Rail boss steps down amid Avanti timetable cuts

Managing Director of rail operator, Avanti West Coast, Phil Whittingham, has announced he will step down from the role, amid ongoing staffing challenges for the firm that has seen it cut its timetable to just a single hourly each way from Stockport.

Phil Whittingham transferred to Avanti West Coast, as Managing Director, from Virgin West Coast Trains Limited following the rail franchise change process following 23 year career in various roles on the railway. He will step down as Managing Director from 15th September.

Avanti West Coast is a joint operation between FirstGroup and Italian state rail operator, Trenitalia. Commenting on his departure, First Rail Managing Director, Steve Montgomery said:

“Having led the team through the challenges presented by the pandemic over the last two years and into the recovery period, Phil leaves with the team ready for the challenges in delivering the future service requirements. I would like to thank Phil and wish him well in the future.”

Mr Montgomery will support Avanti with executive leadership until a replacement is announced.

The West Coast Mainline rail operator has cut its timetable to four hourly trains across its whole network, with just one service each hour from London Euston to Stockport and Manchester Piccadilly as train drivers are no longer working voluntary overtime shifts on rest days amid ongoing pay negotiations between train operators and the RMT and Aslef unions.

Amid the ongoing disruption, and previous performance that has seen Avanti named among the worst performing rail operators, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is expected to renew the company’s contract to run the West Coast Mainline franchise, despite calls from the Greater Manchester Mayor, among others, to do otherwise.

Speaking on Saturday 3rd September, city-region mayor Andy Burnham said:

“Avanti West Coast has failed to deliver on their commitment to explain how they will restore services between Manchester and London and failed to bring the stability to the timetable which they promised. Every day that this continues is a day of damage to the Greater Manchester economy and it cannot be allowed to continue.

“Weeks ago, the company tried to blame their workers for the problems. However, their inability to produce a rescue plan by the deadline we set has flushed out the truth – it is managers, not the workers, who are responsible for the chaos. In their desperation to blame the unions for everything, the government has let this company off the hook and let passengers down.

“This is a company being paid millions of pounds to operate trains on the West Coast Main Line but is only delivering a threadbare service and a very poor one at that. They have to be held to account. So far, Greater Manchester has been doing that alone, but I am now urging the incoming Prime Minister and Transport Secretary to sit down with us and sort this out. This service is critical to our country’s economy and we need to fix it together.

“For Avanti, this is the last chance saloon. They need to understand the urgency of the situation. They should today be making a full public apology for their failures and providing a detailed explanation of the steps they are taking to fix things. Anything less is further evidence that they don’t deserve the privilege of running the UK’s most important train line.”