Like England Test cricketers cowardly praying for rain, Avanti West Coast, the operator of trains on Britain’s main intercity artery, could well be thanking the heavens for the latest intervention to mask its failures.
A nationwide drivers’ strike coinciding with the Conservative conference in Birmingham in October will at least provide a handy excuse when thousands of London-based ministers, MPs, their political aides and other influential visitors are confronted with the extraordinary prospect of not being able to book a train between the UK’s two largest cities.
