NEWS.CATEGORY: Industrial
TSSA warning of more delays at Avanti West Coast amid safety concerns
Transport and travel union TSSA is warning of further delays and cancellations relating to safety on the west coast mainline, run by the beleaguered Avanti.
TSSA signaled its concerns after it emerged that the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) which oversees safety regulation on Britain’s railways, had served Avanti West Coast with an ‘Improvement Notice’ for failure to fit their new trains with a speed limiting device.
Avanti's existing fleet of Class 221 Super Voyager trains have this device fitted but their replacements - the new Class 805 Evero trains - do not. Unique to the West Coast Main Line, the TASS (Tilt Authorisation and Speed Supervision) system protects the train from over-speeding at curves and other specific locations.
The Improvement Notice could mean that services already operated with the new trains may face cancellation whilst Avanti takes the safety precautions required by the ORR to make the new trains as safe as the existing ones.
The union is now seeking urgent clarification regarding the situation from the ORR and plans to raise the matter with the Transport Secretary, Lou Haigh.
Commenting, TSSA General Secretary, Maryam Eslamdoust said: “Frankly it’s remarkable that Avanti seems to have failed on even the most basic of safety measures- running trains at the correct speed, and it's no wonder the ORR have acted to address this.
"We will be speaking to the ORR and the Transport Secretary about this troubling matter in the coming days and call for swift remedial action.
“Passengers on the West Coast have already suffered for far too long at Avanti’s hands and now it seems they are set for more cancellations and delays to services. This simply can’t go on.”
*The Improvement Notice was served on 4 July with a compliance date of 6 July 2026. The Improvement Notice is therefore still within its 21-day appeal window and will not be published on the ORR Public Register until after this date.
*Avanti West Coast has long been beset with performance difficulties. Office of Rail and Road figures show it had the third worst reliability of all operators in Britain in the year to the end of March, with the equivalent of one in 15 trains (6.9%) cancelled.