Under-fire Avanti West Coast has reported a 'huge increase in capacity', with 93 trains per day now said to be leaving north and south from Manchester. Bosses have reported a 'vastly reduced' level of cancellations recently, although acknowledging some trains were still being taken out of service.
The operator's timetable alterations in December were described by a senior manager as 'the biggest improvement and change to the timetable on the West Coast Mainline since 2008' - and he said there was 'no reason' why the current three trains per hour service from Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston would change.
Avanti announced in August it was cutting the number of trains between Euston and Piccadilly from one every 20 minutes to one an hour 'until further notice', saying it had acted in the wake of industrial action 'to ensure a reliable service is delivered so customers can travel with greater certainty'.
The company said it would use the national timetable changes to relaunch a 'stable and deliverable' three trains an hour service that wasn't reliant on rest day working or overtime, saying it now had more drivers 'in the business than ever before'.
Avanti West Coast has been given until April 1 to improve its services following the reduction of its trains in the summer, partly due to sharp decline in the number of drivers voluntarily working on rest days for extra pay.
The update comes as new figures show complaints about Avanti soared as performance deteriorated. Office of Rail and Road (ORR) data revealed that 238.6 complaints were made per 100,000 journeys on Avanti West Coast between July and September last year, up 51.3 per cent from a year earlier.
Nick Smith, Regional Growth Manager at the West Coast Partnership, addressed councillors on the Metrolink and rail sub-committee of the Greater Manchester Transport Committee.
He said: "From Avanti's point of view, there was a timetable change in December 2022 and it saw us step up our services to seven trains an hour out of Euston. It's the biggest improvement and change to the timetable on the West Coast Mainline since 2008.
"We recognise that the performance over the last year has not been great and we apologise for the inconvenience and the disruption that has been caused to passengers on a regular, daily basis, and the frustrations that it has caused, both when people have been planning their journeys and also when they have been sat on trains and cancellations have come through."
The timetable, he said, wasn't dependent on rest-day working.
"We can deliver that in a sustainable way moving forward," Mr Smith added. "It moves us from short term planning to a more stable and long-term plan. We have a base now in place. We are up to about 93 services per day now, north and south from Manchester, so a huge increase in capacity."
He said the new timetable had been a 'challenge' mainly due to ongoing industrial action by unions, the Christmas period and 'weather incidents'. "This is the first week that we can start to really make a judgement on how well we are doing," he said. "The levels of cancellations have been vastly reduced over the last couple of days.
"Broadly we are providing more services into and out of Manchester across the day. Where we do see cancellations, we are not seeing a longer time between trains so hopefully we will see a reduction in overcrowding which we were possibly seeing before Christmas when there was multiple cancellations one after another.
"Hopefully we will start to see a better picture. The trains are there for people to see and the trains are there for people to book. We will always look at demand patterns and how our services are being used - Manchester is up to three per hour and there is no reason why that would change over the next 12 months."
Mr Smith went on to be quizzed over staff morale, with one councillor saying it was at 'rock bottom' and asking what was being done about it. Mr Smith said work was happening and he would bring details to a later meeting.
A project to refurbish the entire fleet of Avanti's Pendalino trains, meanwhile, is due to complete early next year, he revealed.
Avanti West Coast - the brand name for a partnership between transport company FirstGroup and Italian firm Trenitalia - have run services on the West Coast Main Line route from December 2019 after the demise of Virgin Trains. The 400-mile train network links London with towns and cities across England, north Wales and Scotland.
On the complaints figures, an Avanti West Coast spokesman said: "We know that last summer our customers were not getting the service they deserved and these figures reflect an extremely challenging time. We are sorry for the enormous amount of frustration and inconvenience this caused and we’re grateful for the patience our passengers have shown.
"Over the last few months, our sole focus has been to do everything we can to return to a more resilient operation which delivers more services for our customers and communities. Our new timetable introduced in December has greatly increased the number of services we run and customers are now seeing the benefits of that, with more trains, greater connectivity and tickets on sale much earlier."
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