People struggling on their journeys on the Avanti West Coast line will be dismayed to hear reports that the Company will not lose the franchise to run the service despite its poor record
According to a report in the FT Ministers have found no legal grounds to strip operator of contract early under Labour’s nationalisation plans
The paper says:
“legal advice provided to the Department for Transport concluded that the operator was not in breach of its performance obligations, people familiar with the findings said.
One of the people said the company’s most recent contract had been drawn up in such a way that it was very difficult to breach on performance grounds.”
This is despite its continued poor performance with continued delays, cancellations, and overall service quality.
At the end of last year, Transport leaders in the North of England meeting in Manchester wrote to the then Transport Secretary to say that overall current levels of service being provided by the train operator Avanti is inadequate and unacceptable.
In the run up to this year’s General Election The Labour Party promised to urgently look at stripping the train contract from Avanti West Coast if it wins the election
The then Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh claimed the company has provided “woeful service” on the West Coast Main Line.
Haigh indicated that she believes Avanti West Coast is in breach of its contract due to “woeful service” provision.
Office of Rail and Road figures then showed Avanti West Coast had the third worst reliability of all operators in Britain in the year to the end of March, with the equivalent of one in 15 trains (6.9%) cancelled
