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A rail route transporting daily travelers from Manchester to London is scheduled to operate without passengers for around five months following a determination by the rail regulator.

A verdict by the Office of Rail and Road means the 7:00 AM GMT train operated by the rail operator from Manchester Piccadilly to the capital will still operate but will exclusively serve to carry staff from mid-December.

An Avanti West Coast spokesperson stated they were "disappointed" with the outcome, which would "definitely affect those customers who already use these services".

An ORR official explained the judgment was based on "solid data" from Network Rail to guard against possible service disruption on the key rail corridor.

Network Rail declined to comment.

Specifics of the Service Changes

The fast service, which arrives in London in under two hours, will still depart from Manchester Piccadilly at 7:00 AM on four weekdays, but will not open to the public.

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

The decision implies the service could run for more than 100 trips without paying passengers on the train.

An Avanti West Coast spokesperson confirmed they were disappointed with the ORR's determination not to grant access rights from the winter period for several daily trains they currently operated, including the 07:00 fast service from London from Manchester.

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

"It will clearly impact those customers who currently rely on these trains," they said.

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

The spokesperson verified that the trains being removed were:

• 7:00 AM GMT: Manchester station to Euston station (Monday to Friday)
• 12:52 GMT: Blackpool station – London Euston (Weekdays)
• 09:39 GMT: Euston station – Blackpool station (Monday to Friday)
• 19:32 GMT: Chester station – Euston station (Weekdays)
• 17:53 GMT: Holyhead station – London Euston terminates at Crewe station (Sundays)

Regulatory Reasoning

An regulatory official stated: "Our decision on the Manchester-London train was grounded in comprehensive data provided by Network Rail that adding services within 'firebreak' slots on the West Coast Main Line would have a negative effect on reliability.

"We identified that this service would run in one of those paths. If Avanti runs the service as unoccupied train cars (ECS), ECS can be operated with greater flexibility (held back or re-routed) than a booked passenger service.

"This helps with performance management and operational restoration during disruption."

The regulator said Avanti was previously given the permission to run this service from spring 2025 for the period of a single schedule cycle only.

This was on the basis that another operator's Scottish trains were not operating at the time but the First Lumo services are anticipated to start running during the winter 2025 schedule update.

The ORR added that under the new timetable, additional independent rail operations, run by First Lumo to Stirling, were scheduled to commence.