A train operator has admitted it has “failed on reliability” for passengers.
The comments came from Avanti West Coast’s regional growth manager, Mark Osborne, at a meeting of Staffordshire County Council’s overview and scrutiny committee today (17th October).
The company has seen a contract to operate services on the West Coast Main Line through Lichfield Trent Valley extended after improvements were made.
But Cllr Graham Hutton questioned whether things really were getting better for passengers.
The Conservative representative said:
“I was looking at Avanti’s overall performance which was a 47% on time average, compared to the overall average of 69%.
“Given that you’re meant to be one of the best operators on the network, I was a bit surprised it was so low.
“How many people are actually using the train? When we go to London we prefer to drive – it’s cheaper and it’s quicker. I don’t understand why anyone wants to use Avanti these days?
“I was a great fan of Virgin, but the service has gone downhill since Avanti took over. It’s almost pointless taking the train now.”
Cllr Graham Hutton, Staffordshire County Council
Mr Osborne said the company was working hard to rectify historical problems it has faced.
“We knew our services were bad – and there’s a number of reasons for that. Some of it is down to us, some is down to other operators and Network Rail, and some is the wider impact of Covid and industrial action.
“We are seeing a steady return to our passenger numbers. There is still lots of impact such as industrial action that provides an inconsistency. People want reliability – we’ve failed on reliability.
“We’ve been open and honest that we had real problems last year providing a regular and consistent service, and then when we did put something in place that enabled a regular and consistent service it was very busy and we couldn’t provide those cheaper tickets and advanced fares you would have seen under Virgin before.
“We’re progressing with services and pricing and we hope that continues in future months.”
Mark Osborne, Avanti West Coast
The meeting was told about improvement plans such as increased frequency of services and the introduction of a new superfare option which allows people to specify a general time they want to travel and be allocated an empty seat.
Labour’s Cllr Charlotte Atkins said:
“On the new superfare, are you intending to run it through the year and who are you focusing it on? Presumably you’re talking about those retired who can travel whenever they want?
“Are you thinking about including high peak times like summer and Christmas?”
Cllr Charlotte Atkins, Staffordshire County Council
Mr Osborn said:
“We will keep it open. The premise is that there are always trains with empty seats – even during peak periods of the year – and there is an opportunity to sell those seats.
“The market is quite broad. Retired people are one part of it. We also thought it was good for students who can be a bit more time rich and cost sensitive.
“We are introducing it from Manchester and Birmingham and then slowly introducing other destinations.”
Mark Osborne, Avanti West Coast
This is all well and good but I still can’t book a ticket from Trent Valley to Euston say 2 weeks in advance as they are never available on Avanti.
Luckily I only travel for leisure (football??) at the weekend and use London Northwestern instead.
The option to buy advance tickets would help fill their trains maybe?
Biggest issue for me is their lack of services.. you can’t get from Trent Valley to Euston with them between 10:15am and 10:17pm!!
Not a fan of Avanti. Their timetabled services from LTV to London, on Saturdays, have been seriously curtailed which means that LNWR trains are rammed, but worse, their website only offers single, advance and anytime fares – cheaper off-peak returns are hidden away so customers have to go hunting for them, on other sites usually.