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A train service that carries commuters from London from Manchester is scheduled to run empty for around five months due to a decision by the rail regulator.

A ruling by the Office of Rail and Road implies the 07:00 GMT service run by Avanti West Coast from Manchester's main station to the capital will continue to run but will exclusively serve to carry employees from the middle of December.

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

An ORR spokesperson indicated the decision was founded on "robust evidence" from the infrastructure manager to prevent possible service disruption on the West Coast Main Line.

Network Rail declined to comment.

Specifics of the Service Changes

The express train, which reaches the capital in less than 120 minutes, will still depart from Manchester Piccadilly at 7:00 AM on weekday mornings, but will not open to commuters.

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

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

An Avanti West Coast spokesperson confirmed they were displeased with the regulator's determination not to approve access rights from December for four weekday services they currently operated, including the 7:00 AM express train from Manchester to London.

The ORR also mandated a Sunday service which presently operates from Holyhead to London to end at Crewe, they noted.

"This will significantly affect those passengers who currently rely on these trains," they stated.

"However, we will continue to provide even more trains across our network from the start of the December timetable, 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 GMT: Blackpool North – London Euston (Monday to Friday)
• 9:39 AM GMT: Euston station – Blackpool North (Monday to Friday)
• 7:32 PM GMT: Chester station – London Euston (Monday to Friday)
• 5:53 PM GMT: Holyhead – London Euston terminates at Crewe (Sundays)

Oversight Rationale

An ORR spokesperson explained: "Our ruling on the Manchester-London train was grounded in comprehensive data provided by Network Rail that introducing trains within 'buffer' slots on the main rail line would have a detrimental impact 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 booked passenger service.

"This can assist with service reliability and operational restoration during incidents."

The regulator indicated Avanti was earlier granted the permission to run this service from spring 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 moment but the First Lumo services are anticipated to start running during the December 2025 schedule update.

The regulatory body noted that under the updated schedule, new open access train services, operated by the competing operator to Stirling, Scotland, were due to start.