POLITICAL leaders in northern England voted unanimously to ditch Avanti West Coast as the operator of long-distance trains from London Euston to Birmingham, Manchester, North Wales and Scotland.
The vote took place at Transport for the North’s board meeting in Leeds on March 20. TfN has no power to strip Avanti of its operating deal, but it can provide statutory advice to the Transport Secretary, who does hold that power.
The vote followed a testy debate in which Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham led attacks on AWC, saying the company had inflicted “huge damage” on Greater Manchester’s economy and accusing the company of “being in denial”.
He said: “I have run out of patience. I cannot accept this railway being left in this perennial state of chaos.”
AWC’s owner is a joint venture between FirstGroup and Trenitalia. FirstGroup Rail Managing Director Steve Montgomery apologised to the board meeting for recent poor performance. He said that after a period of poor performance, AWC had reduced cancellations to 1.5%, but then saw the rate rise last autumn to roughly 7% in the last reporting period.
He said that AWC started to see impact from national industrial disputes last October and November, adding that AWC had negotiated a rest day working agreement with drivers’ union ASLEF the week before the board meeting. He said this had resulted in more staff making themselves available.
AWC said a couple of days later that the new rest day working agreement had “seen the number of cancellations fall dramatically”, and that the agreement would help it train drivers on its new Hitachi Class 805 stock.
After the meeting, TfN Chairman Lord McLoughlin said: “We will be writing statutory advice today to the Secretary of State calling for Avanti to be relieved of its contract. The travelling public deserve a service they can rely on. But Avanti has fallen far too short of expectations for far too long now.” Rail union RMT welcomed the news, with General Secretary Mick Lynch saying: “The government must now act.” ASLEF also welcomed the move.
Labour Shadow Transport Minister Stephen Morgan asked in the House of Commons on March 21 whether Avanti West Coast would be stripped of its contract.
Rail Minister Huw Merriman replied: “No, we will not.
