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Labour has summoned the bosses of some of the worst-performing train operators, including Avanti West Coast and TransPennine, for meetings next week as it seeks to rapidly reform the railways and reset industrial relations.
The transport secretary, Louise Haigh, will bring in Network Rail route directors to attend all talks with the train companies, signalling the move towards an integrated railway.
After Haigh vowed to “move fast and fix things”, legislation to kickstart Great British Railways is expected to be announced in the king’s speech next week, and officials are beginning work to set up the new structure before the summer parliamentary recess.
Haigh has already met rail union leaders at the Department for Transport as the new government looks to facilitate an end to the long-running rail dispute. Haigh said her meetings with Mick Whelan and Mick Lynch, the general secretaries of Aslef and the RMT respectively, were a departure from “the days of antagonism and gimmicks” and the start of “an era of grownup industrial relations”.
Avanti and TransPennine Express are the first of a number of failing operators expected to meet the transport secretary in the coming week, with Labour warning it will be making a clear break with the previous government, which it claimed “failed passengers”.
It is understood that the party is seeking legal advice over when performance constitutes a contractual breach sufficient to swiftly terminate contracts. The government will otherwise bring train services into public ownership under GBR as contracts expire.
Haigh has long criticised Avanti in particular, accusing it during the election campaign of providing a “woeful service” – and this week several newly elected MPs immediately experienced cancellations and disruptions on their journeys on the intercity line from the north to parliament in London.
Figures from the rail regulator, the Office of Rail and Road, show Avanti had the third worst reliability of all operators in Great Britain in the 12 months to the end of March, cancelling almost 7% of trains. It was twice given short-term extensions to its contract under the Conservatives with warnings to improve, before being awarded a long-term contract in late 2023.
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Improved industrial relations and an end to the wider rail dispute may help Avanti, which has partly suffered from drivers unwilling to work overtime and occasional high rates of staff absence.
Aslef has said “anything is possible” in terms of a resolution to its long standoff over pay and conditions. Whelan said the previous government was an “obstructive puppet master” above the train companies and hoped Labour would allow them to deal freely, without imposing preconditions.
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