Phil Whittingham, MD of Avanti West Coast, has announced he is stepping down after strong criticism from stakeholders for failing to provide a full service to Manchester. The temporary cutbacks, extended indefinitely, are of course mainly caused by the RMT and ASLEF industrial action so perhaps the criticism from stakeholders has been a little unfair. However, here at Cramlington, the full hourly service has still not been resumed post Covid, for reasons which are nothing to do with strikes. What chance other rail company MDs might be quaking in their shoes and realising that simply ignoring the need to run a full timetable simply will not do? And why is it that, after 30 years of privatisation, the rail industry has failed to organise itself so that it is unable to operate without the goodwill of staff being willing to work their rest days? Surely the industry has had long enough to resource up to the levels it needs to operate fully with staff only needing to work the hours they are contracted to do.
