CrossCountry is a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Arriva UK Trains, operating the New Cross Country franchise. It operates many intercity and other long-distance trains in the UK which do not serve Greater London, including the UK's longest direct rail service from Aberdeen in the north-east of Scotland to Penzance in Cornwall, in the south-west of England. It is one of only two franchised train operating companies that does not operate any stations, the other being the Caledonian Sleeper. All routes call at or terminate at Birmingham New Street.
Video CrossCountry
History
Creation
In June 2006 the Department for Transport announced its intention to restructure a number of franchises. Included was a New Cross Country franchise that would incorporate the existing InterCity Cross Country franchise run by Virgin CrossCountry, less the West Coast Main Line services with the Birmingham to Scotland services transferring to Virgin 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. On 10 July 2007 the Department for Transport 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.
Transfer and withdrawal of services
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.
The tender did not require retention of the services beyond Guildford after December 2008, so the services to Gatwick Airport and Brighton ceased. As a result, all CrossCountry services now completely avoid Greater London.
Additional services
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.
From May 2011 a number of services were extended from Edinburgh to Glasgow to replace East Coast services.
Extension of the franchise
Originally due to conclude on 31 March 2016, the franchise has been extended until December 2019. The Invitation to Tender will be issued in October 2018 and the contract will be awarded in August 2019.
Maps CrossCountry
Services
The company operates medium- and long-distance services that run outside of the London area. The network is centred at Birmingham, and all routes either terminate or pass through Birmingham New Street station. Services can be categorised into two types:
- Inter-City: long-distance, fast services between the South West of England and the North of England or Scotland via Birmingham; these routes are typically operated by Voyagers or HST sets;
- Regional: medium-distance, stopping or semi-fast services between Birmingham and other cities in the Midlands, as well as some longer runs to Wales and West Anglia. These are usually operated by Turbostars.
CrossCountry's official website does show a distinction between the two types of services (for example, each one has a separate timetable booklet), but does not explicitly call them Inter-City and Regional.
Core
As of June 2017, the Monday-Saturday daytime services, with frequencies in trains per hour (tph), include:
These services combine to provide higher frequencies on the following sections:
- Birmingham to Bristol: two trains per hour
- Birmingham to Leicester: two trains per hour
- Birmingham to Manchester: two trains per hour
- Birmingham to Newcastle: two trains per hour (one via Doncaster, one via Leeds)
- Cheltenham to Birmingham: three trains per hour
- Reading to Birmingham: two trains per hour (including one via Coventry)
- Birmingham to Derby: four trains per hour
The Sunday service is mostly similar to the weekday service, 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.
Extensions
The above table shows the basic service pattern; however, a small number of these services are extended beyond their usual destination:
- 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.
Special services
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.
Future services
CrossCountry's current (June 2017) consultation document proposes several improvements to the timetable in December 2017. These include:
- 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 currently have a limited service) would be withdrawn and replaced with extra services run by other operators. These include:
- between Bristol Temple Meads and Bath Spa, replaced by a GWR service;
- between Exeter St Davids and Paignton (except for one early-morning northbound service), replaced by GWR services;
- between Reading and Guildford, replaced by GWR services;
- between Edinburgh Waverley and Aberdeen in the morning and evening (Aberdeen would be served during the day instead), replaced by ScotRail services.
In April 2017, it was announced that the morning and evening services to and from Aberdeen are no longer threatened with withdrawal, after it was revealed that ScotRail would not be able to provide the replacement services.
Proposed services
Plans were included by CrossCountry to reopen a station at Kenilworth. In April 2008 it agreed with Warwickshire Council to draw up a business case.
There is a proposal for a station at Worcester (Norton) Parkway where the Cross Country Route route intersects the Cotswold Line. If built, it will be on two levels, with the low level served by CrossCountry, and the high level by Great Western Railway.
Stations served only by CrossCountry
CrossCountry does not manage any stations. The following stations are served only by CrossCountry but are managed by another train operating company:
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, which is London Midland.
Manea was only served by CrossCountry until 2013, when Greater Anglia started running 1 train every two hours at the station in addition to the CrossCountry services there.
