Stoke Station the Best Railway Hub in the Country: Until Avanti Came

It must be close to sixty years since I first started using our beautiful, steeped-in-history, Victorian Stoke-on-Trent Railway Station in Staffordshire. My first memories are being very excited on one such train running from Longport to Stoke, aged four or five. Then there was the rail travel football match era when I lived in Rhyl in the mid to late 1970s and often travelled to Stoke-on-Trent for the football. One such occasion can be recalled when I was accompanied by a younger relative to attend the Stoke City v Sheffield United fixture on October 28th, 1978. The relative (aged 7), who was used to alighting at Longport (from Crewe) when travelling to the Potteries, had jumped off the train at Longpoi (as we called it), not realising that the main station was Stoke-on-Trent. Nonetheless, he then burst out crying as he saw the train pull out (to Stoke) and yours truly shouting “Stay there” out of the train window. When I explained at Stoke what had happened, the train guards (as they were known), without modern-day technology, hastily sorted the situation and brought the youngster into Stoke Station to reunite for the game. Because of the mishap and subsequent wait for the estranged party to arrive, I had been privy to a tremendous roar of ‘United’ echo amidst our station's 200 glass-panelled roof as the Sheffield fans pulled in via a football special.

Stoke station has been consistently utilised by yours truly over the years, sometimes heavily, such as when travelling from Stoke to Holyhead en route to Ireland in the 1990s. Down the years, the staff at Stoke were always great with customers (some are still employed at the station today). They took the time to explain routes and the best, or most affordable, ticket, which engendered that positive rail experience.

Then, through the first part of the 21st century until recently, I can recall only one jobsworth amongst the rail staff. Not the case now; some operatives at Stoke Station appear trained to drain (your wallet, that is). Whereas, I have had first-hand experience of one staff member who purposely sells the most expensive tickets to customers.

Regarding the locomotives themselves, it’s not a pleasant experience waiting for old stock ‘Chugaboom’-like contraptions to chug into the station, especially when we see how other countries propel modern bullet trains synchronised to depart on the dot from barrier-free stations. Enter Avanti Trains: Currently, the barriers at Avanti West Coast-controlled Stoke Station are a good taster of what Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin must have been like. Overzealous staff, multiple ticket checks, the list goes on.

Not to mention train staff pulling customers up at the barriers regarding travel times (as in this off-peak and Advance nonsense), even when there are multiple delays via your station of origin or the online information informed customers that they could travel before a certain time. And we thought Virgin Trains were bad. Currently, some of the younger Avanti staff (at Stoke Station) are also devoid of appropriate customer care skills needed to manage a busy rail hub, even though they are deemed as unofficial ambassadors for our city.

As described above, using Stoke-on-Trent Railway Station today is not always a positive experience. Which begs a secondary question: why have shambolic and poor-performing rail companies gained control of our stations? Are they financially benefitting from them? If so, isn’t this rewarding corporate mismanagement?

On a national scale, Avanti trains are not just disgracefully late, and cancel on a whim; the excuses for the tardiness and cancellations announced on the Tannoy are quite laughable. And when customers suffer the customary delays, it’s a stress-induced minefield to gain satisfactory recompense via their delay and repay schemes (it’s even more stressful if you have booked your ticket with Trainline). Good advice is to factor in an extra hour for your journey; if our backward trains do get you to your destination on time, you can always have a coffee; anything is better than turning up late for an appointment.

Our state-owned British Rail was consistently demonised in the 1980s as a ruse for the billionaires to carve it up and profit from it themselves. In 1994 and 1997, they streamlined it to maximise profits, and as a result we lost stations and routes too. All for what? This transport mess?

Officious Avanti staff appear to be plentiful and are proficient at repeatedly requesting customers show their rail cards, coupled with warnings not to board certain trains with certain ticket types, even though the ticket system is non-pellucid and fractured. Confusingly, we have multiple rail companies competing for very few tracks, such as CrossCountry (or, as some would say, the ‘pack 'em dangerously in like sardines’ company), West Midlands Railway (or whatever they are officially known as) and the old, refitted rolling stock called East Midlands Railway. Furthermore, when there are multiple cancellations, customers (some with health conditions) are afraid to use another carrier to get home safely, just in case of a possible Stasi-like interrogation from train staff for not holding the correct ticket. Of course, not all Avanti staff are of the Stasi ilk; there are also fair and decent train operatives who do their utmost to help customers.

It’s all very simple, Avanti (and the rest) have failed. If Stoke-on-Trent Railway Station and the substandard privatised train services that frequent it are anything to go by, it’s time for our railways and stations to be brought back under public management.