Rail services between Manchester and London are to be reduced as the train operator Avanti West Coast blames unofficial strike action”
The Company says that trains between London Euston and Manchester will be among the worst affected, with services cut to just one an hour from every 20 minutes in a timetable now in place “until further notice”.
In a letter to the rail industry, Avanti West Coast managing director Phil Whittingham, wrote the “current industrial relations climate” had resulted in “severe staff shortages in some grades through increased sickness levels, as well as unofficial strike action by Aslef members”.
However Aslef denied that there was any unofficial action, only the strike planned for next Saturday,
Union General Secretary Mike Whelan said of Avanti’s claims:
“They are lying. Avanti does not employ enough drivers to run the services they have promised to run. There is no unofficial action. We’re on strike on 13 August.
The company has also suspended ticket sales for travel from Sunday until 11 September while the new schedule is finalised to minimise the number of people disrupted.
It expects tickets for the first week of that period to be back on sale by the end of this week.
Tickets for the following weeks will be released on a rolling, weekly basis.
