Avanti West Coast: Calls for urgent review of delay-hit rail services

Calls have been made for an urgent review of Avanti West Coast's operations after a fresh spate of delays and cancellations.

It comes after the rail firm announced it was slashing West Coast Main Line services throughout December.

Transport for the North said passengers are enduring a "deteriorating service" with 31.8% of all services cancelled or delayed over the last eight days.

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said the situation was "unacceptable".

An Avanti West Coast spokesman said the delays were being caused by "a number of issues beyond the company's control".

Transport for the North, which governs transport improvements across northern England, is also calling for all Avanti trains to run with first class and standard premium carriages declassified until their performance has been restored to an acceptable level.

This would see passengers without premium tickets moved into other areas to free up more seats.

Mr Burnham, who chairs the Rail North Committee, said the situation "cannot be allowed to continue".

"This torrent of cancellations and delays on Avanti services is simply unacceptable," he said.

"This is one of the most important times of the year for many families and businesses, all of whom are being let down by this deteriorating rail service without an end in sight.

"That is why we have written to the government to ask for them to conduct a critical review of Avanti as a matter of priority.

"Given the critical importance of this service at this time of year, it is also vital that all seats on Avanti West Coast services are made available."

Transport for the North said the latest industry figures show fewer than half of Avanti trains are currently running on time - with 32% being cancelled and or severely delayed.

Avanti West Coast said recent delays were caused by issues including damage to overhead wires near Watford Junction and a flooding issue at Kilsby Tunnel.

"Declassifying our trains will not solve the current challenges we are seeing on our network," a spokesman said.

"Our train managers already have the discretion to declassify our services if they are busy due to disruption and have done so several times recently.

"As well as disruption, we have been seeing some short-notice cancellations on our network and would like to apologise to our customers for the inconvenience caused as we know this is not good enough.

"These service changes are a result of resourcing challenges where we have seen a shortage of train crew due to historic leave agreements. We are working hard to make sure we can minimise these cancellations."

A spokesperson for the Department for Transport said: "Despite progress since last year, Avanti still needs to further improve and we continue to hold it to account for matters within its control.

"Crew shortages linked to train drivers on average £60,000 salaries refusing to work overtime highlight the need for modernisation across the wider railway that is being resisted by unions."

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