Summary: Avanti West Coast is a UK rail operating company owned by FirstGroup (70%) and Trenitalia (30%). It operates mainline trains between London-Euston, Birmingham, Manchester and Scotland (Glasgow and Edinburgh via Carlisle). In November 2016, the UK Department for Transport (DfT) announced that the InterCity West Coast franchise would be replaced by a contract called the ‘West Coast Partnership’ (WCP). On 8 December 2019, Avanti West Coast took over operations from the former operating company Virgin Trains, which had run the franchise since 1997. But the end of the franchise system and the pandemic of 2020 led to poor performance which shortened the expiry of the contract to October 2023 and then, after tough negotiations with the Dft, to October 2026. Today, Avanti West Coast is more or less back to pre-pandemic levels and is receiving new rolling stock. Avanti West Coast is one of the operators that have purchased new rolling stock.
Regular routes ➤ Route A London Euston – Birmingham – Crewe / Manchester / Carlisle – Glasgow / Carlisle – Edinburgh / Blackpool ➤ Route B London Euston – Birmingham ➤ Route C London Euston – Tamworth – Crewe – Wrexham / Holyhead ➤ Route D London Euston – Tamworth – Crewe – Liverpool Lime Street ➤ Route E London Euston – Tamworth – Crewe / Stoke-on-Trent – Manchester ➤ Route F London Euston – Tamworth – Crewe – Preston – Carlisle – Glasgow / Preston – Blackpool
Rolling stock (past and present)
Class 390 Pendolino Gec Alsthom 2000 – …
The Class 390 Pendolino trains are leased to Angel Trains. They use Fiat Ferroviaria’s tilting technology and were originally built by Alstom for Virgin, which owned the West Coast franchise. AWC has logically taken over the 53 units of nine or eleven cars, which are the fastest trainsets in Great Britain apart from Eurostar’s e320s.
Class 805 Evero Hitachi 2024 – …
The Class 805 Evero is a type of dual-mode multiple unit built by Hitachi Rail for Avanti West Coast. Based on Hitachi’s A-train design, 13 five-car trainsets have been built to replace Class 221s on services between London Euston, Birmingham New Street and stations on the North Wales coast lines.
