AVANTI West Coast has been placed on a short-term contract renewal by the Government after it provided an “unacceptable” service to rail users.
The train company has been given until April 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, while the number of trains between Chester and London also dropped.
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.
It comes after the train operator faced mounting calls locally to be stripped of its contract.
Business and local authority leaders from North Wales, the Wirral and Cheshire West and Chester in the Growth Track 360 partnership urged the DfT to remove the contract to operate West Coast passenger rail services from Avanti. There has been only one direct service per day between London, Chester and Wrexham whilst a shuttle service links Crewe and Holyhead via Chester.
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Growth Track 360 Chair, Councillor Louise Gittins, Leader of Cheshire West and Chester Council, said: "These cuts have caused incalculable damage to our cross-border regional economy during the peak holiday season. Avanti has shown itself right from the outset of its franchise simply not to be up to the task of managing its business affairs competently, so the UK Government – as its ultimate customer – should cancel the West Coast operating franchise immediately.”
Leader of Flintshire Council and Vice Chair of Growth Track 360, Councillor Ian Roberts, said: “Civic leaders in North Wales and neighbouring communities in North West England have worked hard to build a collaborative relationship with Avanti but their management’s actions show they regard our Chester and North Wales main line as an unimportant branch.
"It is shocking to realise that the same company has been tasked with introducing passenger train services onto HS2. The UK Department for Transport must get a grip of the crisis at Avanti West Coast by placing its routes under the control of the public sector Operator of Last Resort which has handled well similar failures by operators in other parts of Britain.”
Growth Track 360 Business Representative, Ashley Rogers, Chief Executive of the North Wales Mersey Dee Business Council, said: “We cannot stand by whilst our North Wales and Mersey Dee tourist destinations brace themselves for the next holiday season without the prospect of even a partial return of the full London, Chester and North Wales timetable of direct train services.
"UK Government has to stand up for our cross-border regional economy and our businesses. An immediate change of management is needed for the West Coast Mainline, otherwise our region continues to pay the price with lost economic growth when we need it most.”
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The DfT said 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.
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.”
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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