Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has written to the Transport Secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, regarding the ongoing service disruption to Avanti West Coast trains.
While last month, Avanti published plans to restore service levels to three trains per hour between Manchester and Stockport and London from mid-December, Andy Burnham has told the Transport Secretary he will not support a contract renewal for the train company unless further progress is made before 11th December on service frequency and standards.
In his letter, published on social media, Andy Burnham highlights poor levels of reliability being reported by customers, despite claims by Avanti that the service reduction was necessary to reduce last-minute cancellations and delays due to staffing challenges. He also called for the Transport Secretary to support him in calling for improvements to ticketing, ensuring bookings can be made further in advance for services, as well as train maintenance.
The Mayor called for the introduction of a second service each hour by the end of October 2022 as a staging post to full restoration of the timetable as planned; Andy Burnham wrote:
“Unless this happens and is clearly communicated, train travel between our most important economic regions will continue to be chaotic, forcing people into their cars or into abandoning plans to travel entirely.
“Without this commitment [for a consistent two trains per hour service], I will be unable to support a new contract for Avanti.”
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