Avanti West Coast, the UK's poorly performing long-distance rail operator, has been given government approval to cut scores of daily services on its West Coast Main Line before and after Christmas, with the exception of the London to Manchester route, which critics have dubbed the "No 10 North Line" because it serves Andy Burnham's Greater Manchester power base. The cuts, running from 7 to 23 December and 4 to 7 January, are being framed by Avanti and the Department for Transport as a cost-saving measure that removes near-empty "ghost trains" from the network, but the decision to spare the Manchester line while axing services to Birmingham, Liverpool and Crewe has raised questions over fairness given the operator's poor reliability record.

Avanti says at least 22 other daily services between Monday and Thursday will lose the equivalent of thousands of seats, with the Manchester line kept intact because of demand from the city's Christmas markets, while a reduced timetable will also run between Christmas and New Year due to engineering works. The move follows a similar summer schedule that saw one in seven services axed, and comes despite Avanti recently awarding train drivers a 3.6 per cent pay rise plus enhanced Sunday and rest-day pay. Official Office of Rail and Road figures show only 57.4 per cent of Avanti services arrived on time in the latest 12 months, with 5.6 per cent cancelled, the second-worst reliability record in the country, prompting ministers to reportedly consider accelerating the operator's planned 2027 nationalisation.