A commuter was hit with an "insane" £800 fare hike after his daily train to work was cancelled.
Daniel Wilson, 39, usually takes the busy service from Stoke-on-Trent to Manchester using his £2,800 season ticket for Avanti West Coast trains.
The university technician was told that his usual 7.45am train was cancelled due to staff shortages, reports Stoke on Trent Live.
He has now been forced to fork out an extra £800 per year for a season ticket that gives him access to other train providers after Avanti temporarily axed the service.
"There will be a 25 per cent increase in the fare. I was in disbelief, I thought it was a clerical error at first. The station staff have said this is absolutely insane," he said.
Daniel had to pay the extra money despite still having another five months left on his existing annual ticket.
He will also have to get up earlier to get to work on time, taking either the 6.58am or the 7.27am train which are both slower services.
"It would mean another 20 minutes journey time for me and it would cost me another £800 on top," he said.
"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 said it has been blamed on a lack of train crew which was "interesting" because his morning service had continued throughout the pandemic including lockdowns.
"There’s something seriously wrong with Avanti," he continued.
"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."
Daniel has contacted Avanti to ask for compensation for the extra money he will need to spend for another season ticket.
He said: "Those with Avanti-only season tickets are basically stuck because you’ve either got to get a later train and be late for work or you’ve got to find £800.
"The problem is if you’ve got your season ticket, you would have to get a refund and then buy an any train season ticket, but you won’t get all your money back because there’s an administration fee.
"On a season ticket, you get the last two months on your ticket for free and they take that off straight away.
"I’ve got five months on my ticket left, but I’ll only get three months plus the admin fee off of it back.
"That’s not fair considering you've just changed the season ticket."
The worker explained that he bought the season ticket because it operated on the hours he needed to get to work.
"It seems very unfair," he added.
"It would be nice to have compensation for the time lost. It’s nice to have some reassurance that it is actually going to be reinstated.
"They have promised lots of things when they took over from Virgin trains and we are yet to see the impact of it. Compensation for those who are affected would be good."
Avanti West Coast confirmed that the service is planned to return in September.
A spokesperson said: "The 7.45am 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."
