Avanti West Coast has been told it must “drastically improve services” as the government granted the operator of the London-Glasgow line a six-month contract extension.
The government’s controversial decision means the rail company, which operates trains between London, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh, will be able to continue providing services until next April. The current contract was due to expire on October 16.
The rail company has been heavily criticized after significantly reducing services from August, cutting the number of trains between London and Manchester to one an hour and releasing tickets just days in advance.
Transport Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said Avanti’s performance was “unacceptable”.
Avanti, which blamed the reduced schedule on driver shortages, said it had begun increasing service on some routes and 100 additional drivers would be trained by December.
“We need train services that are reliable and resilient to modern life,” Trevelyan said. “Avanti’s service is unacceptable and although the company has taken positive steps to get more trains running, it needs to do more to ensure security of service to its passengers. We have agreed a six-month extension on Avanti to assess whether it is able to operate this key route to the standard passengers deserve and expect.”
Labor leader Keir Starmer and Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, said Avanti should lose its contract unless it urgently increased services.
Burnham said on Friday, after the government announced the extension, that there should be a review of Avanti’s performance in mid-December so that a new operator could be ready to run the line in early April if needed.
“At last there is clear recognition of the crisis engulfing the country’s most important railway and the failure of management that led to it,” he said. “However, the lack of an acceptable rescue plan from the company – and clear terms from the Government – means that very few people in Greater Manchester will support this extension. The thought of another six months of what we’re going through right now is a huge worry.”
Burnham said the government should monitor Avanti’s performance on a daily basis, with reports made public every week, ahead of a review in mid-December following consultations with mayors and leaders from London, the West Midlands, Greater Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
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“The damage that Avanti’s service failure is doing to our economy and the huge disruption to passengers is completely unacceptable,” he said. “The company has shown that it is unable to stabilize its service and correct issues with tickets and the passenger experience on board.”
FirstGroup, which owns Avanti West Coast in a joint venture with Italy’s Trenitalia, said it plans to increase services from around 180 trains a day to 264 on weekdays when there are more drivers. He also said he would improve ticketing services.
“We are committed to working closely with government and our industry partners to deliver a successful railway that serves the needs of our customers and communities,” said Graham Sutherland, FirstGroup chief executive. “Today’s agreement allows our team at Avanti West Coast to maintain its focus on delivering its robust plan to restore services to the levels passengers rightly expect.”
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