A Manchester woman who was forced to travel to Piccadilly station and buy a train ticket to London in person after Avanti services were marked as 'sold out' online has blasted rail bosses.
Freelance makeup artist Tally Bookbinder spent a week trying to book a ticket online for the late train between Manchester to London so she could attend her friend's wedding ceremony and make her work commitments the following morning.
But despite being told tickets should have been released, she was unable to book online and instead made the journey to Manchester Piccadilly - only to spend £98 on a return ticket for no specific train, with no reserved seat.
READ MORE: Why have Manchester-London rail services been cut to the bone?
Avanti West Coast apologised for the 'inconvenience', and said they are 'trying to give customers as much information as possible'. But for Tally, the service simply isn't good enough.
"It is absolutely bloody ridiculous that I've had to come all the way into Manchester to do something you can usually do online," she told the Manchester Evening News.
"But what can you do? Your hands are tied - I either had to go down to the station or sit at home and keep refreshing the page."
Avanti West Coast are currently running one service an hour between London and Manchester after stripping back services 'until further notice'. The company blames its decision on "unofficial strike action" by the train drivers union ASLEF - but has attracted criticism from Mayor Andy Burnham, as well as London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who called the decision 'disingenuous'.
She said the knock-on effect of having to wait so long to book her train has meant that hotels in London have got vastly more expensive - but she is reluctant to book before she is sure she will be able to board a train.
Tally is also worried about the impact the lack of trains will have on her work, which takes her all around the country as a freelance makeup artist. She has booked a job in Bedford in a couple of weeks but is concerned that she won't make it as she has to go through London on the train.
"I'm thinking now, that's going to be a nightmare," she said. "I don't know how I'm going to plan for that. It has started to affect people's work, and that will have a domino effect on society and the economy."
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Tally said it was 'important' to her to be at her friend's wedding, but she will be forced to miss the momentous ceremony in order to make sure she catches one of three trains departing from Manchester Piccadilly from 6pm on Sunday evening.
"I'm going to miss my friend's wedding because I can't rely on being able to get any one train," she said.
"In normal circumstances, people can do both. They can work and they can go to important occasions. The transport situation should not be a factor stopping you from doing certain things with your leisure time."
An Avanti West Coast spokesperson said: “We apologise for the delay in tickets being made available for this Sunday, and most of them have since been released this afternoon. With our reduced timetable we are having to finalise our timetable in journey planners at short notice, and we are sorry for the inconvenience this is causing our customers.
“We are trying to give our customers as much information as possible by sharing the expected dates for ticket availability on our website, social media and through ticket alerts.”
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