Avanti West Coast has officially began operations on West Coast Main Line express trains, replacing Virgin Trains.

The move ends Virgin’s time running the main line connection Euston, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and North Wales among others, which saw them take over when the rail network was privatised in 1997.

Under the contract, Avanti is due to run trains on the line up until 2031. The operator is also proposed to take over as the company running trains on High Speed 2, which is currently scheduled to open in 2026, although the future of this project happening at all is currently in doubt.

The new company is a joint operation between FirstGroup, who the Great Western, South Western and Transpennine franchises among other UK rail and bus assets, and Italian state operator Trenitalia, who have previous experience of running high speed rail.

As part of its operation, Avanti has said it will have extra trains stopping at Milton Keynes Central from the December 2022 timetable change, which is also scheduled to have additional trains implemented between London and North Wales.

Other plans for WCML services include new services to Walsall, extra trains to Shrewsbury and later departures for the last London-Manchester trains each day.

As part of the remit, the company is also looking to refurbish all current Virgin Trains rolling stock, and replace its 20 diesel trains with a new fleet of electric and bi-modal trains for use on services.

The new operator will be holding a public launch on Monday (09/12).