CrossCountry

In June 2006 the Department for Transport announced its intention to restructure a number of franchises.[2] The changes created a 'New Cross Country' franchise that would incorporate the existing InterCity Cross Country franchise run by Virgin CrossCountry, without the West Coast Main Line services (with the Birmingham to Scotland services transferring to Virgin Trains West Coast and the Manchester to Scotland services transferring to First TransPennine Express). Some services from the Central Trains franchise were to be added.

In October 2006 the Department for Transport issued the invitation to tender to the shortlisted bidders: Arriva, FirstGroup, National Express and Virgin Rail Group.[3] On 10 July 2007 the department announced that Arriva had won the New Cross Country franchise, with the services operated by Virgin CrossCountry transferring to CrossCountry on 11 November 2007 along with the Cardiff to Nottingham and Birmingham to Stansted Airport services from Central Trains.[4][5]

After taking over the franchise, CrossCountry continued to operate the existing timetable including the West Coast Main Line services for four weeks. When the new timetable commenced on 9 December 2007, the Birmingham to Edinburgh and Glasgow services transferred to Virgin Trains West Coast and the Manchester to Edinburgh and Glasgow services transferred to First TransPennine Express.[6]

The tender did not require retention of the services beyond Guildford after December 2008, so the services to Gatwick Airport and Brighton ceased.[7][8] As a result, all CrossCountry services now completely avoid Greater London.

From December 2008 a daily Nottingham to Bournemouth service was introduced.

From December 2010 a number of services from Newcastle were extended from Reading to Southampton.[9]

From May 2011 a number of services were extended from Edinburgh to Glasgow to replace East Coast services.[10]

Originally due to conclude on 31 March 2016, the franchise was extended until December 2019.[11] An Invitation to Tender was to be issued in October 2018 for the next franchise,[12] but in September 2018 the competition was cancelled to allow the recommendations from a report into the franchise system to be incorporated.[13] In July 2019 the Direct Award Franchise was further extended by a year (13 railway Reporting Periods), to end in October 2020[14] but in September 2020 it was announced that emergency agreements with train operating companies introduced due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom were to be extended for 18 months and that all passenger rail franchising in Great Britain was abandoned.[15] In October 2020, the DfT confirmed that the franchise has been extended for a further three years to finish in October 2023.[16]

In November and December 2017, CrossCountry on-board train managers and senior conductors affiliated with the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) staged five 24-hour and two 48-hour strikes in an industrial dispute regarding staff rostering, in particular in relation to working on Sundays.[17][18][19][20] Further strikes were planned for January 2018, however, these were cancelled after CrossCountry and the RMT came to an agreement over staff working conditions on 11 January.[21]

Separate strike action was later threatened by the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) union later that month, with strikes planned for 26 January. These were in relation to CrossCountry staff being offered a 1% pay rise, compared to a 3.3% pay rise for staff at other Arriva-owned train operating companies. The planned industrial action by the TSSA was later cancelled, after CrossCountry agreed to match their demands for an equal pay rise.[22]

As of May 2020, the Monday-Saturday daytime services, with frequencies in trains per hour (tph), include:[26][27]

Route map (June 2019)

These services combine to provide higher frequencies between Birmingham and the following major destinations:

• Wolverhampton, Stoke-on-Trent and Manchester: two trains per hour
• Derby: four trains per hour
  • Sheffield, York, Darlington and Newcastle: two trains per hour (one via Doncaster, one via Leeds)
  • Nottingham: two trains per hour
• Leicester: two trains per hour
• Leamington Spa, Oxford and Reading: two trains per hour (including one via Coventry)
• Cheltenham: three trains per hour
  • Bristol: two trains per hour

The Sunday service pattern is mostly similar to the weekday one, except that the hourly Birmingham - Nottingham services do not run while the other services do not start until late morning or early afternoon, and often have a slightly different stopping pattern.[26][27]

Due to emergency travel restrictions introduced in 2020 by the Government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a reduced timetable was introduced in December 2020 and which remains in place until further notice.

Class 220 Voyager 220011 at Newton Abbot

The above table shows the basic service pattern; however, a small number of these services are extended beyond their usual destination:[26]

• from Plymouth to Penzance;
• from Bristol Temple Meads to Cardiff Central, Bath Spa, Exeter St Davids, Paignton, Plymouth and Penzance,

as well as Newquay on summer weekends;

• from Reading to Guildford;
• from Edinburgh Waverley to Dundee and Aberdeen;
• from Newcastle to Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Central;

via Crewe either in lieu of, or in addition to Stoke-on-Trent.

A Cross Country Service departs Bristol Temple Meads for Glasgow Central

CrossCountry extended some of its Bournemouth services to Weymouth for the Sailing at the 2012 Olympics & Paralympics. There were two services Monday to Saturday in each direction with one in each direction on Sundays. These ran express to Weymouth from Bournemouth. One train also operated a Weymouth to Bournemouth return journey, calling at Wareham and Poole.[28]

In December 2016, CrossCountry published a consultation document for changes to the timetable proposed to be implemented in December 2017. These included:[29]

• Extending all hourly Bristol–Manchester services to and from Exeter St Davids, providing a total of two trains per hour between Exeter and Birmingham;
• Increasing the frequency of services during peak times on several routes;
• An additional service to and from Aberdeen running in the early afternoon.

To allow these changes to take place, all CrossCountry services on some routes (which had a limited service) would be withdrawn and replaced with extra services run by other operators. These included:

• between Bristol Temple Meads and Bath Spa, replaced by a Great Western Railway service;
• between Exeter St Davids and Paignton (except for one early-morning northbound service), replaced by Great Western Railway services;
• between Reading and Guildford, replaced by Great Western Railway services;
• between Edinburgh Waverley and Aberdeen in the morning and evening (Aberdeen would be served during the day instead), replaced by ScotRail services.[lower-alpha 7]

In April 2017, it was announced the proposed changes would not be proceeding.[30]

CrossCountry does not manage any stations. The following stations are served only by CrossCountry but are managed by other train operating companies:

The high-level platforms at Tamworth are served only by CrossCountry, but are not considered a separate station from the low-level platforms. The whole station is therefore managed by the main operator of the low-level platforms, West Midlands Trains.

Manea was served only by CrossCountry until 2013, when Abellio Greater Anglia started running one train every two hours at the station in addition to the CrossCountry services there.

Worcestershire Parkway opened in February 2020 where the Cross Country Route intersects the Cotswold line. It was built on two levels, with the low level to be served by CrossCountry, and the high level by Great Western Railway.[31][32]

To improve the travelling experience, CrossCountry has designated four stations as alternative changeover stations: these are Cheltenham Spa, Derby, Leamington Spa and Wolverhampton. Connection times can be shorter at these smaller stations. For example, passengers travelling from Cardiff to Edinburgh could change at Cheltenham – where both their trains use the same platform – instead of Birmingham New Street, a larger, more complex station. These four stations are marked on the CrossCountry route map in yellow.

Six of the existing two-car Class 170/5s will be lengthened to three cars in 2021. This is happening as a result of the Class 170s from West Midlands Trains transferring to East Midlands Railway: the centre cars of the six 170/6s transferred to CrossCountry.[52][53][54]

A proposal has also been made to use Class 222s cascaded from East Midlands Railway in the future to provide extra capacity.[52]