First Trenitalia West Coast Rail Limited section 22 34th supplemental agreement: decision letter
Louise Beilby
Sen ior Acc ess Exe cutive
Telephone:
Email:
2 April 2026
Akaash Bhandari
Sue Rhymes
Franchise and Access Manager
Track Access Manager
Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd
First Trenitalia West Coast Rail Ltd
Baskerville House
Victoria Square House
Centenary Square
Victoria Square
Birmingham
Birmingham
B1 2ND
B2 4DN
Dear Akaash and Sue
Approval of the 34th supplemental agreement to the track access contract
between Network Rail Infrastructure Limited (Network Rail) and First Trenitalia
West Coast Rail Limited (trading as Avanti West Coast (AWC)) dated 1
December 2022
We have today approved the above supplemental agreement submitted to us
formally on 31 March 2026 under section 22 of the Railways Act 1993 (the Act). This
follows an earlier informal submission of a draft agreement for our consideration.
This letter explains the reasons for our decision.
Purpose
The purpose of this agreement is to convert a single contingent right to a firm right
for the currently running 0700 service from Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston.
The amendment will be effective from the Subsidiary Change Date (SCD) in May
2026 to the expiry date of AWC’s track access contract, currently the Principal
Change Date (PCD) in December 2030. ORR’s approval of this supplemental
agreement provides certainty to passengers of the future running of the service and
to the train operator for the purposes of planning its business.
The right that covers this service was first put in place on a contingent basis from
PCD 2024 for one timetable period to SCD 2025 by the 11th supplemental
agreement, then further extended for another timetable period to PCD 2025 by the
22nd supplemental agreement. AWC then applied for the right to be extended and
converted to firm from PCD 2025 as part of the 17th supplemental agreement. ORR
initially rejected this part of the application because we had concerns around the
impact the service might have on network capacity and performance, and we
believed that the service would be operating within a ‘firebreak’ path which was
being preserved to protect performance.
We subsequently received enough assurance from Network Rail that this would not
be the case to allow the existing contingent right to be extended for 90 days from
Page 1 of 4
Head Office: 25 Cabot Square, London E14 4QZ T: 020 7282 2000 www.orr.gov.uk
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