UK’s busiest long-distance practice line cuts trains for Christmas to ‘save taxpayers’ – however path to Andy Burnham’s Number 10 North avoids the axe’

Hundreds of train services on the UK’s poorly performing West Coast line have been slashed before and after Christmas while the so-called ‘No 10 North line’ has escaped the axe.

Train operator Avanti, which has the worst record for delays in the UK, has been given government approval to cut scores of daily services between December 7 and 23 and from January 4 to 7 to ‘save taxpayers money’.

But while many daily services between London and Birmingham, Liverpool and Crewe will all disappear, the London to Manchester timetable – dubbed ‘the No 10 North Line’ as it carries ministers to Andy Burnham‘s newly set up seat of power in the city – will be left intact.

Avanti, which has just awarded train drivers a 3.6 per cent pay rise, time and a half on Sundays and a 13 per cent pay boost for coming in on their day off, says affected services have been selected on a ‘demand-led timetable’.

Meanwhile it says the Manchester line will remain busy because of the city’s Christmas markets.

But losing the equivalent of thousands of seats on at least 22 other Avanti services a day running from Monday-Thursdays is expected to infuriate more unlucky passengers.

A similar schedule was put in force this summer when one in seven services were axed.

There will also be a reduced timetable between Christmas and New Year because of engineering works which could cause further headaches.

Avanti, which has the worst record for delays in the UK, has been given government approval to cut scores of daily services between December 7 and 23 and from January 4 to 7

But while many services will all disappear, the London to Manchester timetable – dubbed ‘the No 10 North Line’ – will be left intact.

A Whitehall source told today’s Times that the move was designed to reduce the number of ‘ghost trains’ with almost no passengers on the Avanti network.

Avanti has now encouraged passengers to plan ahead and has defended what it says are not technically cancellations because ‘services have been cancelled prior to publication of the timetable’ meaning ‘they have never been in public-facing systems, nor on sale to customers’.

Avanti’s dire delay record has seen only 57.4 per cent of services arriving on time during the latest 12-month period.

It also has the second-worst record for reliability, with 5.6 per cent of scheduled services cancelled, according to official statistics compiled by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR).

Ministers are said to be looking into ways to speed up the planned 2027 nationalisation of the service in exasperation at its performance.

The cost of running the railways has fallen on taxpayers rather than train companies since the cancellation of franchising in March 2020.

The Government said it had agreed to the Avanti service cuts to reduce that burden as its ‘short-term proposals to amend its winter timetable will save taxpayers money by taking empty trains off the line’.

‘Passenger numbers are considerably lower during December, with many trains running with large numbers of empty seats,’ a Department for Transport spokesman said, claiming more services could be laid on ‘should demand be greater than expected’.