Traffic & Transport
Avanti West Coast to cut one in seven trains on its busiest intercity routes | Rail industry
Avanti West Coast is to cut about one in seven trains on its busiest intercity routes this summer to reduce costs.
The train operator said it was reducing its timetable between London Euston and Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester in response to a government request to lower spending.
It normally runs 248 daily services on the affected routes, and will remove 38 weekday trains from the timetable during the summer months when demand is lower.
The Department for Transport (DfT), led by the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, has approved the revised timetable, which will take effect from 20 July.
The affected trains will be removed from the schedules before becoming available for advance ticket purchases online.
The threatened 7.00am Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston fast service, reinstated after an uproar in December, will remain running.
The government has been looking to reduce the overall spend on rail, with annual net funding having remained at about £12bn in the years since the Covid pandemic.
Avanti said the “demand-led timetabling” would only affect routes where there were alternative trains to cause minimal disruption, and should not reduce revenue.
The operator, which runs fast intercity trains between London and Glasgow on the west coast mainline, has by some distance the worst punctuality record in national rail, according to the latest statistics from the Office of Rail and Road.
However, surveys suggest customer satisfaction has improved, and Avanti has greatly increased the number of services running since its Covid troubles, when drivers refused to work overtime and it was forced to slash its timetable.
An Avanti West Coast spokesperson said: “From 20 July to 28 August, we will be operating an amended timetable between London and Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester on weekdays.
“To ensure minimal impact to those travelling between the affected dates, these changes will only affect routes on which we operate more than one train per hour, during typically less busy periods of the day – maximising alternative journey options.
“We’d like to encourage customers planning to make journeys during this time to plan ahead, and thank them for their understanding.”
A DfT spokesperson said: “The secretary of state has accepted Avanti’s short-term proposals to amend its weekday summer timetable, when passenger numbers are considerably lower and many trains run with large numbers of empty seats.
“This will save taxpayers’ money while still meeting passenger demand for seats.”
Train services run by Avanti are expected to be nationalised early in 2027, as the government returns operations to public ownership under Great British Railways.
The operator said the latest reduction in services is not because of a lack of resources.
Like all remaining franchised train operators, it is tightly contracted to the DfT. Avanti has had a chequered history with state funding, which was described in slides leaked from an internal management meeting in 2024 as “free money”.
Traffic & Transport
Rail passengers face second day of disruption across north-west England | Rail transport
Rail passengers are facing a second day of travel disruption across parts of north-west England, after a power failure hit the signalling centre controlling the railway in the region.
The power failure, which occurred shortly before 2pm on Thursday, triggered widespread cancellations and delays to services including CrossCountry and London Northwestern Railway.
Operators whose services continued to be affected on Friday morning were Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, Northern, TransPennine Express (TPE) and Transport for Wales.
National Rail said this morning that although trains are now able to operate, there could be delays until noon as several trains and crew are in the wrong locations for the start of service today.
“This means that some trains are still expected to be affected this morning. Trains across the Greater Manchester area and north-west of England may still be cancelled in full or revised to only run for part of their normal journey until service is able to fully recover,” it said.
Northern Rail has advised passengers not to travel before 10am today. TPE has told its passengers should prepare for disruption before midday today, with delays and cancellations to be expected.
Greater Manchester, the Midlands and north-west England were hit the hardest by the rail disruption, with thousands of passengers unable to complete their journeys.
The facility in Manchester that experienced the outage was one of 12 operating centres designed to eventually manage the entire British rail network, Network Rail said when it opened in 2014.
A wartime bomb was also discovered near the railway between Tamworth and Burton-on-Trent, which deepened disruption on Thursday, National Rail said.
Chris Wright, Network Rail’s north-west route director, said: “I’d like to thank passengers for their patience after yesterday’s power outage and the disruption it caused across the north-west.
“Our engineers worked through the night to restore signalling systems and recover the railway, and I’m pleased that most services are now running this morning.
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“While some passengers may still experience disruption, we’re continuing to work closely with train operators to return services to normal as quickly as possible. Anyone planning to travel this morning should continue to check before they travel for the latest information.”
Andy Bowes-Roden, deputy editor at Modern Railways magazine, told BBC Radio 5 Live there would be “quite a lot of disruption this morning easing throughout the day”.
“Hopefully by rush hour the service will be back to normal, but it won’t be until tomorrow morning that this will be sorted,” he said. “As rail passengers, we are lucky. We have protections and the railways are obliged to get us where they promise to get us. But there will be an awful lot of refunds.”
Traffic & Transport
Brits in Majorca face traffic chaos on August 12 – mopeds and cars restrictions in place
Motor restrictions will be in place in just a few days on the holiday island loved by Brits.
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Traffic & Transport
Trains stop across north-west England after power cut hits signalling centre | Rail transport
Trains across parts of north-west England have ground to a halt after a power failure hit the signalling centre controlling the railway in the region.
Passengers awaiting Northern and TransPennine trains have been advised not to travel, with widespread cancellations and other services delayed by more than an hour already.
The National Rail enquiries website warned passengers of major disruption after the incident on Thursday afternoon, with trains in the Greater Manchester area, the Midlands and the north-west of England most affected.
A spokesperson said: “This is expected to cause major disruption until the end of the day. If you’re travelling with Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, London Northwestern, Northern, TransPennine Express, or Transport for Wales in the affected area your train may be cancelled, delayed, or revised.
“Please allow extra time to make your journey this afternoon as you may need to use an alternative route or change trains part-way through to reach your destination.”
Trains were stopped after a power cut just before 2pm in the Greater Manchester area where the Manchester Rail Operating Centre is located. An emergency generator did not start in time to maintain signalling operations.
Although power has been restored, safety protocols required a controlled restart of the systems at the centre. Trains are beginning to run but Network Rail said disruption would continue to affect any services running through the region.
Chris Wright, the north-west route director at National Rail, said: “We’re sorry to passengers impacted by a power issues in Manchester which is causing significant delays to trains through the city. While some services are now running major disruption is expected for the rest of the day. I’d urge anyone planning to travel to check National Rail enquiries for the latest information.”
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Passengers travelling within Greater Manchester have been told they can use any Bee Network bus or Metrolink service at no extra cost.
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