You’re frantically running to catch your train, and as you approach the platform, you realise your phone battery is glaring red. The worst part? You’ve forgotten your phone charger.
But increasingly, selective train services are starting to introduce wireless charging ports, allowing travellers to replenish their battery levels without the need for a cable.
Simply place your phone on the circular disk and you’re ready to go. It’s like living in 2050 – goodbye, fears of not being able to show your train ticket to the conductor.
Avanti West Coast rolled out the service in 2023 after it refurbished its Pendolino trains – which had previously been in use since the 1960s.
Ever since, its 11-coach trains have been equipped with wireless charging, as well as extra luggage space, a service that was further rolled out on the nine-coach models in 2024.
Avanti isn’t the only train operator to use this bougie system – South Western Railway, which operates services across the likes of Hampshire, Dorset, and the Isle of Wight, introduced it in 2018 on the London Waterloo-Weymouth line.
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However, this funky, futuristic technology doesn’t always work seamlessly – as several Avanti customers have realised.
‘Been six months since I last caught an Avanti train and these mans are back at it with the faulty chargers and the lovely delay announcement. It’s like I never stopped using them,’ @Amli_23 penned on X, formerly Twitter.
These sentiments were shared by @RebeccaFerris2, who asked ‘do the plug sockets on @AvantiWestCoast trains EVER work? I’m sure I’ve never seen it happen.’
‘I’ve yet to sit at a table seat on your new trains with a charging point/plug that actually works…what’s with that? At seat chargers are fine, but tables with their wireless charging facility seem to not be functioning,’ @NathanJames78 added.
And in @CazualSabotage’s view, ‘when you upgrade to Avanti standard premium you expect the chargers to work,’ while @JE_Boland said ‘phone charger not working, toilets out of order…onboard shop only takes cash. Avanti [is] reassuringly expensive, always terrible.’
Not everyone has drawn the short straw, though. Over on the r/uktrains Reddit Subreddit, @starbur-n said the ‘wireless chargers built into the tables are neat.’
For @Luivery, their experience in standard premium class was ‘excellent’ – and they praised the experience for having ‘bigger seats, guaranteed tables, wireless charging and a guaranteed window (depends where you sit that is),’ while @PhantomSesay argued it was ‘one of their best ideas.’
And after the feature debuted, @Train_PlaneHub praised the fleet for its ‘good legroom, lots of luggage space and charging points at every seat.’
‘I like the information screens and the wireless chargers on the tables too,’ they added.
A spokesperson for Avanti West Coast told Metro that ‘two carriages out of a total of 574 carriages in our Pendolino fleet have issues with the wireless chargers and plug sockets and we’re working to replace parts.’
‘We’re sorry to any of our customers affected and encourage those experiencing problems when charging their devices to tell our Train Managers, who can attempt to reset the parts or report the issue, so it can be looked into by our fleet engineers,’ they added.
‘Double bagging’ is rife on London’s tube network and commuters are livid
You’re in a huff as you hurry through a sea of commuters onto a packed Circle Line train, praying you won’t be late for work (again).
You look around for a seat and, in typical fashion, they’re all occupied – but not by people.
Rucksacks, handbags and ugly briefcases are dumped on empty seats, as their owners lounge on the seat next to them. And of course, there’s no thought to move their bag to floor so you can take its place.
This infuriating behaviour isn’t new, but it’s now got a name: ‘double bagging’.
Don’t be rude – it’s a perfectly innocent term coined by Metro, to describe the act of taking up two seats on public transport; one for their bag; one for themselves.
These double baggers are the worst types of commuters – appearing on tubes, trains and buses – and we aren’t the only ones who have a problem with them.
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