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A rail route transporting commuters from Manchester to London is set to operate without passengers for around five months due to a decision by the railway oversight authority.

A verdict by the rail regulatory body means the 07:00 GMT service run by the rail operator from Manchester Piccadilly to London will still operate but will only be used to carry staff from mid-December.

An operator spokesperson stated they were "disappointed" with the decision, which would "clearly impact those customers who regularly take these services".

An ORR official indicated the judgment was founded on "solid data" from the infrastructure manager to prevent potential operational issues on the West Coast Main Line.

Network Rail did not provide a statement.

Specifics of the Service Changes

The express train, which reaches London in under two hours, will still depart from Manchester Piccadilly at 7:00 AM on four weekdays, but will not be available to the public.

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

The decision implies the service could run for over a hundred journeys without fare-paying customers on board.

An operator representative confirmed they were displeased with the regulator's decision not to grant operational permissions from December for several daily trains they currently operated, such as the 7:00 AM fast service from London from Manchester.

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

"This will significantly affect those customers who already use these trains," they stated.

"However, we will continue to provide additional trains 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 removed were:

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

Oversight Reasoning

An regulatory spokesperson stated: "Our ruling on the Manchester-London train was based on robust evidence submitted by Network Rail that adding services within 'buffer' slots on the West Coast Main Line would have a detrimental impact on reliability.

"It was determined that this service would operate within one of those time slots. If Avanti operates the service as unoccupied train cars (ECS), ECS can be operated with greater flexibility (delayed or re-routed) than a scheduled public train.

"This can assist with performance management and service recovery during disruption."

The regulator indicated Avanti was earlier granted the permission to operate this train from spring 2025 for the duration of a single schedule cycle exclusively.

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

The regulatory body added that under the updated schedule, additional independent rail operations, run by the competing operator to Stirling, Scotland, were due to start.