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

A verdict by the rail regulatory body means the 7:00 AM GMT train operated by the rail operator from Manchester's main station to London will still operate but will exclusively serve to carry staff starting the middle of December.

An operator representative stated they were "let down" with the decision, which would "definitely affect those passengers who regularly take these trains".

An regulatory official indicated the judgment was based on "solid data" from Network Rail to guard against potential service disruption on the key rail corridor.

Network Rail declined to comment.

Details of the Service Changes

The express train, which arrives in London in under two hours, will continue to leave from Manchester station at 7:00 AM on four weekdays, but will not open to commuters.

It will, alternatively, ferry Avanti staff from London from Manchester when the updated schedule launches on 15 December.

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

An operator spokesperson clarified they were displeased with the ORR's determination not to grant operational permissions from the winter period for four weekday services they currently operated, including the 07:00 express train from London from Manchester.

The regulatory body also mandated a weekend train which currently runs from Holyhead to London to terminate at Crewe, they noted.

"It will significantly affect those customers who already use these trains," they said.

"However, we will continue to provide additional trains across our network from the start of the winter schedule, including more extra trains on our Liverpool route."

The representative confirmed that the services being withdrawn were:

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

Oversight Reasoning

An ORR spokesperson explained: "Our ruling on the London-Manchester train was grounded in robust evidence provided by Network Rail that introducing trains within 'firebreak' slots on the main rail line would have a detrimental impact on reliability.

"We identified that this train would run in one of those paths. If Avanti operates the train as empty coaching stock (ECS), ECS can be operated with greater flexibility (delayed or re-routed) than a scheduled public train.

"This helps with performance management and operational restoration during incidents."

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

This was on the condition that First Lumo's Stirling services were not operating at the time but the those trains are anticipated to start operating during the December 2025 timetable period.

The regulatory body added that under the new timetable, new open access rail operations, run by First Lumo to Stirling, were due to start.