Man's 'infuriating' 14-hour Avanti West Coast journey home

Professor Graeme Macdonald commutes from Glasgow to Coventry

A commuter has branded the "unreliability" of trains "infuriating" following a 14-hour journey home.

Prof Graeme Macdonald is a University of Warwick lecturer who travels between Glasgow and Coventry each week.

His border-crossing journey typically takes about five hours, but the duration nearly tripled last Wednesday.

Avanti West Coast, which operates the service, has apologised to customers for the disruption, citing a serious incident on the line earlier that day.

Prof Macdonald works two days a week from campus, staying overnight in between, before returning to Scotland to work from home for the rest of the week.

Last Wednesday, he got the train from Coventry at 18:00 BST, but instead of arriving at his destination at 23:17 BST, he did not arrive until 08:40 the next day.

Avanti West Coast disruption turned the professor's journey home into an all-nighter

The academic acknowledged that, as a seasoned commuter, "you kind of expect" some delays, but the disruption to which he was subjected last week was on another level entirely.

"I kind of treat the train like an office: I can work on it, I read on it," he said.

"So in a way, an hour delay, or a two-hour delay, is annoying, yes, but it is kind of OK. But 14 hours was quite something."

Before getting to Coventry, he said he was told there was disruption on the line due to trespassers, his train would be 10 minutes late - and would only be going as far as Preston.

But at Preston, he said, about 200 passengers were waiting for the next onward train - which arrived 90 minutes late and would, he learned on boarding, have to make additional stops.

The journey was then delayed by two hours, he explained, when a broken-down freight train sent his service back to Carlisle.

Although passengers were promised taxis or a hotel, Prof Macdonald said none were made available and, after waiting at the station, he caught the morning train at 06:51 BST to Glasgow.

"When [the trains work] it's completely beautiful," he said. "But the unreliability is infuriating."

Prof Macdonald arrived at his destination more than 14 hours after leaving Coventry

A spokesperson for Avanti West Coast said there were significant delays earlier in the day on Wednesday, due to a serious incident on the line in the Crewe area which disrupted services to Glasgow.

"The impact was further exacerbated when an engineering train failed on the route, blocking the line and preventing our services getting to Scotland," the spokesperson added.

Prof Macdonald's experience echoes that of James Nokise, a comedian and podcaster from New Zealand, who posted about his "truly insane odyssey" from London to Edinburgh after his train was cancelled.

Avanti West Coast, which also operated that service, has apologised.

According to the operator's 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.