A POPULAR seaside town will be losing half of its direct trains to and from London next week.
Currently, there are four direct trains a day between London and Blackpool, operated by Avanti West Coast.
The service currently operates Monday to Friday.
However, they have confirmed that changes to the timetable means that the four daily services from Blackpool will be reduced to two – one in each direction.
The two routes being scrapped are the 9:39am London to Blackpool North service, and the 12:52pm Blackpool North to London service.
The routes that will continue to run include the 5:35am Blackpool North to London Euston route and the 5:40pm London Euston to Blackpool North route.
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Instead, they will be increasing routes between Blackpool and Liverpool as well as restarting a morning route from Manchester.
Avanti West Coast slammed the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) who are the economic and safety regulator, regarding the new restrictions being introduced.
An Avanti West Coast spokesperson said: “We are disappointed with the Office of Rail and Road’s decision not to grant access rights from December for three weekday services that we currently operate, including the 09:39 London to Blackpool North service, and the 12:52 Blackpool North to London service.
“This will clearly impact those customers who already use these services.
“However, we will still be delivering even more services across our network from the start of the December timetable, including further additional trains on our Liverpool route.”
An ORR spokesperson said they “recognised passengers would be disappointed”.
However, they explained: “In every timetable change train operators bid to add or amend services, and we are informed in our decision making by what Network Rail tells us is possible.
“In this case, Network Rail provided evidence and recommended that ORR decline the applications to secure better reliability on the network as a whole.
“We would welcome the opportunity to work with Network Rail and train operators should they consider that there is room for these services in future timetables.”
Several commuters who use the route have taken to social media to express their thoughts on the news.
One said: “Another kick in the teeth for Blackpool.”
Another added: “The reason why no one is using Avanti, is because the prices of their train tickets is crazy.
“Avanti trains are always cancelled or delayed. Get rid of them!”
News of the route cancellations come as a blow to the seaside town that is hoping to attract more tourists as it plans to spend £459,000 on revamping its major tourist attractions.
This includes the Winter Gardens, which first opened back in 1878.
A £300million project is also in the works to improve Blackpool’s Golden Mile, with a new indoor entertainment complex with rides, restaurants and bars.
Last month, passengers were left furious as Avanti revealed it would run an empty ghost train to London.
The rail regulator ruled that the weekday morning service from Manchester to London would run without passengers for five months.
A spokesperson for the ORR told the BBC that the decision was based on “robust evidence” from Network Rail, arguing that running the service with no passengers would allow more flexibility to better assist with “service recovery”.
However, this has since been reversed.
In other rail news, here’s the first look at the new Great British Railways trains being rolled out across the UK.
Plus, Eurostar reveals plans for direct trains from UK to new European country for first time ever.