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A rail route that carries daily travelers from Manchester to London is set to run empty for approximately five months following a decision by the railway oversight authority.

A verdict by the rail regulatory body implies the 07:00 GMT train operated by Avanti West Coast from Manchester's main station to London will continue to run but will exclusively serve to carry staff starting the middle of December.

An Avanti West Coast representative stated they were "disappointed" with the decision, which would "definitely affect those passengers who regularly take these trains".

An regulatory spokesperson explained the judgment was based on "robust evidence" from the infrastructure manager to prevent possible service disruption on the West Coast Main Line.

Network Rail declined to comment.

Specifics of the Operational Adjustments

The express train, which reaches London in less than 120 minutes, will still depart from Manchester station at 07:00 on four weekdays, but will not be available to commuters.

It will, alternatively, transport Avanti staff from Manchester to London when the updated schedule takes effect on 15 December.

The decision means the service could operate for over a hundred trips without paying passengers on the train.

An operator spokesperson confirmed they were displeased with the regulator's decision not to approve access rights from the winter period for several daily trains they currently operated, including the 7:00 AM fast service from London from Manchester.

The regulatory body also mandated a weekend train which currently runs from London from Holyhead to end at Crewe station, they added.

"This will clearly impact those customers who already use these services," they stated.

"However, we will still be delivering additional trains across our route system from the beginning of the December timetable, including further additional trains on our Liverpool line."

The representative confirmed that the services being removed were:

• 07:00 GMT: Manchester station to Euston station (Monday to Friday)
• 12:52 PM GMT: Blackpool North – London Euston (Monday to Friday)
• 9:39 AM GMT: London Euston – Blackpool North (Weekdays)
• 7:32 PM GMT: Chester – Euston station (Monday to Friday)
• 5:53 PM GMT: Holyhead – London Euston terminates at Crewe (Sunday)

Regulatory Rationale

An ORR official explained: "Our ruling on the Manchester-London train was grounded in comprehensive data submitted by the infrastructure operator that introducing trains within 'buffer' slots on the West Coast Main Line would have a detrimental impact on reliability.

"It was determined that this service would run in one of those time slots. If Avanti operates the service as empty coaching stock (ECS), ECS can be run more flexibly (delayed or redirected) than a scheduled public train.

"This helps with performance management and service recovery during incidents."

The ORR said Avanti was earlier granted the permission to operate this train from May 2025 for the period of a single schedule cycle only.

This was on the condition that First Lumo's Stirling services were not operating at the time but the those trains are expected to begin operating during the December 2025 timetable period.

The regulatory body noted that under the updated schedule, new open access rail operations, run by the competing operator to Stirling, Scotland, were due to start.