Avanti West Coast is trialling a new type of train ticket aimed at people who can be more flexible with their journeys.
(c) Avanti West Coast
The trial lets people buy tickets at a discount and set the date of travel and also if they want morning, afternoon or evening — but not the specific time of the journey. The day before they travel, Avanti West Coast notifies the customer what time the train will depart.
The offer is aimed at people who have to travel on a set date, but are less worried about when they arrive at their destination — such as people arriving the day before an event.
Superfare tickets are available for single journeys between London and Birmingham, Liverpool, Preston, as well as Manchester Piccadilly. Prices are set at fixed amounts with one-way fares costing between £12 and £22.
The ticket offer includes a seat reservation and is available for standard class only.
The number of tickets available on a route each day will vary and bookings can be made at least seven days and up to 21 days before travel. However, the tickets cannot be refunded or changed once you buy them, and you have to travel on the specific train service that they allocate to you.
Although the headline savings can be good, it’s worth checking standard travel websites as well — for example, plucking a random journey — London to Birmingham on 3rd April — that costs £12 with Avanti Superfare, but I am able to get the same trip without the Superfare ticket restrictions for £14 from Chiltern Railways, and if journey time isn’t an issue, for just £8 from West Midlands Trains.
Sarah Copley, Executive Director for Commercial, said: “Superfare tickets are aimed at customers who can be more flexible with their journeys. Not only does it provide a cheaper option, but it’s also quick and easy. Customers pick their date and time of day. Then, 24 hours before their journey, we match them to an empty seat and give them their departure time and reservation.”
The Superfare tickets are available from here.
The set prices are:
- One-way between London and Birmingham – £12
- One-way between London and Liverpool – £15
- One-way between London and Manchester – £20
- One-way between London and Preston – £22
Well we planned a visit to Glasgow to visit family pre Easter returning after Easter. No Chance. Why wait till a peak holiday period to do Line Maintenance. No service after Carstairs and 2 Hours longer without the coach replacement.
Get a life Avanti much much pricier than Virgin ever were.
Well Avanti didn’t set the date for the engineering works National Rail did for the major scheme to upgrade Carstairs Junction.
And they chose bank holidays because it causes less disruption and they can do a heck of a lot mopre work in 4 days than they can in month of weekend closures.
The line would have still been closed even if Virgin were running the service.
Not much of an offer at all for the privilege of being mucked around by Avanti.
Good caution to check other websites Ian.
And its my understanding that you can’t use railcards (young person’s/senior etc) with these fares.
With a railcard I can easily match or better that London-Preston fare.
And with a pre-booked ticket (rather than one for a train/time Avanti has released the day before after checking if its actually got drivers) any delay over 15 minutes I can get a refund. Have had 100 per cent refunds at least twice on the Euston-Preston run. Plus 50 per cent ones.
I thought UK rail services had been defacto renationalised and government responsible for fares.
Well,obviously not for fares. Are you suggesting this is fake news?
This is disgusting treatment of passengers who regularly travel with Avanti , it should be FREE
They should be stripped of its franchise, but what do they get from this government A REWARD FOR FAILURE