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Six things we noticed about the new Avanti West Coast trains as provider takes over from Virgin

We caught one of the first ever Avanti services between London and Liverpool. This is what we noticed...

An Avanti West Coast liveried train

Avanti West Coast has officially taken over the running of the West Coast mainline linking London to destinations including Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, North Wales and Glasgow - and it is promising new and refurbished trains, better stations, and simpler fares.

The Scottish-Italian partnership run by First Group and Trenitalia has taken over from Virgin Trains, and made various promises about how it will operate going forward - from , to .

But the firm only took over the 400 mile line on Sunday morning - so what concrete changes are passengers already noticing - and are there any standout features so far as to how the service runs?

BusinessLive took one of the first ever London Euston to Liverpool Lime Street Avanti West Coast services to find out.

1. Train doors close TWO minutes before departure

Avanti West Coast services' train doors close two minutes before departure


Perhaps most pertinent for those who like to play fast and loose with their station arrival times - Avanti says its trains will close their doors TWO minutes before the scheduled departure time.

The service said once all doors and closed and locked, passengers must not attempt to board the train.

That's a whole 80 seconds earlier than the old Virgin Trains services - so make sure you leave plenty of time for your train.