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A rail route transporting daily travelers from Manchester to London is scheduled to operate without passengers for approximately a five-month period following a decision by the railway oversight authority.

A ruling by the rail regulatory body implies the 7:00 AM GMT train run by the rail operator from Manchester Piccadilly to London will continue to run but will only be used to transport employees starting the middle of December.

An Avanti West Coast representative expressed they were "let down" with the outcome, which would "clearly impact those customers who regularly take these services".

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

The infrastructure company declined to comment.

Details of the Operational Adjustments

The fast service, which arrives in the capital in less than 120 minutes, will still depart from Manchester station at 7:00 AM on weekday mornings, but will not open to the public.

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

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

An operator spokesperson clarified they were disappointed with the ORR's determination not to grant access rights from December for four weekday services they currently operated, including the 7:00 AM fast service from London from Manchester.

The regulatory body also required a Sunday service which presently operates from London from Holyhead to terminate at Crewe station, they added.

"This will significantly affect those customers who currently rely on these services," they stated.

"Nonetheless, we will still be delivering even more services across our route system from the start of the winter schedule, featuring further additional trains on our Liverpool line."

The representative confirmed that the services being removed were:

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

Regulatory Reasoning

An regulatory official stated: "Our ruling on the Manchester-London service was based on comprehensive data provided by the infrastructure operator that introducing trains within 'firebreak' slots on the West Coast Main Line would have a detrimental impact on reliability.

"We identified that this service would run in one of those time slots. If the operator operates the train as unoccupied train cars (ECS), ECS can be run more flexibly (delayed or redirected) than a booked passenger service.

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

The regulator said the operator was previously given the right to run this service from May 2025 for the period of one timetable period only.

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

The ORR added that under the new timetable, additional independent train services, operated by First Lumo to Stirling, were due to start.