Spike in complaints by Avanti West Coast and TransPennine Express passengers

Complaints about train operators Avanti West Coast have soared as performance deteriorated, new figures have shown.

Office of Rail and Road (ORR) data revealed that 238.6 complaints were made per 100,000 journeys on Avanti West Coast between July and September last year, up 51.3 per cent from a year earlier.

The operator, which provides services to and from the West Midlands to London, Manchester and Glasgow, has experienced major disruption because of staff shortages as well as later strikes.

It was hit by widespread delays and cancellations over that period, partly due to a sharp decline in the number of drivers voluntarily working on rest days for extra pay.

The proportion of trains that arrived at stations within one minute of the schedule between July and September fell year-on-year by 17 per cent for Avanti West Coast. It reduced its timetables to reduce short-notice cancellations, leading to crowding on services that ran.

Across all train companies in Britain the rate of complaints between July and September was 24.0 per 100,000 journeys. That was down from 29.3 a year earlier.

The total number of complaints for the quarter reached 86,385. This was a rise of 18.8 per cent from the same three months in 2021, coinciding with a 44.9 per cent increase in journeys.

An Avanti West Coast spokesman said: “We know that last summer our customers were not getting the service they deserved and these figures reflect an extremely challenging time. We are sorry for the enormous amount of frustration and inconvenience this caused and we’re grateful for the patience our passengers have shown.

“Over the last few months, our sole focus has been to do everything we can to return to a more resilient operation which delivers more services for our customers and communities. Our new timetable introduced in December has greatly increased the number of services we run and customers are now seeing the benefits of that, with more trains, greater connectivity and tickets on sale much earlier.”

TransPennine Express saw an even larger percentage increase, up 65.4% to 76.9 complaints per 100,000 journeys.

Both operators’ services were hit by widespread delays and cancellations over that period, partly due to a sharp decline in the number of drivers voluntarily working on rest days for extra pay.

The proportion of trains that arrived at stations within one minute of the schedule between July and September fell year-on-year by 17.0% for Avanti West Coast and 10.2% for TransPennine Express.

The companies reduced their timetables to reduce short-notice cancellations.