Avanti West Coast

First Trenitalia West Coast Rail, trading as Avanti West Coast, is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup (70%) and Trenitalia (30%) that operates the West Coast Partnership.

In November 2016, the Department for Transport announced that 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 to run until March 2030, and had also been set to operate the initial High Speed 2 (HS2) services from 2026, before project delays moved its expected completion. A combination of poor performance and the abolition of the franchise system led to the end date being revised to October 2026, earlier than the completion of HS2.

Avanti West Coast provides 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.

Avanti inherited 56 Class 390 Pendolino high speed electric multiple units and 20 Class 221 Super Voyager diesel-electric multiple units from Virgin Trains. The 390s underwent major refurbishment between 2021 and 2024, and in 2024 the 221s were replaced with new Class 805 bi-mode multiple units and Class 807 electric multiple units.