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A rail route that carries commuters from London from Manchester is scheduled to operate without passengers for around a five-month period following a decision by the railway oversight authority.

A verdict by the Office of Rail and Road implies the 7:00 AM GMT service operated by the rail operator from Manchester's main station to London will still operate but will exclusively serve to transport employees from the middle of December.

An operator representative stated they were "let down" with the outcome, which would "clearly impact those customers who already use these trains".

An regulatory spokesperson indicated the judgment was founded on "solid data" from Network Rail to prevent potential operational issues on the West Coast Main Line.

The infrastructure company declined to comment.

Specifics of the Service Changes

The fast service, which arrives in London in under two hours, will continue to leave from Manchester station at 07:00 on four weekdays, but will not be available to the public.

It will, alternatively, ferry company employees from London from Manchester when the updated schedule takes effect on December 15th.

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

An operator spokesperson clarified they were disappointed with the regulator's decision not to grant access rights from the winter period for several daily trains they currently operated, including the 7:00 AM fast service from London from Manchester.

The ORR also required a weekend train which currently runs from London from Holyhead to terminate at Crewe station, they noted.

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

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

The spokesperson verified that the trains being removed were:

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

Regulatory Rationale

An regulatory official explained: "Our ruling on the Manchester-London service was grounded in comprehensive data provided by the infrastructure operator that adding services within 'buffer' paths on the West Coast Main Line would have a negative effect on performance.

"We identified that this service would run in one of those paths. If the operator operates the train 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 service recovery during incidents."

The ORR said the operator was previously given the right to operate this train from May 2025 for the duration of a single schedule cycle exclusively.

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

The regulatory body noted that under the new timetable, additional independent train services, run by the competing operator to Stirling, were due to start.