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A rail route transporting commuters from London from Manchester is set to operate without passengers for around five months due to a determination by the rail regulator.

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

An Avanti West Coast representative stated they were "let down" with the outcome, which would "definitely affect those passengers who regularly take these services".

An ORR spokesperson indicated the judgment was based on "solid data" from Network Rail to prevent potential service disruption on the West Coast Main Line.

Network Rail declined to comment.

Specifics of the Service Changes

The fast service, which arrives in the capital in less than 120 minutes, will still depart from Manchester Piccadilly at 07:00 on four weekdays, but will not be available to commuters.

It will, instead, ferry Avanti staff from London from Manchester when the updated schedule takes effect on 15 December.

The decision means the train could operate for more than 100 journeys without paying passengers on the train.

An Avanti West Coast representative confirmed they were displeased with the ORR's determination not to grant operational permissions from the winter period for four weekday services they presently run, such as the 07:00 express train from Manchester to London.

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

"It will significantly affect those passengers who currently rely on these services," they stated.

"Nonetheless, we will continue to provide even more services across our route system from the start of the winter schedule, featuring more extra trains on our Liverpool line."

The spokesperson confirmed that the services being withdrawn were:

• 07:00 GMT: Manchester station to London Euston (Weekdays)
• 12:52 PM GMT: Blackpool station – London Euston (Weekdays)
• 9:39 AM GMT: London Euston – Blackpool station (Monday to Friday)
• 19:32 GMT: Chester – Euston station (Weekdays)
• 5:53 PM GMT: Holyhead – Euston station terminates at Crewe (Sunday)

Regulatory Reasoning

An ORR official stated: "Our ruling on the Manchester-London service was grounded in robust evidence provided by the infrastructure operator that adding services within 'buffer' paths on the West Coast Main Line would have a detrimental impact on performance.

"We identified that this service would run in one of those time slots. If Avanti runs the service as empty coaching stock (ECS), ECS can be operated with greater flexibility (delayed or redirected) than a booked passenger service.

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

The ORR indicated the operator was previously given the permission to operate this train from spring 2025 for the period 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 those trains are anticipated to start operating during the December 2025 schedule update.

The ORR added that under the updated schedule, new open access rail operations, operated by First Lumo to Stirling, Scotland, were due to start.