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

A ruling by the Office of Rail and Road implies the 07:00 GMT service run by the rail operator from Manchester Piccadilly to London will continue to run but will exclusively serve to transport employees from the middle of December.

An Avanti West Coast representative stated they were "disappointed" with the outcome, which would "clearly impact those passengers who regularly take these services".

An regulatory official indicated the judgment was based on "solid data" from Network Rail to guard against possible operational issues on the key rail corridor.

The infrastructure company did not provide a statement.

Details of the Operational Adjustments

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, alternatively, transport company employees from Manchester to London when the updated schedule takes effect on December 15th.

The ruling means the service could run for over a hundred journeys without paying passengers on board.

An Avanti West Coast representative clarified they were disappointed with the regulator's decision not to grant operational permissions from the winter period for several daily trains they currently operated, including the 07:00 fast service from Manchester to London.

The ORR also mandated a Sunday service which currently runs from London from Holyhead to terminate at Crewe, they added.

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

"However, we will continue to provide even more trains across our route system from the beginning of the December timetable, including further additional trains on our Liverpool route."

The spokesperson verified that the services being withdrawn were:

• 07:00 GMT: Manchester Piccadilly to Euston station (Weekdays)
• 12:52 PM GMT: Blackpool North – Euston station (Monday to Friday)
• 9:39 AM GMT: Euston station – Blackpool station (Monday to Friday)
• 7:32 PM GMT: Chester – Euston station (Weekdays)
• 5:53 PM GMT: Holyhead station – Euston station ends at Crewe station (Sundays)

Oversight Rationale

An regulatory official stated: "Our decision on the Manchester-London train was grounded in comprehensive data provided by Network Rail that introducing trains within 'firebreak' slots on the West Coast Main Line would have a detrimental impact on performance.

"We identified that this service would operate within one of those paths. If the operator operates the train as empty coaching stock (ECS), ECS can be operated with greater flexibility (delayed or redirected) than a scheduled public train.

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

The ORR said the operator was earlier granted the right to run this train from May 2025 for the period of a single schedule cycle only.

This was on the condition that First Lumo's Scottish trains were not running at the time but the First Lumo services are anticipated to start operating during the December 2025 schedule update.

The ORR added that under the new timetable, new open access rail operations, operated by the competing operator to Stirling, were due to start.