6th September 2023
A comparison of train operator performance on the East and West Coast Mainlines Public East vs Private West The East Coast Mainline is run in the public sector by LNER, a subsidiary of the Operator of Last Resort, the DfT’s public sector operator. The West Coast Mainline is run by Avanti West Coast, a joint venture between FirstGroup and Trenitalia, in the private sector. Any profits made by LNER are reinvested into the DfT. In 2019/20, LNER made a £40 million dividend payment to the DfT. Any profits made by Avanti West Coast can be turned into dividends for its owning groups and ultimately their shareholders. Last year, Avanti declared that it paid a dividend of £13.5 million to FirstGroup in 2022.
Comparing passenger outcomes on the Coastal Mainlines The latest ORR performance data show very different stories for the two coastal mainline services. • Publicly owned LNER is planning 4% more trains than they did before the pandemic. • Its cancellation rate, according to the ORR is currently 3.8%. • LNER’s passenger usage is 10% higher than it was before the pandemic, up to 23.4 million for the last year. • FirstGroup owned private sector Avanti West Coast, by contrast, has been running down its services. • Avanti West Coast are planning 23% fewer trains than before the pandemic. • Their cancellation rate last year, was 6.8% last year. So Avanti are planning almost a third fewer trains than they were before the pandemic and cancelling twice as many of them as publicly owned LNER. • Passenger usage at Avanti West Coast has fallen by almost a third (29%). As the ORR note last year, those operators who run close to pre-pandemic levels of trains have seen a stronger return in passenger numbers.1 And as the CEO of the OLR put it at 1 https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/media/2124/passenger-rail-usage-apr-jun-2022.pdf