The Office of Rail and Road has today written to Avanti calling for significant improvements to its recovery plan for releasing timetables to passengers ahead of travel.
Despite Avanti initially making reasonable progress against their September 2022 plan and increasing notice for passengers to book travel in the lead up to Christmas, the position has deteriorated in 2023.
For weekends in January, passengers have only been able to book tickets at a few days’ notice.
Avanti’s current plans for February show a better picture for weekday travel, but still fall short of passengers’ needs for weekend journeys.
Under Avanti’s passenger information licence requirement, ORR has asked Avanti to submit an improved recovery plan for timetable production by 2 February 2023.
Stephanie Tobyn, Director of Strategy, Policy and Reform at ORR said: