elephant on the way back to drop off one fan who was pissed as a fart, that's what I call service.
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