Avanti West Coast gets short-term contract renewal despite bad service
Avanti West Coast gets short-term contract renewal despite offering ‘unacceptable’ service to rail users after slashing Manchester-London trains from seven an hour to four
- Avanti West Coast has been placed on a short-term contract renewal by DfT
- The train company has been given until April 1st next year to improve its services
- The operator slashed Manchester-London trains from seven an hour to four
- Transport Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan called the services ‘unacceptable’
Avanti West Coast has been placed on a short-term contract renewal by the Government after it provided an ‘unacceptable’ service to rail users after slashing Manchester-London trains from seven an hour to four.
The train company has been given until April 1st next year to improve its services following a reduction of its trains, the Department for Transport (DfT) has said.
The operator reduced its timetable from seven trains per hour to a minimum of four per hour on August 14.
This involved running just an hourly service in each direction between Manchester and London plus additional services at the busiest times.
The route had three trains per hour before the coronavirus pandemic and prior to the timetable change had two services per hour with some extra trains.
The Government’s announcement comes after Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham wrote to the Transport Secretary and urged for the train company to be stripped of its contract unless the axed services were reinstated soon.
The Labour mayor’s letter was timed as rails strikes continue to hit the country this week, with action impacting Avanti West Coast services today and tomorrow. The rail company took part in Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) strikes on Wednesday.
And members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union at more than a dozen train companies and Network Rail will strike on Saturday.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham wrote to the Transport Secretary and urged for the train company to be stripped of its contract unless the axed services were reinstated soon
FirstGroup plc, which co-owns Avanti West Coast in a joint venture with Italy’s Trenitalia, said it was ‘committed’ to providing services that meet people’s needs. Pictured, an Avanti West Coast train at Stoke-on-Trent Train Station
Avanti trains were removed from the timetable in August to cut short-notice cancellations after a sharp decline in the number of drivers voluntarily working on rest days for extra pay.
The DfT said that nearly 100 additional drivers will have entered formal service this year between April and December, meaning that more services have started to be added as new drivers become available to work.
It added that the company is planning to increase from 180 per day to 264 trains per day on weekdays as more drivers become available as well as continuing to recruit more train staff.
Transport Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said: ‘We need train services which are reliable and resilient to modern day life.
‘Services on Avanti have been unacceptable and while the company has taken positive steps to get more trains moving, it must do more to deliver certainty of service to its passengers.
‘We have agreed a six-month extension to Avanti to assess whether it is capable of running this crucial route to a standard passengers deserve and expect.’
FirstGroup plc, which co-owns Avanti West Coast in a joint venture with Italy’s Trenitalia, said it was ‘committed’ to providing services that meet people’s needs.
Transport Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan (pictured) said that Avanti’s services have been ‘unacceptable’ and that it ‘must do more to deliver certainty of service’
Planned strikes expected to continue Friday and Saturday
The TSSA is planning industrial action on Friday and Saturday, while members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union at more than a dozen train companies and Network Rail will strike on Saturday.
Train companies not involved in the strike will be running as usual, but these are expected to be busy.
Services are also likely to be disrupted in the early morning of Thursday as workers return to duties.
Avanti West Coast – customers warned to only travel if absolutely necessary
c2c – ‘significant disruption’ expected. Trains to continue to run between 7.30am and 6.30pm
Chiltern Railways – customers warned to expect significantly reduced timetable
CrossCountry – services will run on ‘significantly reduced’ timetable
East Midlands Railway – services to run only between 7.30am and 6.30pm
Great Western Railway – services will run, but they will be limited and start later and finish earlier. Customers are urged to check before travelling
Greater Anglia – commuters warned to ‘avoid travelling with us’. Services to be severely reduced and disrupted. Most routes are unlikely to have train or bus replacements
LNER – customers urged to check relevant website for details of service levels each day until Sunday 9 October
Northern – limited services will run, so customers are urged to only travel if absolutely necessary
South Western Railway – no decision yet. Customers told there will be updates in the coming days
Southeastern – limited services will run, so customers are urged to only travel if absolutely necessary
Southern, Great Northern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express – no decision yet. Customers told there will be updates in the coming days
TransPennine Express – ‘very limited service on some lines’. Customers urged to travel only for essential journeys
West Midlands Railway – ‘significant disruption’ expected. Trains to continue to run between 7.30am and 6.30pm
Graham Sutherland, FirstGroup chief executive officer, said: ‘We are committed to working closely with Government and our partners across the industry to deliver a successful railway that serves the needs of our customers and communities.
‘Today’s agreement allows our team at Avanti West Coast to sustain their focus on delivering their robust plan to restore services to the levels that passengers rightly expect.’
Yesterday Greater Manchester Mayor Mr Burnham wrote to Ms Trevelyan and urged for the train company to be stripped of its contract unless the axed services were reinstated soon.
In his letter, Mr Burnham wrote: ‘This would mean two more months of chaos on the West Coast Main Line in the interim with resulting damage to our city-region’s economy.
‘If December 11 is to be acceptable, Avanti must also commit to providing a consistent two trains per hour service between Manchester and London by the end of this month as a staging post to full restoration of the timetable.
‘Unless this happens and is clearly communicated, train travel between our most important economic regions will continue to be chaotic, forcing people into their cars or into abandoning plans to travel entirely.
‘Without this commitment I will be unable to support a new contract for Avanti.’
Mr Burnham told Ms Trevelyan that Avanti West Coast still has ‘very poor levels of reliability’ with trains ‘regularly delayed or cancelled’.
His letter mentioned ‘other challenges’ including tickets only being released a few days in advance, seats being double booked and broken toilets.
‘These dreadful conditions would be unacceptable at any time but are particularly so now given the wholesale collapse of the timetable, something no other train company is experiencing at anything like this scale,’ Mr Burnham wrote.
Responding, Avanti West Coast said in a statement: ‘We are already delivering on our commitment to increase the number of services we are running between Manchester and London, with three or four trains an hour departing Manchester Piccadilly at the key times of the day.
‘We remain focused on providing a reliable train service for our customers and restoring a full timetable of three trains an hour all day between London and Manchester in December.
‘Our revised timetable, with no reliance on overtime, is also proving more reliable – in the last week we have run 300 trains between London and Manchester with approximately one in 30 of them cancelled mainly because of short-notice sickness.
‘That compares with one out of 13 trains cancelled back in mid-July.
‘Nevertheless, we know that at the moment we’re not delivering the service our customers rightly expect and we apologise for the enormous frustration and inconvenience this is causing.
‘We would like to thank our customers for their patience and understanding.’
Last month, the company published a plan to reinstate some services on certain days from September 27.
Timetables on other days were due to be boosted ‘as soon as possible’ ahead of another increase on December 11.
Avanti West Coast’s contract was originally due to expire on October 16.
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