Since my last update, there has been a fatal incident in the industry reminding us of the importance of safety and resilience. My thoughts, and those of Avanti colleagues, go out to the family, friends and colleagues of the driver who lost his life in Bedfordshire last month, as well as the passengers who were injured.  We will await the conclusion of the formal accident investigation to understand what lessons we, and others, in the industry can learn. In times like this, I am reminded of how the railway comes together as one to respond quickly and effectively, and I want to acknowledge the efforts of everyone involved. 

While the summer months typically bring improved performance across the railway, recent periods have proved challenging due to bouts of extreme weather, fires along the network and infrastructure failures. Period 01 saw operator responsible cancellations remain low at 0.8%, however Period 02 rose to 1.7% and Period 03 saw a further rise to 2.4% which takes our average across the start of the financial year to 1.6%. 

After the UK saw only its second ever red weather alert, a number of operators including Avanti were asked to proactively cancel a proportion of services to improve network resilience; meanwhile a series of infrastructure failures and external events have led to a worsening of punctuality and cancellation levels.  

Despite this, positive work has been underway to tackle the root causes of poor performance, which we continue to tackle through joint working with Network Rail and other industry partners. We saw an improvement following the retiming of some services in the December 2025 timetable and we are investigating how further amendments to train timings can drive a more robust timetable. We will keep you updated as this work progresses. 

Despite these short-term challenges, we remain firmly focused on delivering long-term improvements that create a more resilient railway and a better experience for the communities and customers we serve. We continue to see further improvements in customer satisfaction, and our Net Advocacy Scores have improved by an additional 6 points compared to the same time last year (1 April 2026 – 27 June 2026 compared with 1 April 2025 – 21 June 2025). 

Alongside these improvements, our Evero fleet continues to deliver benefits for customers and communities across the network, and I’m delighted that our Class 805s recently reached a significant milestone of five million miles in passenger service since they began operating in June 2024. As well as providing more capacity, improved accessibility and a better onboard experience, these trains are playing an important role in supporting our sustainability ambitions by reducing carbon emissions on our routes. 

You may have seen recently that we are planning to remove a small number of services over summer when business travel drops off and demand is lower. This was in response to a request from the Department for Transport during the Annual Business Planning for all operators to look at ways in which capacity could be better tailored to demand and improve value for taxpayers. We’ve done this in a targeted fashion on routes with multiple services per hour, ensuring that the impact on customers is minimised. We’ve had conversations with a number of stakeholders about how we’re managing this process and of course if you want to discuss this – or indeed any other topic of interest – please get in touch with our stakeholder team. 

In April, I was pleased to host another of our stakeholder webinars, providing an opportunity to reflect on our performance, discuss our priorities for the year ahead and hear directly from stakeholders across our route. The session generated valuable discussion on topics including customer experience, performance and timetable planning, and I would like to thank everyone who took the time to join us. Continuing this dialogue remains an important part of ensuring we deliver improvements that matter most to our customers, and communities.  

Elsewhere in the newsletter you can read about our successful partnership with Stagecoach and Visit Cumbria that has driven public transport at Penrith Station to record levels through rolling out an integrated bus/train ticket to Keswick. We’re really proud of this initiative and how that’s supporting sustainable tourism growth in the Lakes. We’ve also reported on the award-winning work we’ve done with the Railway Children to raise awareness of runaway children and our partnership with West Midlands Fire Service to deliver rail safety education to more than 140 children.  

Engagement with elected representatives and regional partners also remains a key priority. In recent months, we've welcomed parliamentarians and stakeholders to see first-hand the work we are doing across our network, including visits to our Crewe Talent Academy and operational facilities. We have also strengthened relationships with partners across Wales through engagement events in Cardiff Bay, discussing rail performance and customer experience with ministers and stakeholders following the Senedd elections. Alongside this, our parliamentary drop-in event at Westminster and a stakeholder roundtable in Stoke have helped us build stronger local partnerships and better understand the priorities of the communities we serve. These conversations are invaluable in helping shape our plans and deliver improvements that support regional growth and connectivity. 

Lastly, we’re planning our Stakeholder Conference on Tuesday 8 September in Manchester, so please save the date. We would be delighted if you could join us to discuss how we can work together to improve our services and support the communities we serve.