Avanti West Coast has been granted a contract extension for a further six months, despite being continuously branded “unacceptable” by government ministers, local leaders, and countless customers.
The company has been given until 1 April 2023 to continue running the West Coast Main Line from London to Glasgow by the Department for Transport (DfT), but has been told that it needs to “drastically improve” its services if it’s to stand any chance of having the contract extended further beyond that date.
The rail firm has been responsible for operating the route from Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston since December 2019, but notably took the decision to slash its timetable “until further notice”and temporarily suspend ticket sales over the summer.
Avanti said at the time that it would continue with with “a reduced service”, with train frequencies between the capital and Manchester being reduced to as few as one per hour, rather than the usual three.
Since the reduced timetable came into operation, some passengers travelling on the services reported scenes of chaos – including instances of “fights” over seat reservations.
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The move was, understandably, met with widespread backlash and criticism, with Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham being particularly vocal about it, and most-notably calling the move “nothing short of a disgrace”.
Mr Burnham said yesterday that he would not accept a service below two trains per hour.
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Avanti West Coast has been granted a contract extension for a further six months / Credit: Avanti West Coast
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has also said this week that Avanti should be stripped of its contract, claiming that the West Coast Main Line service was “simply not good enough”, and he knows how “frustrating” it is as he uses those trains himself.
Even with all of these critiques taken into account though, Transport Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan has announced the contract extension for the rail operator, but added that the operator has been put on an improvement plan, and that the DfT would “consider Avanti’s performance” once the extension comes to an end.
The government has previously said it would keep all options on the table – including the option for non-renewal of the contract.
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“We need train services which are reliable and resilient to modern day life,” Anne-Marie Trevelyan said in a statement addressing the renewal.
“Services on Avanti have been unacceptable, and while the company has taken positive steps to get more trains moving, it must do more to deliver certainty of service to its passengers, so we have agreed a six-month extension to assess whether it is capable of running this crucial route to a standard passengers deserve and expect.”
The rail operator has been told to “drastically improve” its services / Credit: Network Rail
The improvement plan will see a swathe of new drivers trained, recruitment of other train crew members, a timetable recovery plan, and a “significant, sustained, and reliable increase” from about 180 trains to 264 trains per day on weekdays.
These will be implemented as the new and retrained drivers “become available”, the DfT added.
Avanti says the West Coast Main Line contract extension will allow it to focus on restoring services that passengers “rightly expect”.
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“We are committed to working closely with government and our partners across the industry to deliver a successful railway that serves the needs of our customers and communities,” said Graham Sutherland, CEO of FirstGroup, which part-owns Avanti.
“The agreement allows our team at Avanti West Coast to sustain their focus on delivering their robust plan to restore services to the levels that passengers rightly expect.”
Featured Image – Avanti West Coast
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95% of Mancs apparently want the city to be ‘cashless’, new study reveals
Emily Sergeant
An eye-opening new study has found that only 5% of Mancs still use cash as their preferred method of payment nowadays.
It comes as no surprise that cash is less of a ‘king’ nowadays than it used to be, but now a new report by global financial technology company SumUp has suggests that only 5% of people in Manchester prefer to pay with cash, while 59% choose debit and credit cards, so that leaves one question… is Manchester on its way to becoming a cashless city?
To discover how payment preferences are evolving, SumUp conducted a nationwide survey to gather insights from UK consumers about their payment habits.
The company was particularly intrigued to not only discover payment methods people prefer, but what their concerns around certain payment methods, alongside how they feel about businesses that don’t accept digital payments.
95% of Mancs apparently want the city to be ‘cashless’ / Credit: Mylo Kaye (via Unsplash) | Pexels
Firstly, before we go any further, it’s important to note that almost two thirds (63%) of Manchester residents said they have changed the way they make payments over the past year.
Unsurprisingly, debit and credit cards remain the top choice for the majority of Mancs, with over half (59%) saying it was their preferred method of payment, followed by mobile payment methods such as Apple Pay and Google Pay at 24% – which is likely thanks to their ease of use and the ability to have multiple cards on one device.
While a third (31%) of Mancs said that they ‘don’t mind’ cash and still opt to carry it for situations where digital payments aren’t an option, a growing number of people in the city are feel that digital payments are more favourable, with 25% thinking that businesses should adapt to modern payment methods and whilst 28% finding it ‘inconvenient’ when a business doesn’t accept digital payments.
A further 11% of people even say that cash-only businesses wouldn’t be an option they’d consider, and would actually avoid them wherever possible.
Only 5% use cash as their preferred method of payment / Credit: Rawpixel
When it comes to concerns around digital payment methods, where do Mancs stand then? Well, the survey found that a third (33%) of people are worried about their reliance on technology, especially being unable to pay if their phone dies, for example, while an additional 32% of people are concerned about security risks such as hacking, fraud, or stolen card details.
Among other things, 26% of survey respondents also said they worry about the privacy aspect of digital banking and the tracking your data.
“While debit and credit cards continue to dominate as the preferred payment method, it’s clear that cash is slowly declining in use, particularly among younger generations,” Corin Camenisch, who is the Marketing & Growth Lead at SumUp, commented on the report.
“Looking ahead, we can anticipate a rise in innovative payment methods like digital wallets, especially as younger consumers increasingly embrace the convenience and flexibility they offer.”
Featured Image – Pavel Danilyuk (via Pexels)
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Met Office predicts UK is set for ‘hotter than average’ summer
Emily Sergeant
The Met Office is predicting that the UK is set for a ‘hotter than average’ summer this year.
Fresh off-the-back of the news that 2025 is already the hottest spring on record, with a recorded 630 hours of sunshine from 1 March until 27 May, beating out the previous sunniest spring in 2020 by just four hours, the Met Office is now predicting that the UK is on the verge of a summer that’s ‘hotter than usual’.
According to its three-month outlook, the Met Office has predicted that it’s 2.3 times more-likely than ‘normal’ that it will be hot in the UK between 1 June and 31 August.
The average temperatures during those months are set to range from 10-17°C.
🌡️ ☀️ The UK has recorded its warmest and sunniest spring on record, according to provisional Met Office statistics.
Spring 2025 is now the 4th sunniest season overall for the UK, with only 3 summers sunnier since 1910.
Details in release below, or read this short thread 👇🧵
After it was revealed that this has also been the UK’s driest spring in more than a century, meteorologists are warning Brits that there could heatwave conditions could be reached at various times throughout the summer.
The release of the long-range forecast – which gives an indication of possible temperatures, rainfall, and wind speed over a period as a whole – comes after temperatures soared to 8°C (46F) above the average for this time of year this Saturday just gone (31 May).
It is important to note, however, that the Met Office thinks these predicted temperatures are similar to those in recent years, and it does not guarantee ‘prolonged’ hot weather.
The Met Office is predicting that the UK is set for ‘hotter than average’ summer this year / Credit: Mylo Kaye (via Unsplash)
The Met Office said in a statement: “While the current three-month outlook shows an increased chance of a hot summer, the temperature signals for this summer are similar to those for recent years and consistent with our warming climate.
“The increased chance of hotter than average temperatures is not a guarantee of prolonged hot weather or heatwaves, but it does mean that heatwave conditions could be reached at times.
“However, it’s important to bear in mind that an increased chance of hot conditions could also reflect a mix of hot and cool days, warm nights, or less extreme levels of warmth rather than continual heatwave conditions specifically.”
Emily Sergeant -
7th October 2022 
