Government accused of ‘rewarding failure’ over new Avanti West Coast contract

The operator has struggled with reliability and punctuality during parts of the past year.

A Government decision to grant a short-term contract renewal to Avanti West Coast has been condemned by Labour and trade unions (Luciana Guerra/PA) (PA Archive)

A Government decision to grant a short-term contract renewal to Avanti West Coast has been condemned by Labour and trade unions.

The operator has struggled with reliability and punctuality during parts of the past year.

It was forced to provide an improvement plan to the Department for Transport (DfT) as part of a six-month contract renewal which was due to expire at the end of March.