Avanti West Coast (AWC) increased its services from Monday, 28th February in response to increased demand from passengers returning to rail on its Manchester and West Midlands routes.
The service improvements have introduced a second hourly service to and from London Euston, which has seen an increase in AWC services on the West Coast Main Line operation to six trains per hour.
The current Monday to Friday timetable now provides:
- Two services per hour to Manchester Piccadilly, with one calling at Milton Keynes, Stoke-on-Trent, Macclesfield, and Stockport., and one calling at Crewe, Wilmslow, and Stockport.;
- Two services per hour to Birmingham New Street, with one service continuing in alternate hours to Blackpool/Preston and Edinburgh. One service calls at Watford Junction, Milton Keynes, Rugby, Coventry, and Birmingham International, whilst the second service calls at Milton Keynes, Coventry, Birmingham International, and Birmingham New Street, then continues to Sandwell and Dudley, Wolverhampton, Crewe, Warrington, Wigan, and Preston.
- One service per hour to Glasgow Central calling at Warrington, Wigan, Preston, Lancaster, Oxenholme/Penrith and Carlisle. ;
- One service per hour to Liverpool Lime Street calling at Stafford, Crewe, and Runcorn.;
- Between London and North Wales, there are now two direct services each day;
- Between Holyhead and Crewe, a shuttle service is in operation;
- Shrewsbury and Wrexham are both served by one return service per day.
A further timetable change is planned to take place on Sunday, 15 May, when a further increase to the number of services on the network is planned.
Phil Whittingham, Managing Director at Avanti West Coast, added: “As Covid restrictions are eased and people are returning to rail, we are pleased to announce a phased increase in service levels in line with demand.
“Avanti West Coast remains committed to supporting the ongoing recovery of our economy and the communities we serve, whilst enabling our customers to travel with confidence. We will continue to monitor demand and work with governments and industry partners to ensure we strike the right balance between connectivity and value for money for taxpayers.”
I was not a great Virgin fan, but that ran a much better service. My wife was on one at the weekend, train cancelled at the last minute in both directions and very poor service. Time for them to lose the franchise I feel.
Avanti West Coast will also be boosting more services as they have ordered the Class 805 Bi-Mode and Class 807 Electric IETs which are to be manufactured at Merchant Park in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.
And are scheduled to start entering passenger service on the West Coast Main Line, North Wales Line and Blackpool North Line from next year.
Which the AWC Class 805 Bi-Mode are replacing the Class 221 Voyager DEMUs that were manufactured by Bombardier.