Avanti West Coast extension was right move, MP says

Extending the contract of under-fire rail operator Avanti West Coast was the right decision, but the company still has "a long way to go", an MP has said.

The firm was given a six-month extension by the government last week despite calls for it to be stripped of the franchise after a raft of problems.

John Stevenson, MP for Carlisle and chairman of the West Coast Main Line All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), said the firm was making progress.

The contract will run until 15 October.

Its previous six-month deal - granted by the Department for Transport last October - was due to finish at the end of this month.

Avanti, which runs trains to Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, north Wales, Glasgow and Edinburgh, had been told to make urgent improvements after it slashed its timetable last summer when drivers stopped doing overtime and passengers suffered widespread disruption.

Conservative Mr Stevenson told the BBC's Politics North programme the firm had "got a grilling from MPs across the spectrum about the services they provided" when questioned by the APPG last year.

"They said they had a new programme starting in December, they said there would be improvements and we are starting to see some, but there is a long way to go.

"I think the government's approach, broadly, is right - give them an extension for six months and see if the improvements happen.

"If they don't then I think there'd be serious concerns and we'd have to revisit it."

Mr Stevenson denied the company had been "rewarded for failure", as claimed by fellow Cumbrian MP Tim Farron earlier this week.

Liberal Democrat Mr Farron, who represents Westmorland and Lonsdale, said daily disruption for passengers meant it should be "the final stop for Avanti's contract".

But Mr Stevenson said: "What you're seeing is Avanti starting to improve and we've got to keep at them to ensure they don't get rewarded for failure."

Following the contract extension announcement, Avanti's parent company First Group said performance was "steadily improving".

It added that since the introduction of a new timetable in mid-December, its number of services "increased by more than 40% compared to last summer, with more seats and better frequencies".

More than 5% of Avanti's services were cancelled in the four weeks to 3 March, down from 10.5% in the four weeks to 4 February and 18.9% in the four weeks to 7 January.

Follow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].