Other route information
To try and create a more pleasurable travelling experience, CrossCountry has designated four stations as alternative changeover stations. Cheltenham Spa, Derby, Leamington Spa and Wolverhampton were selected. The aim here was to make connection times shorter - with the stations selected being much smaller. For example, meaning that passengers travelling from Cardiff to Edinburgh could change at Cheltenham Spa instead of Birmingham New Street reducing transfer times - at Cheltenham Spa both trains would arrive and depart from the same platform. This avoids having to change trains at Birmingham New Street, which is a larger, more complex station. These four stations are marked on the CrossCountry route map, in yellow.
Performance
Latest performance figures released by NR (Network Rail) for this period (period 7 of 2013/2014) report a PPM (Public Performance Measure) of 89.2% and a Moving Annual Average (MAA) up to 12 October 2013 of 87.4%. In early 2017 the paralympian Anne Wafula Strike complained that the company's failure to provide a working disabled accessible toilet had forced her to wet herself on a CrossCountry train.
Rolling stock
CrossCountry services are operated using diesel trains only, since none of the routes it operates are fully electrified.
CrossCountry inherited 34 four-carriage Class 220 Voyagers and 40 five-carriage and 4 four-carriage Class 221 Super Voyagers from Virgin CrossCountry as well as 11 two-carriage and 18 three-carriage Class 170 Turbostars from Central Trains.
In December 2007 Class 221 Super Voyagers 221101 - 113 and 221142 - 144 were transferred to Virgin West Coast with 221114 - 118 following in December 2008.
A franchise commitment was the acquisition of ten Class 43 Power Cars and forty Mark 3 carriages. Midland Mainline had six Class 43 Power Cars and fourteen Mark 3 carriages that were off lease from November 2007 that were leased. The remaining four Class 43 Power Cars were ex Virgin CrossCountry examples in varying states of decay. while the carriages were five ex Virgin CrossCountry Mark 3 carriages and twenty-one ex Virgin West Coast loco hauled Mark 3B carriages. Most had been in store at Long Marston for a few years.
After driver training the ex Midland Mainline sets returned to service in May 2008 on Glasgow and Edinburgh to Plymouth diagrams while the other Class 43 Power Cars were overhauled at Brush Traction including repowering with MTU 16V4000R41 engines and the Mark 3 carriages overhauled at Wabtec, Doncaster to a similar specification as GNER's Mallard refurbishments. Once these were completed the ex Midland Mainline examples were also overhauled.
To operate services to Paignton and Newquay on Summer Saturdays two High Speed Trains were hired from National Express East Coast in 2008. High Speed Trains were hired from East Coast and East Midlands Trains on a number of occasions to operate services from Edinburgh Waverley to Plymouth when HSTs or Voyagers were unavailable
The Class 170 Turbostars were refurbished in 2008 with the three-carriage units repainted at Marcroft Engineering, Stoke on Trent, the two-carriage units at EWS' Toton depot and the interiors done by Transys Projects, Clacton-on-Sea including the fitting of first class seating to the Class 170/5s and 170/6s.
The tilt function on the Class 221 Super Voyagers was removed in 2008. It was no longer required as tilt was not required on the parts of West Coast Main Line that CrossCountry serve. CrossCountry says this change will improve the trains' reliability and reduce maintenance costs.
The Class 220 Voyagers and Class 221 Super Voyagers underwent refurbishment at Bombardier Transportation's Derby Litchurch Lane Works in 2008/09. This involved removing the shop, adding 25% extra luggage space and fourteen extra standard class seats to the Class 220 Voyagers and 20% extra luggage space and sixteen standard class seats to the Class 221 Super Voyagers. The interiors were given a refresh in 2011/12 with the standard class seats recovered in the existing red and blue moquette and first class done with a maroon moquette. In summer 2014, CrossCountry began removing the quiet coach designation from such vehicles in its Voyager sets, believing them to be outdated and take up an excessive amount of space on a four-car unit. It is retaining the quiet coaches on its five HST sets.
See also
- Arriva UK Trains
- Cross Country Route
- Deutsche Bahn AG
- Inter-city rail in the United Kingdom
Notes
References
External links
Media related to CrossCountry at Wikimedia Commons
- CrossCountry official website
- Arriva corporate website
- Central Trains Remapping
- Briefing Document
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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