Decision to run Manchester to London ghost train uninformed, regulator admits

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.

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.

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.

“The information that later became available to us meant that our assumption turned out to be incorrect,” he said.

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.

The decision, which would have taken effect from mid-December, was quickly reversed after significant criticism.

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.

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.

Larkinson said the ORR team assessing the application didn’t ask Avanti for further information, which would have made the points clear.

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”.

He added that the ORR was dealing at the time with 82 “complex and competing” applications for track access.

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

Larkinson described it as “an unusual case, but nevertheless one we will learn from”.

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

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.

“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.

“Now we have some answers, a detailed explanation for why this happened and a welcome recognition of responsibility.”

She said the committee will look for ways to avoid similar instances in the future as the government establishes Great British Railways.

The ORR said it has “a good track record” of striking the right balance.

A spokesperson said: “In this instance we were given new information after our decision was made which we did not properly consider, although we should have done and as a result, we missed the opportunity to re-visit our decision.

“When all the facts were made clear, we moved quickly to maintain the service for passengers.”