Published by Neil ThompsonTo celebrate Liverpool as our Destination of the Month, our next'Event prof of Liverpool' interview is with Avanti West Coast's Commercial Partnerships Manager, Simon Brooks We grabbed a few minutes in Simon's busy schedule to find out a bit more about his role
DW: Hi Simon, you are also based in Liverpool, do you want to tell us a bit about your role at Avanti West Coast?
SB: I work as a Commercial Partnerships Manager, having joined the team recently from being the Avanti Station Manager for Lime Street station. I was exceptionally proud to represent Avanti West Coast and the city during the Eurovision Song Contest, getting fans in and out of the city from all over the West Coast.
I saw some fabulous, unforgettable sights that week. A major highlight for me was watching the opening concert taking place at St George’s Hall from the steps of Lime Street station. Although I was working that night I was so close that I could hear everything and the energy was palpable and certainly infectious!
The OGAE UK special service we ran that week as part of the celebrations was actually what first attracted me to the Commercial Partnerships team. We arranged for exclusive use of several carriages of our Pride liveried train for a cohort of Eurovision Superfans up from London. Another unforgettable day, spearheaded on our side by Commercial Partnerships and that was when I knew I wanted to join the team.
Commercial Partnerships work closely with our Group Travel team, always with our customers in mind. Together we are working to give more people the opportunity to travel on the West Coast Mainline and enjoy everything that the region has to offer.
Q. Tell us a bit about the routes and destinations you can explore with Avanti West Coast?
Our services run from London Euston to many of the UK's largest cities, including Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and of course Liverpool. We also provide journeys to some of the most scenic destinations in the country, such as the iconic Edinburgh, the Lake District and the North Wales Coast.
Q. From travelling to a big meeting, to organising team away days Avanti is on hand to assist group bookings, but what else does it offer the MICE market?
As well as a discounted rate for groups of 10 or more we offer the option for hiring out an entire carriage in Standard, Standard Premium and First Class, with a dedicated host to look after your party’s needs.
There is also the option to charter an entire train!
For special events we can include options onboard such as placemats and seat coverings to really immerse the party within your brand. Booking group travel via our dedicated Group Sales team in London is really easy and can be done up to 52 weeks in advance.
If you would like to know more about what we can offer the Group Travel market my friend and colleague Matthew.Nolan@avantiwestcoast.co.uk heads up the Groups team and would love to hear from you.
Q. As Liverpool is our destination of the month do you want to share how easy, cost effective and sustainable it is to get to Liverpool with Avanti Westcoast?
Easier than you might think! MICE Groups will benefit from our Group Travel discount for 10 or more passengers with the average journey time being 2 hours 15 minutes. Lime Street is well situated in the heart of the city a short walk away from many key hotels and convention venues.
You can be confident you are travelling with a sustainable operator too. Our Pendolinos all run on electricity and we are constantly working on green innovations. with a goal to be carbon neutral by 2031.
Q. We’ve been travelling recently on the newly refurbished Pendolino trains, can you share more about the refurbishment programme?
We are making great progress - All of our 11 carriage Pendolinos have now been refurbished and the project is on course to finish Summer 2024 as work switches to the shorter nine car trains.
For customers this means increased levels of comfort, improved lighting, increased availability of power sockets, a refreshed interior and new on-board Shop. Watch this space for our new fleet of Hitachi trains also hitting the network in 2024!
