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A train service transporting commuters from Manchester to London is set to operate without passengers for around a five-month period due to a determination by the railway oversight authority.

A ruling by the Office of Rail and Road implies the 7:00 AM GMT service run by Avanti West Coast from Manchester's main station to London will continue to run but will exclusively serve to carry staff from mid-December.

An operator representative stated they were "let down" with the decision, which would "clearly impact those passengers who already use these services".

An regulatory official explained the decision was based on "solid data" from Network Rail to prevent possible service disruption on the key rail corridor.

Network Rail did not provide a statement.

Details of the Operational Adjustments

The express train, which arrives in the capital in under two hours, will still depart from Manchester Piccadilly at 7:00 AM on weekday mornings, but will not be available to commuters.

It will, instead, transport company employees from London from Manchester when the new timetable takes effect on December 15th.

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

An operator representative clarified they were displeased with the regulator's determination not to approve access rights from December for several daily trains they presently run, including the 07:00 fast service from Manchester to London.

The ORR also required a weekend train which presently operates from Holyhead to London to terminate at Crewe station, they noted.

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

"However, we will still be delivering additional services across our route system from the beginning of the winter schedule, featuring further additional trains on our Liverpool route."

The spokesperson verified that the services being removed were:

• 07:00 GMT: Manchester station to London Euston (Monday to Friday)
• 12:52 PM GMT: Blackpool station – London Euston (Monday to Friday)
• 09:39 GMT: London Euston – Blackpool station (Weekdays)
• 7:32 PM GMT: Chester – Euston station (Monday to Friday)
• 5:53 PM GMT: Holyhead – London Euston terminates at Crewe station (Sunday)

Regulatory Rationale

An regulatory official explained: "Our ruling on the London-Manchester train was grounded in robust evidence provided by Network Rail that adding services within 'buffer' paths on the West Coast Main Line would have a negative effect on reliability.

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

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

The ORR indicated Avanti was earlier granted the permission to operate this service from May 2025 for the period of a single schedule cycle exclusively.

This was on the condition that another operator's Stirling services were not running at the time but the those trains are anticipated to start running during the winter 2025 schedule update.

The ORR noted that under the new timetable, additional independent train services, operated by the competing operator to Stirling, were due to start.