‘A travesty for passengers’: Avanti slammed as hundreds of services axed before new year
Avanti is quietly axing hundreds of services before the new year, just over a month after the much-scrutinised train operator was gifted a lucrative new contract by the government.
Ministers have reportedly signed off reductions to its Saturday timetable due to driver shortages, according to reports in The Times.
Avanti had previously said it was slashing half its Saturday services between 9 December and the new year.
But the operator has now convinced the Department for Transport (DfT) to allow similar reductions on every Saturday, from now until the end of 2023.
Sources cited by The Times said that at least 15 of Avanti’s services had already been removed on those Saturdays, with further cancellations still possible.
It comes only a month after Transport Secretary Mark Harper awarded Avanti a new, long-term contract, describing its service as being “back on track.”
The rail company, which operates a number of routes between Manchester, Birmingham and London, has faced strong criticism for poor performance in recent years.
Recent figures from the rail industry’s regulator showed the provider’s service was the least punctual of any in the UK, with only 46 per cent of trains arriving on time.
Avanti, a joint venture between Firstgroup and Trenitalia, had been placed on two consecutive, short-term contracts and ordered to develop a recovery programme to address its sub-par performance, primarily caused by driver shortages.
An ‘Operations Update’ dated 18 October, seen by The Times, states that the December cancellations are due to “resourcing challenges caused by a range of factors, including historic annual leave agreements and ongoing industrial disputes”.
The news sparked outrage from the Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMT), who recently voted in favour of continued industrial action on the UK’s railway network for the next six months.
General secretary of the RMT Mick Lynch said: “Avanti are one of the worst companies we have ever dealt with on the rail network and it is a travesty for passengers that they have been allowed to cut services yet again.”
“They should never have had their contract renewed and this latest move shows they care not a jot about their passengers.”
An Avanti West Coast spokesperson said: “We have been seeing some short-notice cancellations on our network and would like to apologise to our customers for the inconvenience caused. “
“We know this is not good enough and are working hard to make sure we can minimise these cancellations. These service changes are a result of resourcing challenges where we have seen a shortage of train crew due to historic leave agreements and ongoing industrial disputes.”
A DfT spokesperson 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. Train 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.
“The temporary timetable changes were necessary to minimise short-notice cancellations due to train crew shortages and to accommodate engineering works that will maintain and improve the resilience of the network.”