Avanti West Coast: Mayor urges pressure to be put on train firm

Greater Manchester's mayor has urged the transport secretary to force Avanti West Coast into increasing services.

Andy Burnham said he wanted at least two trains per hour to run between Manchester and London by the end of October.

In a letter to Anne-Marie Trevelyan, Mr Burnham said the operator should lose its contract if it could not comply.

Avanti West Coast and the Department for Transport have both been approached for a response to Mr Burnham's demands.

Pre-pandemic there used to be three services per hour linking Manchester and London.

It subsequently promised to run extra trains on its key London-Manchester and London-Birmingham routes from 27 September.

The operator also said services would be boosted again from 11 December once nearly 100 new drivers had completed their training.

In his letter to Ms Trevelyan, Mr Burnham said the company's plans would cause too much disruption to passengers.

"This would mean two more months of chaos on the West Coast Mainline in the interim, with resulting damage to our city-region's economy," he said.

"If 11 December is to be acceptable, Avanti must also commit to providing a consistent two trains per hour service between Manchester and London by end of this month, as a staging post to full restoration of the timetable.

"Unless this happens and is clearly communicated, train travel between our most important economic regions will continue to be chaotic, forcing people into their cars or into abandoning plans to travel entirely.

"Without this commitment, I will be unable to support a new contract for Avanti."

Avanti West Coast's contract renewal comes up later this month.

A transport minister previously told MPs all options remained on the table, including withdrawing the contract.

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