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Avanti West Coast (AWC) should have its licence to operate the West Coast Main Line route removed “at the earliest possible opportunity,” Transport for the North (TfN) has said.
The group, which represents leaders from transport, business and politics across the north of England, said that passengers have endured months of poor performance from the operator.
“A continuation of the current situation is unacceptable to the north,” a report to the TfN board stated.
It considered two options including setting a target for improvement by June or immediately terminating the contract for poor performance. It opted for the latter after hearing from Avanti’s managing director Steve Montgomery.
TfN plans to write to transport secretary Mark Harper calling for the AWC contract to be terminated and replaced with the operator of last resort (OLR) – a public body that operates rail franchises when a train operating company is no longer able to do so.
Since rail privatisation in the mid-1990s, there have been nine occasions when an OLR has been appointed, and there are currently six such operators in England, Wales and Scotland.
The performance of previous franchises taken over by the OLR has tended to improve, but not in all cases.
In an appearance at the Transport Select Committee in September, rail minister Huw Merriman admitted that the OLR was currently running its franchises well, with the performance across four operators improving last year.
In December, TfN wrote to Harper asking him to instruct officials to conduct a critical review into AWC’s operations after it announced a number of cuts to services over the busy Christmas period.
Following the decision, TfN chairman Lord McLoughlin said: “Today’s board was very clear. The performance on the West Coast Main Line by Avanti has been so poor for so long that action now must be taken.
“We will be writing statutory advice today to the secretary of state calling for Avanti to be relieved of its contract. The travelling public deserve a service they can rely on. But Avanti has fallen far too short of expectations for far too long now.”
A Department for Transport (DfT) spokesman said: “Stripping Avanti’s contract would just cause more upheaval for passengers rather than solving the challenges the operator is facing.
“These include restrictive working practices that can’t be reformed without Aslef’s agreement.”
If it wins the next election, the Labour Party has pledged to bring the railways into public ownership as private contracts expire, meaning all operators would be in public ownership within five years.
