The Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) trade union has called Avanti West Coast a “specialist in failure” after the operator revealed that it will drastically cut the number of services it runs in December.

Avanti has blamed staff shortages for its plans to reduce the frequency of weekend services for most of December.

The government recently awarded Avanti a new nine-year contract to continue running services on the West Coast Main Line, one of the country’s main intercity routes.

The new contract came in the wake of Avanti West Coast being ordered to improve its performance. TSSA says that rail unions and passenger groups were “bitterly disappointed” that the “failing train operator” had been awarded a new contract.

Avanti’s service cuts will affect trains running between London, Birmingham, Manchester and north Wales. Only two trains an hour will run between London and Manchester on Saturdays in December.

Commenting, recently-elected TSSA General Secretary Maryam Elsamdoust said: “The ink’s barely dry on Avanti’s new contract yet the failed train operator is already cutting services. Passengers are once again being badly let down by a shambolic rail system that is run for profit rather than for people.

“Avanti West Coast are incapable of running a rail service. Passengers deserve far more than this shoddy service. It is a national disgrace that the Conservative government are wasting taxpayers’ money funding a rail operator that is a specialist in failure.

“Just weeks after Sunak announced that he was scrapping the Manchester leg of HS2, passengers in the North of England are once again getting a second-class service.

“We need our railways in public ownership. That’s the only way passengers and taxpayers can get value for money.”