Manchester to London Train to Operate Devoid of Commuters

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

A ruling by the rail regulatory body implies the 07:00 GMT train operated by the rail operator from Manchester Piccadilly to the capital will continue to run but will exclusively serve to transport staff starting mid-December.

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

An ORR official explained the decision was based on "robust evidence" from the infrastructure manager to guard against potential operational issues on the key rail corridor.

The infrastructure company did not provide a statement.

Details of the Service Changes

The express train, which reaches the capital in under two hours, will continue to leave from Manchester station at 07:00 on four weekdays, but will not open to the public.

It will, alternatively, ferry Avanti staff from Manchester to London when the new timetable launches on December 15th.

The decision means the train could operate for over a hundred journeys without fare-paying customers on the train.

An Avanti West Coast spokesperson confirmed they were displeased with the ORR's determination not to grant operational permissions from December for several daily trains they presently run, such as the 07:00 express train from Manchester to London.

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

"This will clearly impact those customers who currently rely on these trains," they said.

"Nonetheless, we will continue to provide even more trains across our network from the start of the winter schedule, featuring further additional trains on our Liverpool route."

The representative confirmed that the services being removed were:

• 7:00 AM GMT: Manchester station to London Euston (Weekdays)
• 12:52 PM GMT: Blackpool North – London Euston (Weekdays)
• 09:39 GMT: London Euston – Blackpool North (Monday to Friday)
• 7:32 PM GMT: Chester station – London Euston (Monday to Friday)
• 5:53 PM GMT: Holyhead station – Euston station ends at Crewe (Sundays)

Regulatory Reasoning

An regulatory spokesperson explained: "Our ruling on the London-Manchester service was based on comprehensive data provided by Network Rail that adding services within 'firebreak' paths on the West Coast Main Line would have a detrimental impact on performance.

"It was determined that this train would run in one of those time slots. If Avanti operates the service as unoccupied train cars (ECS), ECS can be run more flexibly (delayed or re-routed) than a booked passenger service.

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

The ORR indicated the operator was earlier granted the right to run this train from May 2025 for the duration of one timetable period only.

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

The ORR added that under the new timetable, new open access rail operations, run by the competing operator to Stirling, were scheduled to commence.