I was on the first new Avanti train from Liverpool Lime Street and one thing will make my life much easier

For years, those of us living in the North of England have had to put up with creaking old trains. Whether it was Northern Rail's pacer models that were made from modified bus bodies or Merseyrail trains that were pushing 50 years old, we haven't exactly been treated to state-of-the-art technology on the rails.

There has fortunately been improvement on that front in recent years. Merseyrail's £500m fleet of new trains was rolled out in 2023 (though there have been significant teething issues since) and both Northern and TransPennine Express have brought new models onto their networks since the pandemic.

It was not before time - overdue improvements that other parts of the country (mainly London) seem to get all the time have finally made their way to the North West. Now, having recently refurbished its long-running Pendolino trains, Avanti West Coast introduced its new fleet of Evero class 807 trains onto the Liverpool Lime Street to London Euston route today, November 11.

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Avanti has operated the Lime Street to London Euston route since 2019 and that period has not been particularly smooth. This July, the operator was summoned to a meeting with Transport Secretary Louise Haigh following a protracted spell of delays and cancellations.

However, the hope is that the new trains will spell an upturn in fortunes for Avanti. As well as to Liverpool, the new seven carriage trains, each having 451 seats, will also run between London, the West Midlands and Blackpool, with further increases planned as part of a timetable uplift.

The introduction of the new fully-electric trains, which Avanti invested £350m in, will result in 10 more services a week between Liverpool and the capital, which will be increased to 30 a week next month. The first of these new trains left Lime Street at 9.01am today (November 11) and I was among the passengers to try it out on a swift journey to Runcorn.

I was impressed by their design - they are roomier than the Pendolinos, with a welcome increase in legroom. Each carriage is longer and there are more table seats, with the tables themselves made from recycled material.

The comfort was also much improved. The seats - which are the same as those found on the refurbished Pendolinos - are much comfier than their predecessors, with curved headrests perfect to set you up for a snooze to pass the time.

Crucially, these new trains are much quieter than the Pendolinos and do not sway as much. I use Avanti trains a lot as I have family and friends in London. But I will often find myself returning to Liverpool on a Sunday feeling a little fragile after a weekend enjoying the capital's pubs.

So these new Class 807 trains feel much better suited for travelling under those conditions. There are more seats and the seats themselves are far more forgiving - as is the cool temperature provided by the air-con.

We got to Runcorn and made our way over the station to bridge to head back into Liverpool - this time on the first Evero passenger service to travel from Euston to Lime Street. It was a comfortable journey again, though it was running around five minutes late. That served as a cruel reminder that there are still plenty of improvements to be made on the North's rail network.

The passengers I spoke to on my journeys were impressed, though. Emma Hughes, from Hoylake, was travelling down to London for work and was pleased that the new trains would mean an increase in services.

She told me: "I'm going down for a networking event with a healthcare group. The new trains are lovely - I think it's great, I've got connected for work and there are plenty of seats.

"It makes a difference to have new trains and it will make a real difference to have more connections to London. I've just finished in my job and I've set up on my own, so being able to go to London and back in a day, without having to stay over, with the amount of trains, is important."

Also impressed were Jenny Gobin and Gabrielle Harchelroad, who had been on Merseyside to watch Liverpool play Chelsea in the Women's Super League. Originally from Connecticut, USA, and currently living in Italy, the two explained that Liverpool has it much better than America when it comes to trains.

Jenny told the ECHO: "We came up for the Liverpool v Chelsea women's football match. We live in Italy, so we flew into London and we wanted to come and see a match and see two cities in one trip.

"The trains made it easy. In America we're not train people - though I wish we were. It's easy and scenic.

"It was nice we had options. In America, they're just not willing to invest in it.Living in Italy now and travelling Europe, we see the value of it. It's so much easier and so much more environmentally friendly. We're huge fans and we wish the US would invest."

Gabrielle and Jenny's trip to Liverpool is exactly what City Council leader and former railway worker Liam Robinson hopes the increased Avanti services will encourage. Speaking to the ECHO at Lime Street, he said: "This is absolutely massive - it's not just about a really top quality brand-new fleet of trains serving the city, it's the fact it will deliver more services between Liverpool and London. Ultimately, we want to see a half-hourly service between the city and London.

"Some of the additional services start today, more additional services will start in December and we will work hand in glove with Avanti, Network Rail and all of our partners to get it to be that half-hourly service that the city rightfully demands, requires and deserves.

"I think the important thing to remember is that the number of people who travel between Liverpool and London is really, really strong. But we've got one of the strongest passenger counts of people coming from London to any Northern city. That's why this is something that we really do deserve and want to build on."

Cllr Robinson believes new models serving Liverpool on various different networks was an overdue improvement. He said: "This is how it should be. For a globally recognised city like our own, we should have a top-class public transport network.

"When you look at these new trains that Avanti have introduced, the new things that Northern and TPE have put in place recently - and particularly the brand new fleet on Merseyrail. Add in a re-regulated brand new bus network that we will be having in the coming years - and innovations like the E-Scooter trial - is putting the city rightfully on the world stage for giving us that level of public transport connectivity we always should have.

"Unfortunately over many, many decades for many reasons, we haven't had that right across the country - except in London."

Avanti managing director Andy Mellors believes the introduction of the new trains on the Liverpool to London route is the first meaningful step towards introducing a half-hourly service. He told the ECHO: "Today is the culmination of several years of work - the procurement of the trains, all the activities including training that we had to do to get to this point to bring this additional service in."

"There are ten extra services a week initially and then, from the middle of December, we will be increasing that to 30 additional services a week - including at weekends, which we know is particularly important for the visitor economy in Liverpool."

Matching Cllr Robinson's ambitions for the route, Mr Mellors added: "A half-hourly service was our intent at the start of the contract five years ago. There have obviously been quite a lot of challenges since then - not least the pandemic.

"But we're now in a position where we're going to get the remainder of this £350m new fleet delivered - that will be concluded early next year - and that will then allow us to run even more services from next May. So we very much want to grow the timetable and move towards that half-hourly service.

"This new fleet - customers have really given us positive feedback. Our own staff have said that these trains are really nice to work on and to drive.

"We're really looking forward - alongside our refurbished Pendolino fleet - to giving customers a great experience. We know that we've still got work to do to improve punctuality and reliability because that's the absolute bedrock of what customers expect. We're working really hard with Network Rail and our other industry partners to continue to improve operational performance, but also recognise that the on-board offer is really important.

"The new trains, the refurbished trains and the service that our on-board teams actually provide. It's really important for the overall customer experience. This is a really positive moment for us and the culmination of several years of hard work."