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A rail route that carries daily travelers from Manchester to London is set to run empty for approximately five months following a decision by the rail regulator.

A ruling by the rail regulatory body implies the 07:00 GMT service operated by Avanti West Coast from Manchester's main station to London will continue to run but will exclusively serve to carry employees starting mid-December.

An Avanti West Coast representative expressed they were "disappointed" with the decision, which would "clearly impact those passengers who already use these services".

An regulatory official indicated the decision was founded on "solid data" from the infrastructure manager to prevent possible service disruption on the key rail corridor.

Network Rail did not provide a statement.

Specifics of the Service Changes

The fast service, which reaches London in under two hours, will still depart from Manchester Piccadilly at 07:00 on four weekdays, but will not be available to commuters.

It will, alternatively, ferry company employees from Manchester to London when the updated schedule launches on December 15th.

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

An operator representative clarified they were disappointed with the ORR's determination not to grant operational permissions from December for several daily trains they currently operated, such as the 7:00 AM express train from Manchester to London.

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

"This will clearly impact those customers who currently rely on these services," they stated.

"Nonetheless, we will still be delivering even more trains across our route system from the start of the winter schedule, including more extra trains on our Liverpool line."

The representative confirmed that the services being removed were:

• 7:00 AM GMT: Manchester station to London Euston (Monday to Friday)
• 12:52 PM GMT: Blackpool North – Euston station (Weekdays)
• 9:39 AM GMT: Euston station – 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 Reasoning

An ORR official stated: "Our ruling on the London-Manchester train was based on comprehensive data submitted by the infrastructure operator that adding services within 'firebreak' 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 time slots. If the operator runs the service as empty coaching stock (ECS), ECS can be run more flexibly (held back or re-routed) than a scheduled public train.

"This helps with service reliability and operational restoration during incidents."

The ORR indicated Avanti was previously given the permission to run this train from May 2025 for the duration of a single schedule cycle exclusively.

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

The regulatory body added that under the updated schedule, new open access rail operations, run by First Lumo to Stirling, were due to start.