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A rail route that carries commuters from Manchester to London is scheduled to operate without passengers for around five months following a decision by the railway oversight authority.

A ruling by the Office of Rail and Road means the 07:00 GMT service run by the rail operator from Manchester Piccadilly to the capital will continue to run but will only be used to transport employees from mid-December.

An Avanti West Coast representative expressed they were "let down" with the decision, which would "clearly impact those customers who regularly take these services".

An ORR spokesperson indicated the judgment was founded on "robust evidence" from the infrastructure manager to guard against possible operational issues on the key rail corridor.

The infrastructure company did not provide a statement.

Specifics of the Operational Adjustments

The fast service, which reaches the capital in under two hours, will continue to leave from Manchester station at 07:00 on four weekdays, but will not open to the public.

It will, instead, transport company employees from London from Manchester when the updated schedule launches on 15 December.

The ruling means the train could operate for more than 100 journeys without paying passengers on board.

An Avanti West Coast representative clarified they were disappointed with the ORR's decision not to approve operational permissions from December for four weekday services they presently run, such as the 07:00 fast service from London from Manchester.

The regulatory body also mandated a weekend train which presently operates from Holyhead to London to end at Crewe station, they noted.

"It will significantly affect those passengers who already use these services," they stated.

"However, we will continue to provide even more services 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 removed were:

• 7:00 AM GMT: Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston (Weekdays)
• 12:52 PM GMT: Blackpool station – London Euston (Weekdays)
• 09:39 GMT: Euston station – Blackpool station (Monday to Friday)
• 19:32 GMT: Chester station – London Euston (Weekdays)
• 5:53 PM GMT: Holyhead station – London Euston ends at Crewe (Sundays)

Oversight Reasoning

An regulatory spokesperson stated: "Our decision on the Manchester-London train was based on comprehensive data submitted by Network Rail that introducing trains within 'buffer' slots on the West Coast Main Line would have a negative effect on reliability.

"We identified that this train would operate within one of those paths. If Avanti runs the train as unoccupied train cars (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 incidents."

The regulator said Avanti was previously given the permission to run this service from May 2025 for the duration of one timetable period only.

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

The regulatory body noted that under the new timetable, new open access train services, run by First Lumo to Stirling, were scheduled to commence.