Northern leaders call for Avanti West Coast contract cancellation

TRANSPORT for the North (TfN) officially passed a motion to write to Secretary of State for Transport Mark Harper, asking for Avanti West Coast to have its contract removed ‘at the earliest possible opportunity’.

The motion was passed on March 20, and followed the submission of a report to the TfN Board that stated: “a continuation of the current situation is unacceptable to the North.”

Speculation also suggested that around the same time of the motion being passed AWC would lose its contract, with the Department for Transport (DfT) taking over and adding AWC to the list of ‘nationalised’ operators. That didn’t happen.

TfN considered two options. One was to set a target for improvement by June or face ‘further measures’, or to terminate the contract straight away.

TfN chair Lord McLoughlin said: “The board was very clear. The performance on the West Coast Main Line by Avanti has been so poor, for so long, that action must now be taken.

“We will be writing statutory advice to the secretary of state, calling for Avanti to be relieved of its contract.

The travelling public deserve a service they can rely on. But Avanti has fallen far too short of expectations for far too long now.”

In a debate on delays to rail reform and associated costs on

March 21, Rail Minister Huw Merriman was asked by the shadow transport minister if the Government would strip AWC of its contract. Mr Merriman said: “No, we will not. The reason is that there are issues with the West Coast Main Line that will remain, regardless of who the operator is. It is essential to get underneath the bonnet, look at the issues and fix them, rather than looking just at what is on the side of the car. To take just one four-week period from Christmas, 65% of the delays in that period were down not to the operator but Network Rail, and they involved weather-related issues as well as trespass and, sadly, suicides, which we need to minimise.”

He also went on to claim that AWC was “unique” because “drivers will not double-trip” and tried to blame the agreement of the contract in 1997, when Virgin Trains won the franchise, for that situation.