Avanti is still going backwards

If Great British Railways is indeed for the chop, then surely Avanti must go with it.

The extraordinary story of the meltdown of rail services on Britain’s premier main line (sorry East Coast) would be front page news, had it not been for a few other events intervening in our media outlets.

I write this two days before I am due to head to Liverpool for the Labour conference, but checking National Rail Enquiries, I am told that it is impossible to say which of the normal services will be operating on the day I am due to travel. No advance bookings are available, which will fool many people into thinking there are no seats on the train – or worse, that they will not be able to get on.

Transport Focus, which as an official watchdog sometimes appears to be constrained in its criticism, has produced a damning indictment on the company. It cites the unfortunate experience of passengers it surveyed, and it makes for depressing reading. The list includes lack of information, double-booking of reserved seats, reservation systems on trains not activating, many short-notice cancellations occurring, and erratic provision of catering.

This is putting people off using the railways, with many respondents to the Transport Focus survey reporting they had cancelled their rail journeys.

While some of that is clearly down to the drivers’ reluctance to sign on for rest day working, much of it is just down to poor management. An Avanti driver wrote to me privately to say how relations between staff and managers had broken down, with rosters being imposed from above without consultation, and routine meetings between the two sides no longer take place. TF says it wants to see immediate improvements to this poor situation.

I understand that ministers are considering taking away the contract from Avanti - indeed, a decision may have been made by the time this column is published.

There is, of course, embarrassment in Conservative circles that this would leave both main lines between London and Scotland in public hands - an indictment of the system which ministers are committed to change, but, which (as my main piece cites) is stuck in the quagmire of government.

Avanti West Coast 221115/104 head south at Wandel (on the approach to Abington) on March 23, while forming the 0852 Edinburgh Waverley-London Euston. The prospect of having the principal operators on both the East Coast and West Coast Main Lines in public hands will be a source of great embarrassment to the Government, argues Wolmar.