Rail passenger paid $720 for return ticket but the train cancelled 2 minutes after departure, making his trip 10 hours long

• A train passenger who spent $720 on a ticket has criticized the rail firm for cancellations and delays.
• He said Avanti West Coast cancelled one of the trains two minutes after the departure time.

A passenger who spent £589 ($720) on a return train ticket has slammed the rail company for cancelling a train two minutes after its scheduled departure time, doubling his journey time.

Gateau Chocolat, a drag performer based in the UK, was traveling last Saturday from Brighton in southern England to Bangor in northern Wales, and then back the following day, for a show. The private function was a surprise 60th birthday celebration from a husband to a wife who had seen Gateau perform more than a decade ago, he told Insider.

The journey between Brighton to Bangor should take five hours and has one change at London Euston, a major station in the capital. Gateau said once the train operated by Avanti West Coast on Saturday afternoon departed from London Euston, the conductor announced there was no first class available because of a shortage of staff.

However, the return journey to Brighton the following day proved to be a nightmare.

Gateau said he was booked on the first direct train from Bangor to London Euston which was scheduled to set off at 10:05 a.m. But the Avanti train was cancelled two minutes after the expected departure time. Avanti gave no explanation to why the train wasn't running anymore, he added.

According to Gateau, the announcement on the platform advised passengers to wait for another train in around 50 minutes. But he said this train was also cancelled and posted screenshots of the status on Twitter.

Gateau said he ended up taking a train north via Manchester for another Avanti train, which departed late.

"The conductor said the driver was delayed," Gateau said, but described the staff who were serving in first class as "incredible."

Overall, Gateau had to travel on five trains — instead of two — on his journey back to Brighton, taking him 10 hours to get back home.

Gateau and the client decided he should travel by train because it would be more straightforward than driving. Despite the cost of the ticket being "eye watering," he booked to travel in first class because it guaranteed him a seat and dinner before the show kicked off in the evening.

"This is the price of piece of mind and some modicum of ease," said Gateau, who posted pictures of his tickets and the train cancellations on Twitter.

Avanti responded to Le Gateau's tweets with a link in case he was considering taking the situation further. Le Gateau told Insider he "absolutely would" because "the ticket was just shy of £600."

Le Gateau accused Avanti of being "a masterclass in poor service, not just in delivering their 'first class' product but also in customer relations."

An Avanti spokesperson told Insider in a statement that the company was sorry for the disruptions to Gateau's journey and has encouraged him to claim compensation.

"Over the last few months, our sole focus has been to do everything we can to return to a more resilient operation and deliver more services for our customers and communities," the spokesperson said.