I lost my car keys on an Avanti train but it told me they were at a VETS: CRANE

In March, I took an Avanti train from London to Manchester. 

As the train was pulling into Piccadilly, the power went out and the passengers including me who were standing up ready to leave were told to sit back down.

A short while later in the taxi home, I realised I’d lost my car keys.

Luckily, I had an air tag tracking device attached to them, which showed that they were still on the train at Piccadilly station. I think they fell out of my pocket when we were told to sit back down.

I visited the Avanti website and as directed, logged the lost keys with Network Rail’s LostProperty.org service. 

The next day, the air tag showed the keys were inside the Alstom train depot in Longsight on the outskirts of Manchester. 

Journey: The keys went from Piccadilly station to a train depot near Manchester (stock image) 

A few hours later they appeared in the car park of the Alstom depot. I contacted Avanti via Instagram and sent details of this.

It said my keys were never found by the train cleaning team, and that no one at the Alstom depot had ‘at any point come into contact with them’.

Bizarrely, the person suggested the keys might not be at the depot but at a vets next door. I have never been there and don’t have any pets. 

The keys then ended up in a waste disposal site in Salford, where they sat for a few days before going offline.

It cost me £430 to get new keys. Avanti and Network Rail have just blamed each other. Am I wrong to think they should take some responsibility? A.M, Manchester

Helen Crane, This is Money’s consumer champion, replies: You told me you feel silly to have lost track of your keys on the train, but accidents happen to the best of us.

We can only hope that some kind person will hand them in, which thankfully happened to me when I left a tote bag on the tube last year.  

Train companies don’t assume responsibility for lost property, but they do agree to take ‘reasonable care’ of items found on trains or in stations. 

According to the National Rail conditions of travel, ‘Property found in a train or on a train company’s or rail service provider’s premises will not be treated as belonging to the person who finds it, and must be handed over as soon as reasonably possible to a train company’s or rail service provider’s member of staff.’

It continues: ‘A train company or rail service provider will take reasonable care of any luggage, articles, animals or cycles which are taken into its safekeeping after being left in its trains or on its premises and will make a reasonable effort to contact the owner.’

In my opinion, that didn’t happen in your case.   

In my mind, the logical assumption is your keys were found by the cleaning crew on the train, and thrown in the bin. 

It is also possible they ended up there by accident, but a shiny set of keys is hard to miss, and it is highly improbable that they fell out of your pocket and straight into the bin.

Dumped: The keys ended up at a waste disposal facility, according to A.M’s air tag

Items lost on Avanti trains are supposed to be logged and stored at terminating stations, of which Piccadilly is one. 

Customers can then register their item as missing online, as you did, and if a match is found, they will be contacted by Network Rail. 

But both Avanti West Coast, which operates the train you were on, and Network Rail, which is responsible for major stations and depots, insist that no member of their staff ever came into contact with your keys. 

Frustratingly, both firms tried to abdicate responsibility for the keys ending up on the scrapheap.

When you emailed Avanti seeking answers, you were told the train cleaners at Manchester Piccadilly would ‘most likely’ have worked for Network Rail and to contact them. 

However, when you did, Network Rail told you lost property must be dealt with via the train operating company and sent you on a one-way ticket back to Avanti. 

You went back and forth several times with the respective customer service departments before your patience finally terminated. 

The strangest interaction was when someone managing the Avanti Instagram page suggested your keys had not been left at the train depot, but the PDSA.

You assumed PDSA was some kind of rail jargon, but when you looked it up it turned out they were referring to the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals. 

A veterinary centre run by the charity happens to be located next door, but regardless this was an absurd proposition, and a blatant attempt to try and pass the…