Boss of rail operator to step down after chaos on UK’s West Coast line

The boss of Avanti West Coast is to leave the train operator after a month of chaos on one of the UK’s busiest intercity rail lines after the company slashed services because of driver shortages.

Managing director Phil Whittingham will step down on September 15, the company announced on Friday.

Avanti, which runs trains from London to some of the UK’s largest cities such as Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow, cut nearly half of its services in mid-August, blaming “severe” staff shortages. This led to serious overcrowding on trains.

The operator has been reliant on drivers signing on for work on rest days, but against a backdrop of widespread industrial action in the rail industry fewer staff have been prepared to do so in recent months.

The cuts left Avanti operating just four trains per hour from London to cities such as Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The company normally operates seven trains an hour from London, including three to Manchester.

Avanti is a joint venture between UK-listed FirstGroup, which has a 70 per cent stake, and Italian state railway company Trenitalia, which owns the remainder.

The company said Whittingham was leaving to “pursue other executive leadership opportunities”. It added that Steve Montgomery, the boss of FirstGroup’s rail business, would provide “leadership support” until a replacement was found.

The operator has come under increasing pressure from regional politicians, including the mayors of London, Greater Manchester, Liverpool and the West Midlands, which covers Birmingham, to restore full operations to services that link the UK’s most important economic centres.

Andy Burnham, the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, has called on the Conservative government to strip Avanti of its contract unless it can come up with a plan to return to a normal timetable by Saturday. He blamed the operator’s management last week and said it had “let down” both customers and staff.

The contract is due for renewal in October, but industry executives do not expect ministers to intervene, pointing out that the timetable changes were agreed in advance with the transport department.

The West Coast contract to run trains on the West Coast mainline includes planning services for the controversial high-speed rail line, known as HS2, that is under construction. The government is seeking to draw on Trenitalia’s experience of operating high-speed rail services in Italy, which would potentially complicate any intervention by ministers.

Like many parts of the rail industry, Avanti’s operations are heavily reliant on staff agreeing to work on days off, with as many as 400 trains per week operated by drivers working overtime in recent years.

The company angered unions in August when it blamed the driver shortage on “unofficial strike action” after a large number of drivers pulled out of overtime shifts simultaneously. Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, has also blamed unions for the disruption.

Shapps said timetable changes “became unavoidable” when drivers “suddenly and en-masse” stopped volunteering for overtime, in a letter written last month to Burnham and his fellow Labour mayors of London and Liverpool, Sadiq Khan and Steve Rotheram.

Drivers’ union Aslef has rejected any suggestion that the action was co-ordinated by the union. It welcomed Whittingham’s departure and said in a statement: “We look forward to working with a new MD who can deliver for passengers and staff.”

Avanti is in the process of hiring more drivers, but there appears to be no quick fix to the disruption, unless a significant number of existing staff agree to restart overtime.

The problems on the West Coast mainline come amid a worsening of industrial relations across the rail industry, which has led to a series of national strikes over the summer. More disruption is expected later this month after the three big rail unions, including Aslef, announced further walkouts.

The UK government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.