Avanti West Coast is to cut about one in seven trains on its busiest intercity routes this summer to reduce costs.
The train operator said it was reducing its timetable between London Euston and Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester in response to a government request to lower spending.
It normally runs 248 daily services on the affected routes, and will remove 38 weekday trains from the timetable during the summer months when demand is lower.
The Department for Transport (DfT), led by the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, has approved the revised timetable, which will take effect from 20 July.
The affected trains will be removed from the schedules before becoming available for advance ticket purchases online.
The threatened 7.00am Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston fast service, reinstated after an uproar in December, will remain running.
The government has been looking to reduce the overall spend on rail, with annual net funding having remained at about £12bn in the years since the Covid pandemic.
Avanti said the “demand-led timetabling” would only affect routes where there were alternative trains to cause minimal disruption, and should not reduce revenue.
The operator, which runs fast intercity trains between London and Glasgow on the west coast mainline, has by some distance the worst punctuality record in national rail, according to the latest statistics from the Office of Rail and Road.
However, surveys suggest customer satisfaction has improved, and Avanti has greatly increased the number of services running since its Covid troubles, when drivers refused to work overtime and it was forced to slash its timetable.
An Avanti West Coast spokesperson said: “From 20 July to 28 August, we will be operating an amended timetable between London and Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester on weekdays.
“To ensure minimal impact to those travelling between the affected dates, these changes will only affect routes on which we operate more than one train per hour, during typically less busy periods of the day – maximising alternative journey options.
“We’d like to encourage customers planning to make journeys during this time to plan ahead, and thank them for their understanding.”
A DfT spokesperson said: “The secretary of state has accepted Avanti’s short-term proposals to amend its weekday summer timetable, when passenger numbers are considerably lower and many trains run with large numbers of empty seats.
“This will save taxpayers’ money while still meeting passenger demand for seats.”
Train services run by Avanti are expected to be nationalised early in 2027, as the government returns operations to public ownership under Great British Railways.
The operator said the latest reduction in services was not because of a lack of resources.
Like all remaining franchised train operators, it is tightly contracted to the DfT. Avanti has had a chequered history with state funding, which was described in slides leaked from an internal management meeting in 2024 as “free money”.
