A COMMUTER is furious he has to fork out an extra £800 after his usual train service was scrapped today for MONTHS.
Daniel Wilson, 39, travels from Stoke-on-Trent to Manchester Piccadilly on 7.45am to get to work as a university technician everyday.
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So he was absolutely fuming to discover this morning that the service had been suspended until September.
Avanti West Coast, which replaced Virgin Trains in 2019, is the popular train company responsible for cancelling the service.
It said it had to axe the train due to staff shortages, but that it’s only a “temporary measure”.
Nonetheless, the “insane” decision will wreak havoc for hundreds of commuters who are likely to be as distraught as Daniel.
He is now facing an “extortionate” £800 fare hike to replace his season ticket just to get to work.
What is more – he’d already spent nearly £2,800 on an Avanti-only annual season ticket, which has five months left.
Even after rebuying a ticket for this hefty sum, Daniel will still have to add get an earlier and slower train in the mornings.
The disgruntled commuter told StokeonTrentLive: “I was in disbelief, I thought it was a clerical error at first.
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“The station staff have said this is absolutely insane.
“It’s one of the busiest trains of the day.
“It’s incredibly gutting because I now need to find an extra £800 a year to get to work.
“The cost of living is going up really high too.
“It’s an extortionate amount of money I’ll have to pay.”
Daniel has contacted Avanti to ask for compensation to cover the high cost he’ll have to pay to replace his ticket.
He added: “There’s something seriously wrong with Avanti.
“On a Monday, there’s probably 150 people on the train.
“But when it gets to Wednesday, you can easily get 400 people.
“People are flexible working so many don’t have a season ticket and are just buying daily tickets.
“There’s not as many people using the trains, so it’s probably not financially viable.
“But they could’ve run the first train in the morning and cancel one in the middle of the day to compensate.”
A spokesperson for Avanti West Coast said: “The 07.45 Stoke-on-Trent to Manchester Piccadilly train has been withdrawn until September as a temporary measure due to staff shortages.
“The train is planned to return in September and our timetable is subject to regular review in collaboration with stakeholders from Government, Network Rail and industry partners.”
