Updated 11.00

Avanti West Coast is to be renationalised on 7 March 2027.

Transport secretary Heidi Alexander is expected to confirm this at the Labour Party Conference.

The contract for AWC was the last of the old franchises to be awarded, to FirstGroup and Trenitalia, and started in December 2019. It was replaced by two short contracts as a result of the Covid pandemic coupled with performance problems at Avanti, and a formal National Rail Contract did not follow until October 2023.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said: ‘For years, people have been expected to put up with Avanti's cancellations, delays, overcrowding, and a service that has failed them time and time again.’

AWC managing director Andy Mellors said: ‘We’re proud of what we’ve achieved over the last six years - from refurbishing our Pendolino fleet and introducing our new Evero trains to running more services than ever before. Together, these improvements have given customers greater choice, more capacity and better connectivity, while we’ve continued to innovate to shape the future of the West Coast and wider rail industry.

‘Over the coming months, we'll work closely with the government to ensure a seamless transition into public ownership while remaining focused on delivering for our customers and communities.’

AWC had often come under fire for a high rate of cancellations, and in March 2024 the Board of Transport for the North called for the contract to be terminated. TfN chair Lord McLoughlin had said: ‘Today’s board was very clear. The performance on the West Coast Main Line by Avanti has been so poor, for so long that action now must be taken.’ In the event, Avanti was allowed to continue.

Meanwhile, the RMT has demanded that Avanti West Coast outsourced staff be bought into direct employment. The union has welcomed the commitment by the government to launch Great British Railways, which will nationalise the network and bring track and trains back together under public ownership.

However, thousands of cleaners, gate line, security staff, infrastructure maintenance, renewal and engineering workers, are being left behind due to being employed by private contractors.

This is despite the Labour government's commitment to undertake ‘the biggest wave of insourcing in a generation’.

The unon said that Avanti currently outsources its security to Amulet, owned by Churchill, its station cleaning to Carlisle, owned by Lord Ashcroft, while its trains are cleaned by private equity owned outsourcing giant OCS, which is currently in the process of buying its fellow conglomerate Mitie.

RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey said that outsourcing companies were ‘raking in over £400 million each year in profits by pushing staff pay and conditions down as low as possible, creating poor morale and repeated disputes’.

When Avanti passes to public control in March, only East Midlands Railway and CrossCountry will remain in private hands. It is known that CrossCountry will be renationalised on 17 October next year, but a changeover date has yet to be announced for East Midlands Railway.

The next renationalisation will be Great Western Railway, on 13 December.

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