We are sadly used, in the North of England, to dealing with unreliable train services on creaking infrastructure. But when a heritage train company’s launch of a once-a-week locomotive service between Manchester Piccadilly and London is seen as a serious rival to the mainstream offering, you know you're in trouble.
Over recent years, it seems operators in the north have been competing for the title of 'most cancelled', but Avanti West Coast could be on track for first place. They took over from Virgin Trains to run the West Coast Mainline between London, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow in 2019, stating they were ‘on a mission to take the services you know and love and make them better.” Perhaps, as passengers deal with slashed routes and suspended ticket sales amid ‘severe staff shortages’, that statement should have ended with ‘know’.
Because, for a firm which promised 263 more services every week by 2022, things are not going well. It had a cancellation score of 16.2pc between June 26 and July 23 - the highest in any recorded period for the West Coast franchise in records dating back to 2014.
