Liverpool/Manchester weekend away by train

Since I’ve been working on expanding the scope of the travel blog, I decided to add a review of the Avanti West Coast service from London to the Northwest Powerhouse of Manchester and Liverpool.  I travelled to see a handful of friends of mine that still live up north just for a short weekend trip.  I left on Friday evening direct from London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly and return on Sunday afternoon direct from Liverpool Lime Street to London Euston. 

Avanti train tickets come in 3 flavors (with different amounts of flexibility): advance, off-peak, and anytime.  Advance tickets are for one specific train and anytime are for any train on a given day.  Off-peak tickets are valid for any off-peak train.  Most trains are actually off-peak.  Basically, it works that if train wouldn’t normally carry people commuting, it’s off-peak.  I booked a typical off-peak return ticket, since I was going for a weekend trip. 

London has a large number of ‘terminal’ stations in it.  The station you use depends on which direction you’re heading from London (roughly defined in a circle).  Trains heading up the West Coast Mainline depart from London’s Euston station, which is well-connected with the Victoria and Northern Underground lines, as well as the Overground.  However, this means that I needed to separately pay for the tube from London Bridge, since London Bridge is not a valid terminal station toward the Northwest.

Avanti trains offer three classes of service: First Class, Standard Premium, and Standard class.  Standard class is 2-2 seating and just a basic ticket.  Standard Premium was added last year and is available for a flat upgrade rate (£25 from Manchester/Liverpool to London).  It’s in a 2-1 configuration, like First Class.  First Class used to be 3 out of 9 or 10 cars and was always pretty empty.  Two cars are now used as Standard Premium, with only a single car of First Class remaining.  It has the same seats in a 2-1 configuration but also offers free drinks and food.  If you use the Seatfrog app, First Class upgrades start from £35. 

Any train longer than about 2 hours is considered long-distance in the UK, and so these Pendolino trains have an onboard shop, which is basically on par with a meal deal section at a grocery store like Tesco or Sainsburys.  My train to Manchester departed at 9:36 pm, so I wasn’t hungry, but a few of the people in the car bought food.  If nothing else, it’s a good way to pass the time, I guess.  One guy even passed the time with a bottle of wine, haha.

I was happy that my car was not particularly busy, but very few people were wearing face masks because all COVID rules have been removed in the UK (to the point where even some airlines are making masks optional).  I spent the train ride getting some work done on my laptop.

On the way back from Liverpool, I decided to upgrade to First Class because it has been my experience that the trains from Liverpool to London tend to be very full, probably because there’s only one train per hour.  Like with the train to Manchester, the trains have 9 or 10 cars of which 2 are Standard Premium and 1 is First Class. 

The big downside to this new setup is that the one First Class car is a half-sized car (at the opposite end from the quiet zone in Coach A).  The main problem with this setup is that it makes First Class feel quite small and for trains from Liverpool to London, only 3 seats actually face forward, which is not great odds.  Like in London, Liverpool has a First Class lounge that’s located on a mezzanine level, above the shops. 

I’ve used this lounge a few times, and it’s always pretty empty because there’s only 1 train per hour that’s eligible for access.  I imagine it’s a bit busier during the week when there’s more first class demand.

I left the lounge to board the train about 15 minutes before departure.  It used to be that the trains left from the platform immediately beside the lounge, but that’s no longer the case, and so the walk has increase (by a whole 30s).  The Pendolino trains are quite long, and walking the length of them does take a couple minutes.  I boarded and took one of the few forward facing seats, but I was told there were only going to be two of us in First Class anyway, so it wasn’t a problem.

Upon boarding, I was given a menu and my drink order was taken.

I selected the super food salad, which was served chilled. The salad tasted very healthy and was exactly what you’d expect from looking at it.

Overall, these trans-England services were both decent in their own ways.  The simplicity of hopping onto any train with an off-peak ticket cannot be understated.  And the option to bid up to First is a fun and affordable way to make a trip more special.  Given the amenities offered and the fact that I’ve flown and reviewed London to Manchester by air in both economy and business previously, I think I can rate these two train journeys using the same metrics as the plane flights.  I didn’t have lounge access in London and the lounge in Liverpool was empty and had a good assortment of snacks, on par with a typical Admirals Club (n/a and 4/5). I’ve always found the seats on these trains to be reasonably comfortable (4/5 and 4/5) for the expectations for their respective cabins.  No food was served on the first train, and the meal on the second train was up to par for the time of day but was a bit small (n/a and 3/5).  Similarly, I had no interactions with the train crew on the first train and the First Class attendant on the second train was very professional (n/a and 5/5).  The free WiFi was decent on both trains for keeping up with emails (4/5 and 4/5).  There was also streaming entertainment available, which is the norm.  Overall these train rides get scores of 8/10 and 20/25. 

From a points perspective, Avanti partners with Nectar, so I could’ve gotten 2x Nectar Points per £1 spent.  However, Amex UK had an offer to get 10% off all train tickets booked through LNER, so instead I used the LNER app.  I paid for the tickets using my Amex UK BA Card and earned 57 Avios, which is a 1% return on top of the 10% rebate.