"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."
"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."
The Office of Road and Rail (ORR) admitted it lacked critical facts when it decided to bar passengers from a peak Manchester–London service that would have run as a 'ghost train' daily. The regulator did not know the train would be fully crewed, would depart Manchester Piccadilly rather than a depot, and needed to reach Euston to form the 09:30 Glasgow service. The ORR intended to use the empty train as a timetable firebreak. The assessment team did not seek further information from Avanti and failed to escalate complaints appropriately while managing many complex track-access applications.
Read at www.bbc.com
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