My meeting with Avanti West Coast, and why we need to end the chaos and waste of private rail
Like many Stockport residents, I am deeply concerned about the poor state of Stockport train station and the underperformance of Avanti West Coast, the rail company that manages the station, more widely.
The issue does not, of course, lie with hardworking railway workers in Stockport, who I am grateful to for their dedicated service to our community. Avanti West Coast are failing to deliver because we have a broken privatised rail system, which holds the idea that private profits should be prioritized before the interests of the public as an organising principle.
We also have a government that is either unwilling or unable to hold failing private rail companies to account. Rather than ensure that these companies are delivering on their contracts and providing the services that our country needs, the Conservative Government has a policy of rewarding them with renewed contracts. This means that there is little incentive for private rail companies to deliver a functioning service that represents value for money for the public. Rail bosses are laughing all the way to the bank, literally - a recently leaked internal Avanti presentation joked about all this “free money” from the taxpayer being “too good to be true”.
A Labour government will end this chaos by bringing our railways back into public ownership, where they have always belonged. This will deliver a public transport system in which the interests of the public are put first, reversing the spiralling fares and extreme unreliability that the Conservatives have presided over.
The absence of a competent government with the capacity to hold rail companies accountable underlines the responsibility of MPs to closely monitor services in their communities and raise issues on behalf of their constituents.
As well as being an outspoken critic of the current system in Parliament, I recently met with Avanti West Coast to highlight its poor performance in Stockport and demand that action be taken to improve its service. I want to share the key points that I raised with Avanti, and their responses, with my constituents.
We discussed:
The unacceptably high number of delayed and cancelled Avanti trains.
In response, Avanti acknowledged there have been issues with the reliability of their services. They stated that the company is recruiting and training more drivers but that this process can take around 18 months to complete. I will monitor developments to see if this leads to the improvement that Avanti must achieve.
The fact that train tickets bought at the ticket machine are often more expensive than tickets bought online.
Avanti accepted that this discrepancy exists but stressed that they will not be closing the ticket office at Stockport station, where cheaper tickets can often be bought.
Whilst this is true, as the plan to close many of Britain’s train ticket offices was dropped in October 2023 due to widespread backlash, this does not negate the issue of the cost difference between online versus machine-bought tickets. I will seek to raise this with the Department for Transport.
The poor condition of Stockport train station, with its frequently out-of-order lifts, broken entrance doors, leaking roofs, waterlogged platforms, and peeling walls.
Avanti advised that they were going to fit a new door at the ticket office entrance and that the technology issues affecting the lift had been repaired. Unfortunately, only a few days after this meeting, I found out that the lift was once again out-of-order. I raised this matter with Avanti as soon as it was brought to my attention, and the lift was repaired again.
Avanti stated that the subway area of the station suffers from damp as it runs underneath the train track. They pledged to repaint the walls once the damp has been resolved. I will monitor this situation to ensure this work takes place as soon as possible.
Avanti’s poor onboard hospitality, including poor Wi-Fi and a lack of a catering carriage or trolley on many services (indicative of cuts to Avanti’s catering workforce).
Avanti stated that they are undertaking a programme of improvements to their onboard services, such as introducing water and coffee machines and air conditioning. Avanti did not respond to my comments about cuts to catering staff. Moreover, the company’s announcement this week that they plan to make their onboard catering service cashless threatens more jobs, as well as the accessibility of the service for people who rely on cash. I will be writing to the Secretary of State for Transport to raise this.
I am glad that Avanti was willing to accept that there are issues with their service and outlined some of the improvements they plan to make. I will keep track of future developments to make sure that Avanti lives up to these commitments.
Nevertheless, I think that much more investment is required to ensure that the people of Stockport have access to an efficient rail service that delivers value for money. For this, we need a General Election, so that the public can elect a Labour government with a plan to take the transformational action that is needed to repair our broken private rail system.
