Avanti cuts West Coast trains due to staff Covid absences

The company says it will be reviewing its new timetable weekly

Trains from London to Manchester will only run once an hour from Monday as rail operators cut services aiming to make their services more "reliable".

Avanti West Coast usually schedules three trains an hour from London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly.

The change is expected to last until February 25 with a weekly review.

Fifteen percent of its services were cancelled during December due to staff shortages caused by the rise of the Omicron variant.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service reports that passenger numbers on these services have dropped to around 40% of pre-pandemic levels.

In recent weeks other rail operators in the region have reduced services to cope with staff shortages.

Metrolink has also prepared a reduced timetable for its trams though the firm believes it has passed the peak of staff absences.

'Right thing to do'

Avanti West Coast's regional growth manager, Charlie French, said: "The passenger numbers are much lower so we are comfortable that one train an hour can accommodate those customers travelling.

"It's not great news, but it's the right thing to do, we feel, to give that reliability of service."

As well as the hourly service from London to Manchester via Stoke, there will be four additional trains each way every day via Crewe calling at Wilmslow.

TransPennine introduced an amended timetable on Monday to cope with sickness absence among train crews which is still around 18%.

Passenger numbers have fallen to 51% of pre-pandemic levels having returned to between 75% and 85% before the latest wave of the virus.

Northern implemented a new timetable on 4 January - although it has not been hit by Covid-related staff absences as much as other operators have.

On occasions more than a quarter of staff at some depots have been off sick, though the Covid-related absence rate across the company is 3.9%.