If you’re travelling home to Scotland or further South in England either to, or via, Birmingham / London by train before Christmas we want you to travel safely and travel with confidence. As the end-of-term travel window is likely to be shorter this year due to local Covid-19 restrictions, it’s really important that we work together to help keep everyone safe. There are a few things we’d like you to do to help us help keep you safe and we’d appreciate you reading the advice below before booking your journey.
It’s really important that you travel with a reservation, which will help us to keep customers socially distanced when onboard. We’re also asking people to travel on less-busy services, which can be identified on our website, wear a face covering when travelling unless you are exempt, carry hand sanitiser and check before you travel. For more information about our services and how to stay safe when travelling, please visit https://www.avantiwestcoast.co.uk/help-and-support/coronavirus-travel-information
Please note that services are currently limited due to the Covid-19 pandemic so some trains are not running as normal. In addition, some services, particularly at weekends, may not yet be showing in online booking systems so cheap fares will not yet be available. If that’s the case, please check back to see when fares are available or check with our social media colleagues @AvantiWestCoast for more information.
Until Christmas Eve, the following Avanti West Coast services will serve the North’s university regions of Lancashire and Cumbria:
Southbound
Avanti West Coast is operating one direct service per hour from Carlisle, The Lakes, Lancaster and Preston to London. Additional services run to London via the West Midlands (with extended journey times due to required change of trains); hourly from Preston and every other hour from stations further North.
Northbound
Avanti West Coast is operating an hourly service from Preston, Lancaster, the Lakes and Carlisle to Glasgow Central. An additional service will serve Edinburgh Waverley every other hour.
Our services are supplemented by TransPennine Express, who operate services between Glasgow/Edinburgh and Manchester Airport. Northern also operate from our stations, with direct services to Manchester and the North West. Details of all their services can be found via the links below and we would urge you to check details of your journey before you travel, along with the COVID advice provided by each operator.