Boarding a Avanti West Coast, WCML, West Coast Mainline - rebrand for FirstGroup TrenItalia, replacing Virgin Trains Dec2019, at Warrington Station

Avanti West Coast is a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by FirstGroup (70%) and Trenitalia (30%) that began operating the West Coast Partnership franchise on 8 December 2019. It replaced Virgin Trains, which had operated the franchise since 1997. In November 2016, the Department for Transport (DfT) announced that the InterCity West Coast franchise would be superseded by the West Coast Partnership (WCP), which would include operating High Speed 2 (HS2) services from 2026. The DfT required that bidders have experience in high-speed trains and infrastructure, hence all partnered with an existing high-speed operator. In June 2017, the DfT announced that three consortia had been shortlisted to bid for the franchise: FirstGroup (70%) / Trenitalia (30%) MTR Corporation (75%) / Guangshen Railway Company (25%) Stagecoach (50%) / SNCF (30%) / Virgin Group (20%) In August 2019 the DfT awarded the franchise to the First Trenitalia consortium with Avanti West Coast to commence operations on 8 December 2019. Some uncertainty remains as the Competition and Markets Authority launched a merger inquiry into the award of the franchise following a referral from the European Commission Avanti West Coast initially operates the same services as Virgin Trains on the West Coast Main Line. When High Speed 2 opens, it will also operate these services.