Avanti West Coast ordered to give passengers more notice to book tickets

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. By 2 February we expect Avanti to identify what has gone wrong and set out how it intends to get back to releasing timetables in normal industry timescales Stephanie Tobyn, Office of Rail and Road Passengers wanting to book tickets for weekend travel this month have only been able to purchase tickets a few days in advance, leading to claims that many people are being denied cheaper tickets. Avanti West Coast initially made “reasonable progress” against an improvement plan created in September 2022 with passengers given more notice to book travel in the run-up to Christmas but the “position has deteriorated” this year, according to the ORR. “Failure to produce an acceptable plan or to deliver improvements may lead to more formal measures.” An Avanti West Coast spokesman said: “Unfortunately, some tickets for Saturdays and Sundays have only been available at short notice due to having to write unprecedented numbers of bespoke timetables to accommodate industrial action and engineering work which has stretched industry train planning resources. “Weekend tickets are now on sale up to mid-February, and by mid-March we’ll be selling weekend tickets six weeks out.” Avanti West Coast – a joint venture between FirstGroup and Italian state operator Trenitalia – was given until April 1 by the Department for Transport to improve its services when it was awarded a short-term contract extension in October 2022.