Avanti West Coast: MP seeks talks over 'shocking' rail service

An MP who was forced to sit on the floor during a recent train journey has said she will be seeking talks over Avanti's West Coast Mainline service.

Conservative Jo Gideon, MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central, said she would be talking to the new rail minister over the "shocking" service.

The government has told the firm it needs to "drastically improve" by next April.

The firm apologised for the "enormous frustration and inconvenience caused".

The MP tweeted an image of herself sitting on the floor of an Avanti service from London to Stoke-on-Trent describing the packed service as "truly unacceptable".

"The level of the service is so shocking now that there isn't a single person along the track who uses it who wouldn't say that the franchise has to be stripped," she said.

"I have spoken a couple of times to the former rail minister and now I'm going to be talking to the new rail minister," she said.

Avanti has come under fire after reducing its timetables in August, with trains between London and Manchester the worst affected.

Services were cut from seven trains per hour to a minimum of four on 14 August and ticket sales were suspended, blaming "severe staff shortages".

The company's contract had been due to expire on 16 October but it was given until 1 April for the government to consider its performance.

"We are giving them a chance to improve, [but] I haven't seen any improvement so far, and I think that they've got a really, really long way to go if they're to convince anybody that they should keep the franchise, " said Ms Gideon.

Avanti said a new timetable would be introduced in December which would see the number of trains increase.

Extra services were also added on the Birmingham and Manchester routes in September.

Mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street, said stripping the franchise with the government stepping in wouldn't "suddenly improve things overnight".

"Much better is if management actually get to grips with the underlying issues," he said.

An Avanti West Coast spokesperson said: "We know we're not delivering the service our customers rightly expect and we apologise for the enormous frustration and inconvenience caused.

"Resolving this situation requires a robust plan that will allow us to gradually increase services without being reliant on traincrew overtime, which fell dramatically in July."

Cancellations had also dropped from nearly 25% at the end of July to 5% for the first three weeks of October, it said.

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