Avanti West Coast is to cut the number of services it operates in December because of staff shortages, reducing weekend train frequency on one of Britain’s main intercity lines before Christmas.
The Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, described the news as a “kick in the teeth”, with the operator confirming the decision only weeks after it was awarded a nine-year contract by the government, after having been put on notice to improve its performance.
Avanti will cut back trains running between London, Birmingham, Manchester and north Wales, including running only two trains an hour between the capital and Manchester on Saturdays in December.
The company was running as few as one train an hour on its main intercity routes in 2022, after it admitted it could no longer operate its schedule because of a shortage of drivers.
Although Avanti has since recovered – to the point where ministers felt able to reappoint the First Group-Trenitalia joint venture to run the service in the long term, after two short-term extensions – it has still not got back the goodwill of drivers, whose refusal to work rest days has left it short-staffed.
The December timetable cuts are a pre-emptive move for a period when drivers’ holiday requests and sickness are expected to be highest, and are services on which no tickets have yet been sold.
An Avanti spokesperson said: “From 9 December to 31 December we will be removing a small number of services from our timetable, to enable us to run a more reliable service for our customers, and minimise unplanned, short-notice cancellations. This is a temporary measure and we’re sorry for any inconvenience to our customers.”
The firm has also recently refurbished its Pendolino fleet, adding more seats overall, and said it was still confident of having enough capacity.
The news come in the same week that TransPennine Express confirmed it would be cutting 20 trains a day from December in order to “reset” the service. Direct trains between Leeds and Manchester will be reduced from four to three an hour. It follows Rishi Sunak’s decision to axe the northern leg of the new HS2 rail line, between Birmingham and Manchester, which caused fury among northern civic leaders.
Burnham said Avanti “should have been left on probation”.
He added: “People in Greater Manchester deserve a stable, predictable rail service between here and London and it is simply not acceptable that, once again, it is being chopped and changed in this way.
“This decision will see a significant reduction in levels of service between Manchester and London in the crucial period running up to Christmas, impacting on visitor numbers to the city and making it harder for people to get home to see their family.
“This is no way to run a railway and our city-region deserves so much better. It is one kick in the teeth after another.”
Circumstances outside Avanti’s control caused big delays for some passengers on Friday, including the closure of the line north of Preston because of flooding from Storm Babet.
