Troubled train operator, Avanti West Coast has been granted a 6-month extension of its rail contract, and hired a new managing director to take the job of recovering its services.
(c) Avanti West Coast
The company was given a short contract last year which would only be extended if the delays and cancellations between Manchester, Birmingham and London were sorted out.
There has been a marked improvement in short-notice services, with cancellations falling from around 25% of all trains to just over 4 percent now, and 90% of trains are arriving within 15 minutes of the timetabled arrival.
A recovery timetable which was introduced last December has significantly reduced reliance on overtime working and has seen services increase from 180 trains per day to 264 on weekdays – the highest level in over 2 years.
However, there’s still difficulty in booking tickets more than a couple of weeks in advance, making planning journeys and holidays difficult.
The Department for Transport (DfT) has indicated that the improvements so far are enough to renew the operating license, but again for just another six months.
The improvements that the DfT is looking for include delivering more reliable weekend services, continued reductions in cancellations and improvements in passenger information during planned and unplanned disruptions.
At the same time, the company has a new Managing Director, the second in less than a year.
Last September, when the train company was in its worst shape, Phil Whittingham resigned from the company. Over the past few months, Avanti West Coast has been run by Steve Montgomery, who is the boss of Avanti’s shareholder parent company, First Group.
Now, they’ve promoted Andy Mellors, who is currently the Managing Director of FirstGroup’s non-franchised rail businesses, to run Avanti West Coast. He has previously held senior roles at Great Western Railway and South Western Railway.
While the train company works to recover its performance, there are ongoing talks about the long term contract for the West Coast Partnership, which also includes acting as the shadow operator to the HS2 programme.
The contract has now been extended to 15th October 2023. It is currently envisaged that following the expiry of this second interim award, a new direct award will be signed for a duration expiring no later than 17th October 2032.
Avanti West Coast is a joint venture between FirstGroup (70%) and Italian state operator Trenitalia (30%).
In related news, the contract for the troubled Transpennine Express expires on 28th May, and the DfT expects to make an announcement about that later this week.
Absolutely outrageous that the DfT continue to let these clowns ‘operate’.
They don’t have much choice, no one wants to bid to replace them: a profit margin of 3% after bidding process that costs millions, they’re aren’t any takers.
Well they do have a choice and it’s to take over as the operator of last resort I.E the Department for Transport which runs LNER
But they’d rather Avanti try and sort the issues of things like staff recruitment and retention out first – and for Avanti to take the blame.
When DoT took LNER over they weren’t a basket case at the operational level but at the very high management / corporate level.