Train operator Avanti has been handed a contract extension by the government, despite its 'poor performance' being under fire.
The operator has struggled with reliability, passengers being unable to book tickets in advance, and was slammed in August last year for cutting services between Manchester and London. Avanti, which runs trains between Manchester Piccadilly and London Euston, has since gone back to three per hour between the stations.
The contract was due to expire at the end of March but has been extended until October 15. The Department for Transport has said the extension comes as 'performance at Avanti is steadily improving'.
The Department for Transport has today (20 March 2023) extended Avanti West Coast’s contract for a further six months after 'significant improvements' have been made since October, the government announced.
"This decision comes almost six months after the operator was initially put on a short-term contract by the government and ordered to develop a recovery plan aimed at addressing poor performance on vital West Coast Main Line routes, including between Manchester, Birmingham and London," said a government spokesperson."
The six-month contract was initially introduced after major operational issues, a cause of which was a shortage of available drivers and a ban on rest day and overtime working. Last July, drivers for Avanti West Coast, the majority of whom belong to the ASLEF union, stopped volunteering to work overtime.
Passengers suffered weeks of short-notice cancellations and this led to Avanti slashing its timetable in August. A new timetable introduced in December 2022 with a “significantly reduced reliance on overtime working” has seen the number of weekday services increase from 180 to 264, the DfT said.
Since the introduction of this timetable on December 11, the government claims Avanti West Coast has seen improvements across services including, weekday services rising to the highest level in over two years, a reduction in cancellations from nearly 25 per cent of the service in August 2022, to 4.2 per cent in early March 2023.
Transport Secretary Mark Harper said: "The routes Avanti West Coast run are absolutely vital, and I fully understand the frustrations passengers felt at the completely unacceptable services seen last Autumn. Following our intervention, Rail Minister Huw Merriman and I have worked closely with local leaders to put a robust plan in place, which I’m glad to see is working.
"However, there is still more work to be done to bring services up to the standards we expect, which is why over this next six months further improvements will need to be made by Avanti West Coast."
Further work intended to 'restore reliability and punctuality' will include 'delivering more reliable weekend services, continued reductions in cancellations and improvements in passenger information during planned and unplanned disruption', according to the government. The Transpennine Express contract expires on 28 May and will be considered separately with a further announcement in due course.
READ NEXT:
