More trains will start to run between London Euston and Manchester Piccadilly from next Tuesday, under-fire train operator Avanti West Coast has announced. Between the stations, Avanti will run an additional 10 daily trains on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, and an extra six trains on Wednesdays.
Further increases to the Manchester timetable will be made in December as new drivers complete training, said a spokesman, which will see three trains an hour on the London to Manchester route. The news will be welcomed by passengers, but is still short of what the service once was.
Avanti said in a statement it was the 'first stage in a recovery plan to step up the timetable'. Mondays and Fridays, often busy commuting days between Manchester and the capital, are expected to remain as they are now, however.
READ MORE:
Avanti announced last month that it was cutting the number of trains between London Euston and Manchester Piccadilly from one every 20 minutes to one an hour 'until further notice', saying it had cut services in the wake of industrial action 'to ensure a reliable service is delivered so customers can travel with greater certainty'.
The move has sparked fierce criticism from the travelling public and the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, who highlighted 'chaos' on services, passengers finding seats double booked and a slow release of online tickets.
He, and Greater Manchester MPs, have called for Avanti's West Coast Mainline contract to be stripped on October 16 as a result.
Avanti has used a degree of rest-day working to operate its timetable. Drivers have traditionally volunteered to work additional shifts over and above their contracted hours in what ministers called an 'industry arrangement' that 'has been in place for many years, to the benefit of the drivers, the operators and indeed the passengers'.
But services were reduced in early August as result of drivers being unwilling to sign up for the overtime upon which all train operators rely. That caused numerous 'short-notice cancellations' and led to the reduction in trains, said Avanti. The company has also blamed Covid for a backlog of training and industrial action.
Avanti said the move would mean an extra 70 services a week on its busiest route between London and Manchester, compared with the current timetable. That, said the company, equates to around 40,000 extra seats a week.
Avanti said it had completed 'intensive analysis of the number of additional services that can be provided in a reliable and sustainable fashion'. The services are not dependent on overtime working. Tickets for the new services will be available for purchase 'over the coming days'.
Barry Milsom, Executive Director of Operations and Safety for Avanti West Coast, said: "We know we’re not delivering the service our customers rightly expect and we apologise for the enormous frustration and inconvenience this is causing. The decision to reduce our timetable in August was not taken lightly but our customers and communities deserve a dependable train service, so we’ve been working hard to rebuild our timetable in a resilient and sustainable way.
"Resolving this situation required a robust plan that allows us to gradually increase services without being reliant on traincrew overtime. We are now in a position to start delivering this incremental increase in services, followed by a further increase in December. We’ll continue to review our timetable beyond December with our industry partners.
"We're working with our people, their union representatives, and industry partners to match the resources we have to demand, so we can deliver reliable services across our network to all our customers and communities.
"We would like to thank our customers for their patience and understanding during this period."
Read more of today's top stories here.
READ NEXT:
-
Convicted armed robber caught with £500k cocaine cargo - after cops noticed car had a light out
-
Locksmith's warning over new burglary 'trick' - which only 'takes seconds'
-
Cops make sickening discovery after arresting pervert snared by 'Justice for the Innocent' group
-
LIVE: United chief Richard Arnold issues update to club shareholders
