Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has questioned whether Avanti West Coast is equipped to deliver services to people wishing to pay their respects to the Queen. His latest attack comes less than two weeks after he said the company was in "the last chance saloon".
In a letter to the firm Mr Burnham and the leader of Manchester City Council, Bev Craig, say they welcome Avanti's decision to add extra trains to the timetable for this weekend. But they say they have "serious concerns about the ability of Avanti West Coast to support people wishing to travel between the North West and London both over the coming days to pay their respects to Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and into next month."
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They say that so far this week, there have seen numerous complaints about the quality and availability of services. The decision to add extra trains this weekend "must be accompanied by a significant improvement in customer service if we are to avoid some of the unacceptable scenes we have seen on trains and at stations," says their letter.
The letter adds: "One of the most common concerns being raised is the timely release of seats for people to book. It is extremely disappointing that, this morning, people wishing to travel to London are still unable to book tickets for Saturday 17 September and that tickets for other days around Her Majesty’s funeral have only been released at very short notice. We ask that you urgently make these tickets available for purchase.
"We understand that you are considering chartering services to carry passengers along the West Coast Main Line. Whilst it is clearly regrettable that these services are required, we would ask that information about these additional trains is provided to customers at the earliest opportunity."
The Mayor also asks that given the extra capacity that is needed to cope with demand the company should implement an immediate blanket declassification of the first-class carriages on their trains for the mourning period and make those seats available at standard prices on the booking system.
He adds: "Those people who have been able to travel in recent days have reported many examples of poor service, such as: short-notice cancellations; broken on-board equipment; and short-formed trains, preventing them from taking the seats they had booked.
"These defects are disappointing at any time but are unacceptable when so many people require urgent travel.
We ask that you take urgent steps to address the above issues and ensure that there are sufficient staff on hand to help passengers during the coming period. We also reiterate our request for an urgent plan for the full restoration of the Manchester-London timetable."
Avanti West Coast had previously been running a reduced timetable between the cities due to an "unofficial strike" from staff. But to assist those who wish to travel to London to pay tribute to the late Queen, they are adding 'up to eight additional services a day' on weekdays this week - a total of 16,000 extra seats.
