Avanti West Coast is to cut 22 daily train services during the run-up to Christmas, with Crewe among the stations affected.

The operator will introduce a demand-led timetable between Monday 7 December and Wednesday 23 December, removing services between London, Birmingham, Liverpool and Crewe.

The changes are expected to remove thousands of seats from the West Coast Main Line timetable during the busy Christmas period.

However, Avanti says services between London and Manchester will not be affected by the cuts. Those trains serve Crewe.

The operator said the Manchester route would be maintained because of expected demand from visitors travelling to the city's Christmas markets.

A reduced timetable will also operate between Christmas and New Year due to planned engineering works.

Passengers travelling from Crewe during December have been urged to plan ahead.

An Avanti spokesman said: "We'd like to encourage customers planning to make journeys during this time to plan ahead, and we thank them for their understanding."

The cuts are being introduced as part of a cost-saving plan agreed with the Government.

The Department for Transport said passenger numbers are considerably lower during December, with some trains running with large numbers of empty seats.

A DfT spokesman said Avanti's proposals would "save taxpayers money by taking empty trains off the line".

The Government said the timetable would be demand-responsive, meaning services could be increased if passenger numbers were higher than expected. Weekend service levels will also be maintained.

The changes come as Avanti continues to face criticism over its performance.

Office of Rail and Road figures show 57.4 per cent of Avanti services arrived on time during the latest 12-month period.

The operator also had a cancellation rate of 5.6 per cent, making it the second-worst performing operator for reliability over the period.

Avanti services are due to be brought into public ownership in 2027, as part of the Government's plans to nationalise Britain's railways.

The Crewe-London-Manchester route has been dubbed the "No 10 North" line because of its importance in connecting Westminster with Manchester.

Avanti stressed that the services being removed from the timetable had not been available for passengers to book.

An Avanti spokesman said: "Services have been cancelled prior to publication of the timetable. They have never been in public-facing systems, nor on sale to customers. To report they have been cancelled would be inaccurate."

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