With Christmas around the corner, we have now released all of our best fares and published travel advice for Christmas and New Year, rolled out water refill points on our trains, and celebrated a very special milestone for one of our colleagues.  

Releasing our best fares for Christmas

We have now released our tickets for Christmas travel dates, so our customers can plan ahead for their journeys with our best value fares and the added benefit of more flexibility. All ticket types, including the cheapest advance tickets, are now on sale, so families planning a getaway over the Christmas holidays or a trip to the panto and Christmas markets can take advantage of the best value fares. This includes Standard Class single fares to and from London:

• Birmingham £16
• Liverpool £25
• Manchester £36.50
• Glasgow £46

As an added benefit over the festive period, we have removed peak restrictions from Friday 20 December up to and including Sunday 5 January – giving customers access to better value fares, as well as greater flexibility with their journeys.

To ensure a more comfortable journey, we are encouraging customers to consider travelling to or from London Euston before Tuesday 24 December or from Thursday 2 January. Avanti West Coast services will finish earlier on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve and start later on 27 December and New Year’s Day. Between 23 December and 4 January, Network Rail will be completing several upgrades on the West Coast Main Line. In addition, major rail upgrades taking place over Christmas and New Year affecting journeys into London Paddington and London St Pancras will mean trains to and from London Euston will be busier than usual.

Free water refill points rolled out

In a first for the railway industry, complimentary water will now be available for those who are travelling on any Pendolino or Evero train. The easy to use dispensing points proved to be a big hit with customers in the initial trial, whilst also helping to reduce the amount of single use plastic. In pre-launch operational testing, customers travelling onboard the Pendolino fleet consumed over 21k litres of water in three months, the equivalent of 42,000 standard sized 500ml plastic water bottles. The water for the Pendolino refill stations is provided by Wenlock Spring, a second generation family business based in Shropshire, and sourced from a protected historic spring, dating back to 1086, which is located near the famous Wenlock Edge.

Celebrating Avanti Driver and Assessor's 50 years on the railway

Back in October, our driver trainer and assessor, Girish Jani, 67, retired after half a century working on the West Coast Main Line. He took to the controls of a Pendolino train for one last time on a journey from Crewe to London Euston before his retirement. The starting location and destination of his final train journey as a driver were pertinent as they have been two key places in his railway career. He clocked up many decades of his service at Euston, while Crewe is one of our Driver Training Centres where he has been based for the last 18 months, training the next generation of drivers, imparting his knowledge and experience to trainees who are new to the role.