Avanti West Coast: Rail boss apologises for recent disruption

The boss of the rail operator that runs Avanti West Coast and Transpennine Express has apologised for the disruption to services experienced by passengers in recent months.

Steve Montgomery, managing director of First Rail, told the BBC the issues had been caused by a backlog of driver training during the pandemic.

He said that because of sickness levels and drivers not working overtime, the company was not able to fill the gaps.

"We apologise to customers," he said.

He added: "We understand the inconvenience this is causing people in their day to day lives. And it is something that we are trying to correct at this moment in time."

Passengers have been enduring a prolonged period of disruption on the rail network. Avanti West Coast and Transpennine Express have come in for particular criticism for reduced timetables and cancellations.

Avanti West Coast slashed its timetables in August, with trains between London and Manchester the worst affected.

The operator cut its timetable from seven trains per hour to a minimum of four on 14 August and suspended ticket sales, blaming "severe staff shortages".

Asked if he would acknowledge the situation across the North of England had not been good enough, Mr Montgomery said: "I do acknowledge it, because we're cancelling too many trains" and said he understood customers' frustration.

He said the operator employed "more than enough drivers", but needed to catch up on their training after the pandemic. It takes 12 to 18 months for a driver to qualify.

Reliance on rest day or overtime working to fulfil timetables has been common practice in the rail industry for years.

Avanti said drivers suddenly stopped volunteering for overtime in the summer, prompting it to cut its timetable to reduce cancellations.

At the time, the drivers' union Aslef denied accusations of unofficial strike action and said the company should employ enough staff - but it acknowledged there had been a loss of goodwill.

Avanti is now slowly building back services and has promised a full timetable in December that does not rely on rest day working.

Transpennine does not currently have an agreement with drivers on rest day working. Aslef has accused it of not running enough drivers to run the services it had promised.

It is running a reduced timetable between the north west of England and Scotland, and making daily cancellations across its network, both the night before and on the day. On Thursday, more than 50 services were cancelled the night before.

Mr Montgomery insisted other train companies were also suffering from drivers not being available, and it was something that the industry had to deal with.

"We understand that we've got a lot to do to rebuild customers' confidence", he said, adding that the company did not want to be in the position it was in.

"We were able to cover services within Avanti, [but] we lost the ability to do that in the way that we could previously, with the loss of rest day working.

"We've got to move forward now, we can't keep looking back...we have to restore customers' confidence and that's what we're trying to do with the launch of the December timetable."

The newly appointed Rail Minister, Huw Merriman, has told the BBC the government "absolutely sees the urgency" of the situation with rail services in the North of England.

"We're really determined to deliver better services up to parts of the north that have experienced the difficulties," said Mr Merriman.

"Part of that solution is also seeing a breakthrough and an end of the industrial relations problems, which are a large factor in the service deterioration".

He added: "We recognise that the services for passengers are not acceptable," and insisted the new Transport Secretary, Mark Harper, saw this as a priority. Mr Harper will be going to visit the Labour metro mayors in the North of England who have called for urgent intervention.

Last month, the Department for Transport warned that Avanti West Coast needed to "drastically improve services" after its contract to run the London to Glasgow route was extended by just six months.

The decision means it will continue to run services until next April.