{"id":14457,"date":"2026-01-21T21:45:47","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T21:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=14457"},"modified":"2026-01-21T21:45:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T21:45:47","slug":"decision-to-run-manchester-to-london-ghost-train-uninformed-regulator-admits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=14457","title":{"rendered":"Decision to run Manchester to London ‘ghost train’ ‘uninformed’, regulator admits"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\n

Katy Austin<\/span>Transport correspondent<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

The rail regulator has admitted it “did not have all the facts” when it decided to not allow passengers on a peak-time train service between Manchester and London.<\/p>\n

The Office of Road and Rail (ORR) said it was missing “critical points” when it made a decision that would have turned the service into a ‘ghost train’ running daily for months.<\/p>\n

ORR chief executive John Larkinson said his organisation did not know the train would be “fully crewed”, would leave from Manchester Piccadilly rather than a depot, and that it had to get to Euston to become the 09:30 GMT service to Glasgow.<\/p>\n

“The information that later became available to us meant that our assumption turned out to be incorrect,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

It comes after the ORR in November faced a backlash over its decision to allow the popular 07:00 train to run, but carrying only staff.<\/p>\n

The decision, which would have taken effect from mid-December, was quickly reversed after significant criticism, including from Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander.<\/p>\n

The ORR had justified the decision by saying the service had to run empty so its slot could be used as a firebreak – a planned gap in the timetable in case of delays.<\/p>\n

But, in a letter to the chair of Parliament’s Transport Committee, Ruth Cadbury, Larkinson said the facts which later came to light meant the slot could no longer be considered an effective firebreak.<\/p>\n

Larkinson said the ORR team assessing the application didn’t ask Avanti for further information, which would have made the points clear.<\/p>\n

He said if the ORR team had contacted Avanti, its decision “may have been different, but they were stretched and trying to close out multiple interacting decisions”.<\/p>\n

He added that the ORR was dealing at the time with 82 “complex and competing” applications for track access.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Even when the train operating company complained in early November, the points they made were not “escalated appropriately”, his letter said.<\/p>\n

Larkinson described it as “an unusual case, but nevertheless one we will learn from”.<\/p>\n

He added: “I take full responsibility for what happened and we are strengthening our processes to reflect the lessons we have learned.”<\/p>\n

A statement in response from Cadbury, the Labour MP for Brentford and Isleworth, said: “The public was understandably baffled by the ORR’s decision not to allow the 7am fast service from Manchester to London to carry passengers when a fully crewed train was running anyway.<\/p>\n

“On the face of it, this was a strange decision – especially when the train was popular and profitable – and one that the Transport Committee had a number of questions about.<\/p>\n

“Now we have some answers, a detailed explanation for why this happened and a welcome recognition of responsibility.”<\/p>\n

She said the committee will look for ways to avoid similar instances in the future as the government establishes Great British Railways.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

#Decision #run #Manchester #London #ghost #train #uninformed #regulator #admits<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Katy AustinTransport correspon… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[242],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14457"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}