Avanti West Coast is a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by FirstGroup (70%) and Trenitalia (30%) that operates the West Coast Partnership. During November 2016, the Department for Transport (DfT) announced the InterCity West Coast franchise would be replaced by the West Coast Partnership (WCP). In August 2019, the DfT awarded the WCP franchise to the First Trenitalia consortium. On 8 December 2019, Avanti West Coast took over operations from the prior operating company Virgin Trains, which had run the franchise since 1997. Originally, the franchise was initially scheduled to run until March 2030, and had also been set to operate the initial High Speed 2 services from 2026. However, during December 2020, it was announced that First Trenitalia and the DfT had agreed to terminate the WCP franchise at the earlier date of 31 March 2026 as part of the abolition of the franchise system. Since then a number of contract changes have taken place due to COVID-19 and then poor performance by the company. As of March 2023, the company's contract will expire in October 2023. Avanti West Coast provide the principal long-distance passenger services on the West Coast Main Line between London, the West Midlands, North West England, North Wales and Scotland. Its services connect six of the largest cities in the UK: London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, and Edinburgh, which have a combined metropolitan population of over 18 million. At the start of the franchise, the rolling stock used for these services consisted of 56 Class 390 Pendolino high speed electric multiple units and 18 Class 221 Super Voyager diesel-electric multiple units; in 2019, it was announced that the Super Voyagers would be replaced by newly built Class 805 bi-mode multiple units and Class 807 electric multiple units. Originally, Avanti West Coast was set to operate the pending high speed train fleet intended for use on High Speed 2, although the contract is set to end prior
