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.