Rail operator Avanti West Coast has been told it must “drastically improve” its service offering, after the Department for Transport [DfT] agreed to extend its West Coast Main Line contract for just six months.
The agreement means Avanti will continue to run services between London and Glasgow until April 2023, with its contract having been due to lapse on October 16.
The DfT said that it would “consider Avanti’s performance” when the latest contract ends on April 1 next year.
Transport secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan branded Avanti’s recent performance “unacceptable”, after the rail company cut a range of services in August due to a staffing crunch, disrupting thousands.
Trevelyan said: “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.”
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham was pleased to see recognition from DfT that there had been “spectacular mismanagement by Avanti West Coast.”
But Burnham suggested that passengers in Greater Manchester wouldn’t be too pleased to see Avanti retain the franchise even for a possible stay of execution, after August’s disruption caused major issues for services running between London and Manchester.
He said: “The company's failure to put forward an acceptable rescue plan, and the government's failure to set really clear conditions and deadlines means that very few people in Greater Manchester will support this extension.
“We just need good services and a full timetable back as soon as possible.”
Manchester City Council understands that December 11 has been set as a date in principle for services to return to previous levels, which council leader Bev Craig said “simply isn’t good enough.”
Avanti has claimed that August’s staffing issues arose after train drivers stopped volunteering to work overtime early in the month, with the operator having previously relied on overtime in order to honour its service provision.
Aslef, the train drivers’ union, refuted accusations shortly thereafter that there had been unofficial strike action which fuelled the issues.
Avanti has said that it is recruiting more staff as it seeks to scale service provision back up, and will increase weekday services from 180 trains per day to 264.
Avanti began adding extra services on the London-Manchester and London-Birmingham routes at the end of September and will increase services further as more drivers become available.
This wasn’t before Avanti managing director Phil Whittingham resigned amid ongoing criticism of the service cuts.
FirstGroup, which owns Avanti West Coast jointly with Trenitalia, said that it was “committed” to providing an outstanding service.
FirstGroup CEO, Graham Sutherland, said: “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.”
Photo by Ethan Wilkinson on Unsplash
