Overview
- The Office of Rail and Road has authorised Network Rail and Avanti to keep the 7am weekday service in the passenger timetable from 15 December.
- The regulator said the train could still affect reliability and asked operators to put mitigation in place to protect West Coast Main Line performance.
- The reversal comes after a weekend outcry from ministers and northern leaders over an earlier ruling that would have turned the train into crew-only empty coaching stock for months.
- Avanti welcomed the move, calling the sub-two-hour, Stockport-only stop service a key link that reaches London before 9am.
- The original access decision also removed four other weekday services and truncated a Sunday Holyhead train, with the ORR citing the need to protect paths as new Lumo Stirling open-access services begin.