Asked by
To ask His Majesty’s Government how they justify further
extending the contract for Avanti West Coast, given its service
record over the last six months.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Transport () (Con)
My Lords, Avanti was awarded a six-month contract in October 2022
to provide the opportunity for its recovery plan to yield
demonstrable improvements. It has done this, with services
increased and delays and cancellations reduced. In this next
six-month period, Avanti will need to do more to win back
passengers with a reliable and dependable service. With
accountability comes the chance to put things right.
(LD)
I thank the Minister for another magnificent effort in defending
the indefensible. My question is quite simple. Will she agree to
meet with me, as a frequent flyer on Avanti trains, to hear the
other side of the coin? Tuesday’s Hansard reports her commenting
that not all train delays are due to Avanti, which is true. The
other side of the coin is that Avanti has completely changed the
rosters and rotas for staff. They are now on 10 and 11-hour
shifts, meaning that they have a 20-minute window at any station
they land at before leaving it. If the train is 30 minutes late,
there is no time to change. The next train is then late, and it
is an ever-decreasing circle. This is affecting the staff.
The Minister also commented about sickness levels. Staff on
Avanti trains feel undervalued and overworked, which cannot be a
recipe for an outward-facing railway system. If Avanti cannot
treat its staff with respect when all they want to do is give us
a good service, somebody else should be looking after that
railway system.
(Con)
I would be very happy to meet with the noble Lord to discuss
Avanti, but I hope to offer him something slightly better—a
meeting with the Rail Minister. I will extend that offer to all
noble Lords so that we might discuss the issues that they are
experiencing on Avanti. He might be able to reassure the noble
Lord that we are taking these issues very seriously and want
Avanti to put them right.
(Lab)
My Lords, as a Scottish user of Avanti, I hope the Minister
understands the despair that we felt when we heard this decision.
On the west coast, we look in envy at the east coast trains. Can
she explain why the west coast line was not taken into public
ownership after such a disastrous performance?
(Con)
I am aware of some of the challenges of travelling down the west
coast from Scotland. Many of them are due to infrastructure
changes happening in the north of England. Sometimes it is
tempting to compare the west coast with the east coast. One other
element of the east coast that is worth thinking about is that it
has competition. There are open-access operators on the east
coast as well. That is a contributing factor to making the
services better all round.
(Con)
My Lords, my noble friend will be aware of the severe delays and
disruption caused by TransPennine Express, which seems to be
competing very well with Avanti on its record. Will she update
the House on the Government’s plans for a possible renewal of
such a hopeless operator? Will it be allowed more time, or will
it be put out to tender for other franchise operators?
(Con)
The current contract for TransPennine Express comes to an end on
28 May. It too is under a recovery plan, but TransPennine Express
and Avanti have one thing in common that no other train operating
company shares: they have suffered the immediate and simultaneous
withdrawal of rest-day working by the trade unions. That has had
an enormous impact on their services. It is worth bearing in mind
that no other train operating company has had that.
Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)
My Lords, it is disappointing to hear the Minister again blaming
the workforce for the problems of Avanti. Rail passengers in the
north-west and Wales will have greeted the six-month extension to
Avanti’s contract with incredulity. Over the past six months it
has broken records for delays and cancellations yet,
astonishingly, earlier this week the Times reported that the
Government could offer Avanti a further 10-year extension at the
end of this six-month extension. Can the Minister please now rule
this out?
(Con)
I am absolutely not blaming the workforce here. I have never said
that I was, but the noble Baroness will be unsurprised to hear
that I am putting a little blame at the door of the trade unions.
On the process for the next round of contracts for the west
coast—because there will have to be a contract—the publication of
the 10-year period was a statutory notice. Should it go to
Avanti, the six-month contracts would be taken off it. Should it
go to another operator, it might be for up to 10 years. The noble
Baroness should not read too much into it; it could be any period
up to 10 years.
The Lord
My Lords, as a fellow traveller on Avanti, often in the same
coach as the noble Lord, Lord Goddard, I agree entirely with his
comments. It is not only that trains are delayed or cancelled;
sometimes the services on those trains are not provided,
particularly food. These are long journeys and often at the very
last moment, when you are sitting on the train and have been told
that there will be food, you are then told, “We haven’t been able
to load the food; there are no refreshments on the journey”. Can
we please bear in mind that it is a whole service? The staff are
wonderful, but they are labouring against impossible
circumstances at the moment.
(Con)
The right reverend Prelate is entirely right. That is one of the
things on which we hold Avanti to account. Passenger experience
is at the heart of what we want to do with our railway system,
and as we look to the future for Avanti, and indeed for all train
operating companies, passenger experience is one of the key
things that they are judged on.
(LD)
My Lords, since Avanti has been rewarded with more after such a
record of failure, what incentive is there for other train
operating companies to maintain the highest standards and to
improve? When the Minister gave us her answers on the Statement
the day before yesterday, she was not specific. Can she make
clear now whether Avanti will face financial penalties for its
failures over recent months?
(Con)
All train operating companies face financial penalties or
financial jeopardy from their performance, as all train operating
companies have performance fees. When the current period comes to
an end at the end of March, there will be an independent
evaluation of Avanti’s performance, and performance fees will be
set accordingly. Two issues really impact performance at the
moment—the ongoing issues around train crew and availability, and
growing concerns around infrastructure, which is why our reforms
to bring track and train closer together are so vital.
(Lab)
My Lords, is the Minister aware that in the last quarter of 2022,
Avanti achieved a historic low, with only 45% of its trains on
time? Sad character that I am, I have looked back through the
statistics on train travel on the west coast main line. That 45%
low never happened under British Rail, the London, Midland and
Scottish Railway or the London and North Western Railway. I gave
up when it came to the London and Birmingham Railway in the 19th
century because I was bored with my own research. Is it fair or
right that, despite that historic low, taxpayers should fund
dividends to shareholders and bonuses to management while those
of us who travel regularly on Avanti would rather walk than catch
a train?
(Con)
I am delighted to be able to tell the noble Lord that currently
90% of Avanti trains arrive within 15 minutes of their scheduled
arrival time. That is up from 75% in early January. I am sure
that noble Lords can see the trajectory. The dividend to which he
refers related to a financial period to March 2021, well over two
years ago now and not related to the current performance issues.
(Lab)
My Lords, I have been travelling on the west coast line for more
than 40 years. Admittedly this is anecdotal, but my experience
was that until Covid the service was actually quite good on
Avanti. So was Virgin before Avanti. It was certainly better than
the east coast line, quite apart from the fact that the east
coast line went to Edinburgh whereas the west coast line went to
the fair city of Glasgow.
Twice the Minister has mentioned infrastructure problems.
Historically that was the problem with the east coast line, but
there was sufficient investment to improve it. What is the nature
of the infrastructure problems on the west coast line and why
have they not been dealt with in the 13 years that the Government
have been in charge?
(Con)
The Government are putting record investment into our railway
infrastructure. There are two issues around infrastructure. The
first is the long-term plans that need to be put in place to
upgrade it, but there are also short-term issues. For example,
overnight there was cable theft at Wolverhampton. Cable theft is
not Avanti’s fault, but it has caused some of its trains to be
delayed this morning. We have to clamp down on the short-term
problems but also continue to invest in the west coast main line,
which is exactly what we are doing.
