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A rail route transporting daily travelers from London from Manchester is set to operate without passengers for around a five-month period due to a decision by the rail regulator.

A ruling by the rail regulatory body means the 7:00 AM GMT train operated by the rail operator from Manchester's main station to the capital will continue to run but will only be used to transport employees from the middle of December.

An operator spokesperson expressed they were "let down" with the outcome, which would "clearly impact those customers who regularly take these trains".

An ORR spokesperson indicated the decision was based on "solid data" from Network Rail to prevent potential operational issues on the key rail corridor.

Network Rail did not provide a statement.

Details of the Service Changes

The fast service, which arrives in London in less than 120 minutes, will still depart from Manchester station at 07:00 on four weekdays, but will not open to commuters.

It will, instead, ferry Avanti staff from Manchester to London when the updated schedule launches on December 15th.

The decision means the train could operate for over a hundred trips without fare-paying customers on the train.

An Avanti West Coast representative clarified they were displeased with the ORR's determination not to grant operational permissions from December for four weekday services they currently operated, including the 7:00 AM fast service from Manchester to London.

The ORR also required a weekend train which currently runs from Holyhead to London to end at Crewe, they noted.

"This will clearly impact those passengers who currently rely on these trains," they stated.

"Nonetheless, we will continue to provide even more services across our route system from the beginning of the winter schedule, including more extra trains on our Liverpool line."

The spokesperson verified that the services being withdrawn were:

• 07:00 GMT: Manchester station to London Euston (Monday to Friday)
• 12:52 PM GMT: Blackpool North – London Euston (Monday to Friday)
• 09:39 GMT: London Euston – Blackpool station (Monday to Friday)
• 19:32 GMT: Chester station – Euston station (Weekdays)
• 17:53 GMT: Holyhead – Euston station terminates at Crewe station (Sundays)

Regulatory Reasoning

An regulatory official stated: "Our decision on the Manchester-London train was grounded in comprehensive data submitted by the infrastructure operator that adding services within 'buffer' slots on the West Coast Main Line would have a detrimental impact on performance.

"We identified that this service would run in one of those paths. If the operator operates the service as empty coaching stock (ECS), ECS can be run more flexibly (held back or re-routed) than a scheduled public train.

"This can assist with service reliability and operational restoration during disruption."

The regulator indicated Avanti was previously given the right to run this train from spring 2025 for the duration of a single schedule cycle exclusively.

This was on the condition that First Lumo's Stirling services were not running at the time but the First Lumo services are anticipated to start operating during the December 2025 timetable period.

The regulatory body added that under the updated schedule, additional independent rail operations, operated by the competing operator to Stirling, Scotland, were scheduled to commence.