Avanti West Coast: Man recounts 'insane odyssey' after train cancellation

Avanti West Coast operates services on the West Coast mainline

A man who experienced a "truly insane odyssey" from London to Edinburgh after his train was cancelled has described the experience as a "surreal trauma".

James Nokise, a comedian and podcaster from New Zealand, was travelling north on Monday evening when his trip was suddenly interrupted.

A lack of replacement services meant taxis had to be organised for himself and other stranded travellers.

"There has got to be a better way of doing this," he told the BBC.

Mr Nokise, whose account of his journey on X (formerly Twitter) was followed by thousands of people, said he was roughly three hours into a trip that normally takes five hours on the Avanti service when he received a notification that his train had been cancelled.

He wrote that this was a surprise because he was still on a moving train and there had been no announcement about the cancellation.

"About 10 mins later the train manager came on the speaker to say they 'heard from passengers' (!) that the train had been cancelled and was going to investigate because everything looked fine to them," said Mr Nokise.

They were then informed that the email was correct and the train would be terminating at Preston.

After being unable to catch a connecting train to Glasgow because it was full, Mr Nokise said they were told the next train would be along in roughly an hour but later were told there would be no more trains north that evening and alternative transport had been arranged.

"Bus? An extra train? Horses?" joked Mr Nokise.

"No. Taxis. For hundreds of people. To a city 3 and 1/2 hours away."

He described the process of putting small groups of people into local taxis as "slow and ridiculous" and the mood at the station as "frustrated".

"There were old people with crutches, people with kids," he said.

"It was the people being affected that got each other through it, rather than the company," he reflected, referring to Avanti.

James Nokise said the process of getting train passengers into replacement taxis at Preston was "slow and ridiculous"

Mr Nokise eventually ended up in the last one to leave with three other men who were travelling on their own.

After having to be informed that there are two train stations in Edinburgh, he said the taxi driver told them he would only drop them at Waverley station and not at their nearby accommodation.

They eventually arrived at the station early on Tuesday morning after the taxi driver, who said he had never been to Edinburgh before, had some navigational difficulties.

Avanti West Coast, which operated the train, has apologised to everyone who was affected by the disruption.

"The closure of the West Coast Main Line for over three hours due to a track defect had a significant impact on our services," a spokesperson said in a statement.

"Whilst alternative transport and overnight accommodation was sourced for most of those impacted we fully understand the frustrations of those customers whose journeys were affected, and we are extremely sorry for this."

They said anyone who was affected by the disruption would be entitled to compensation.

James Nokise's tweets about his experience trying to get to Edinburgh were read by thousands of people

Mr Nokise's story attracted huge number of followers on X, some of whom told of similar experiences.

One woman commented that she had been put in a replacement cab travelling from Bristol to Salisbury when she was a teenager.

Others were shocked, with someone describing Mr Nokise's account as "harrowing".

Mr Nokise - who said it was not the first time that he had experienced difficulties while travelling north from London - said taking to social media to share his experience had made him feel "less alone and less crazy".

He was not the only one affected by the train cancellation who posted online about their experience.

"I was on this exact same train," wrote a man in response to Mr Nokise's story.

"Got to our hotel in Edinburgh at 3:30am."

According to its latest statistics, 6.7% of Avanti trains travelling between London and Scotland were cancelled in the past year, while 5% were delayed for more than 30 minutes.