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A rail route transporting daily travelers from London from Manchester is scheduled to run empty for approximately a five-month period following a determination by the railway oversight authority.

A ruling by the Office of Rail and Road implies the 7:00 AM GMT train operated by Avanti West Coast from Manchester's main station to London will continue to run but will only be used to transport employees from mid-December.

An operator spokesperson expressed they were "let down" with the decision, which would "definitely affect those passengers who regularly take these services".

An ORR spokesperson explained the judgment was based on "solid data" from the infrastructure manager to guard against potential service disruption on the West Coast Main Line.

Network Rail did not provide a statement.

Specifics of the Operational Adjustments

The express train, which arrives in London in under two hours, will still depart from Manchester Piccadilly at 07:00 on weekday mornings, but will not open to the public.

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

The ruling means the service could operate for more than 100 trips without fare-paying customers on the train.

An Avanti West Coast spokesperson clarified they were disappointed with the regulator's decision not to approve access rights from the winter period for four weekday services they currently operated, including the 7:00 AM express train from London from Manchester.

The ORR also mandated a Sunday service which presently operates from London from Holyhead to end at Crewe station, they noted.

"This will significantly affect those passengers who already use these trains," they stated.

"Nonetheless, we will continue to provide even more trains across our network from the start of the December timetable, including further additional trains on our Liverpool route."

The representative confirmed that the trains being withdrawn were:

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

Regulatory Reasoning

An regulatory official explained: "Our ruling on the Manchester-London train was grounded in comprehensive data provided by the infrastructure operator that adding services within 'buffer' paths on the West Coast Main Line would have a negative effect on performance.

"It was determined that this train would operate within one of those paths. If Avanti operates the service as unoccupied train cars (ECS), ECS can be operated with greater flexibility (held back or re-routed) than a scheduled public train.

"This helps with service reliability and service recovery during incidents."

The regulator said Avanti was earlier granted the right to run this train from May 2025 for the period of one timetable period only.

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

The ORR noted that under the updated schedule, new open access rail operations, run by First Lumo to Stirling, Scotland, were due to start.