Avanti West Coast has been awarded a long term contract by the Department for Transport today after reducing their cancellations to as low as 1.1% in the past year.
The new contract will allow Avanti West Coast to prepare new timetables, introduce their new Hitachi train fleet and continue to improve services for passengers.
The long term contract comes after the DfT gave Avanti two short term six-month contracts and ordered them to develop a recovery plan aimed at addressing poor performance.
Avanti’s recovery plan saw train services increase from 180 trains a day to 264 during the week, which is the highest level in two years.
Cancellations have reduced for the long distance operator, with the number being below 3% since March 2023, and as low as 1.1% in July 2023. This has reduced from 13% in January 2023.
100 new drivers have been trained since April 2022 and improvements have been made for passenger experience through the Pendolino fleet revamp.
The new contract will start on the 15th October 2023 and will have a minimum length of three years, and a maximum term of nine years. After three years, the Department for Transport can terminate the contract with three months notice if performance is not adequate.
Meanwhile, another long distance operator, CrossCountry, has been given a new National Rail contract, with a term of four years, and a maximum of eight years.
The contact also starts on the 15th October and hopes to improve services, such as the replacement of the HST fleet with more modern equivalents, refurbishment of the Voyager / Turbostar fleets and the introduction of a new Cardiff – Yorkshire – North East – Edinburgh service from December 2024
Transport Secretary Mark Harper said: “The routes Avanti West Coast operate provide vital connections, and passengers must feel confident that they can rely on the services to get them where they need to be at the right time.
“Over the past year, short-term contracts were necessary to rebuild the timetable and reduce cancellations. Now Avanti are back on track, providing long-term certainty for both the operator and passengers will best ensure that improvements continue.”
Responses
Excellent news. Nice to see both Avanti West Coast and CrossCountry having their franchises extended.
Private companies will only seek contracts where they are able to make a profit on the deal. Thus *by definition* a public sector operator – with no shareholders looking for dividends – will always be able to do the same job cheaper. Plus governments can borrow to invest at significantly lower rates than commercial businesses.
There is *literally* no argument for wasting taxpayer subsidy on enriching the private sector. Especially where, as in the UK, it props up a fragmented system of staggering inefficiency.
After being stranded in Glasgow yesterday when all mainline trains South were cancelled from 3pm for the rest of the day I read this with disbelieve and horror.
Not even any apologies either on Website or Carlisle Station today. Seems like it’s just a normal occurrence.
Matk Thompson, if you managed to troll Avanti’s web site you wouldhave seen that the cancelled trains were due to overhead lines being damaged.
As these lines carry 24000volts, I sure you would not want passengers and employees put in life threatening positions just so you had a train to travel on.
The engineering department were in full attendance to rectify the fault and ensure that all services returned to normal within 24 hrs.
Or would you rather that repair teams were put in danger so you were not inconvenienced?