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A rail route transporting daily travelers from Manchester to London is set to operate without passengers for around a five-month period following a decision by the rail regulator.

A ruling by the Office of Rail and Road implies the 7:00 AM GMT service run by the rail operator from Manchester's main station to the capital will still operate but will only be used to transport employees from the middle of December.

An Avanti West Coast spokesperson expressed they were "disappointed" with the outcome, which would "definitely affect those customers who regularly take these services".

An ORR official indicated the judgment was founded on "solid data" from the infrastructure manager to guard against potential service disruption on the West Coast Main Line.

The infrastructure company declined to comment.

Details of the Service Changes

The express train, which arrives in London in less than 120 minutes, will continue to leave from Manchester station at 07:00 on four weekdays, but will not be available to commuters.

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

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

An Avanti West Coast spokesperson confirmed they were displeased with the ORR's decision not to grant operational permissions from December for four weekday services they currently operated, including the 7:00 AM fast service from London from Manchester.

The regulatory body also required a Sunday service which presently operates from Holyhead to London to terminate at Crewe, they noted.

"It will clearly impact those customers who already use these trains," they said.

"However, we will continue to provide additional services across our network from the start of the winter schedule, including further additional trains on our Liverpool route."

The representative verified that the trains being withdrawn were:

• 07:00 GMT: Manchester station to London Euston (Weekdays)
• 12:52 PM GMT: Blackpool station – Euston station (Monday to Friday)
• 09:39 GMT: Euston station – Blackpool North (Monday to Friday)
• 7:32 PM GMT: Chester station – London Euston (Weekdays)
• 17:53 GMT: Holyhead station – London Euston terminates at Crewe (Sundays)

Regulatory Reasoning

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

"We identified that this service would operate within one of those paths. If Avanti runs the service as empty coaching stock (ECS), ECS can be operated with greater flexibility (held back or redirected) than a booked passenger service.

"This can assist with service reliability and service recovery during disruption."

The ORR said the operator was earlier granted the permission to run this service from spring 2025 for the duration of a single schedule cycle only.

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

The ORR added that under the new timetable, new open access train services, run by First Lumo to Stirling, were due to start.