The Prime Minister has slammed the 'unacceptable deterioration' in Avanti's railway services.
Avanti, like many other operators, has been hit in recent months by a wave of railway strikes due to disputes over pay. Earlier in the week, the railway operator was forced to delay its mainline to only one train per hour
Speaking at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, Tory former minister Esther McVey said the journey time from Wilmslow in her constituency to London had doubled.
Ms Mcvey said in Parliament:" Now you’d be very lucking if you got a direct train and the journey time is… often double, and that’s not restricted to strike days, that’s day in day out on Avanti trains.” She asked “what the Government’s going to do to sort this out and get the west coast service back to what it used to be because the service at the moment is completely unacceptable”.
Mr Sunak said: “My right honourable friend is absolutely right about the unacceptable deterioration in the quality of Avanti’s service.
“The Transport Secretary is rightly monitoring and holding them to account. There is a plan to increase the number of trains… to more than 100 additional drivers, and restoring the full direct service between Manchester and London.”
He added the plan needs “trade union cooperation”.
To add to the pressure being placed on Avanti and other operators, around 1,000 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) will stage more walkouts in the run-up to Christmas - when travel demand is expected to be higher than usual. Workers who clean trains and railway stations are demanding £15 an hour, company sick pay, decent holidays, and good pensions from contractors.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “Cleaners are an integral part of our railways and it is a national disgrace that many languish on the minimum wage, with no company sick or holiday pay, when they were rightly considered heroes during Covid.
“These companies are raking in millions of pounds worth of profit, and it is high time they handed over a chunk of that money to their hard-working staff rather than rewarding greedy shareholders. Ultimately all contracted out services should be brought back in-house and we will fight tooth and nail for pay justice for our people in this industrial campaign.”
Thousands of trains have been cancelled across northern England at short notice in recent weeks, with TransPennine Express, Avanti and Northern all affected.
Labour mayors from West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Manchester, Liverpool and North Tyneside will urge Trnasport Secretary Mark Harper to improve the situation later on Wednesday.
Speaking ahead of the meeting with Mr Harper in Manchester, West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin said: “Enough is enough. The Transport Secretary has promised to get a grip on this crisis and we welcome that.
“But the people of the North need more than warm words. We need a concrete plan that will get our rail network back on track.
“This chaos is having a devastating impact on the northern economy and our attempts to rebuild from the pandemic, while we try and support our communities against the cost-of-living crisis with record levels of inflation.
“The Secretary of State is the person who can step in and has a fresh opportunity to help solve the problem and that’s exactly what we’ll be telling him today.”
The mayors will call on Mr Harper to do whatever he can to encourage the train companies and trade unions to reach an agreement on rest-day working.
They also want TransPennine Express to be put on a “six-month probation” to raise its performance before its contract is up for renewal in May 2023.
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