CrossCountry - A

 

The CrossCountry franchise was restructured by the Department for Transport (DfT) in 2006, incorporating elements of both the Central Trains and the Virgin CrossCountry franchises, ahead of its invitation to tender on October of that year. On 10 July 2007, the DfT announced that Arriva had been awarded the New Cross Country franchise.

 

CrossCountry is one of only two franchised train operating companies that does not manage any stations, the other being Caledonian Sleeper. CrossCountry's services have been periodically disrupted by industrial action amongst its staff, often due to disputes over rostering and pay. 

 

At the commencement of operations, CrossCountry's rolling stock consisted of 34 four-car Class 220 Voyagers and 40 five-car and 4 four-car Class 221 Super Voyagers from Virgin CrossCountry as well as 11 two-car and 18 three-car Class 170 Turbostars from Central Trains.

 

As per its franchise agreement, it obtained ten Class 43 power cars and forty Mark 3 carriages to operate on services that required greater seating capacity, while some Super Voyagers were transferred to Virgin West Coast.

 

Overhauls of the Voyager & Super Voyager fleets were performed, the removal of the shop to fit more seating and storage being a prominent change, the Mark 3 carriages were also refurbished to provide suitable amenities for modern travellers. Both the Super Voyagers and Turbostar fleets have been extended where possible to provide more capacity.

 

The company's network is centred around Birmingham New Street. It operates intercity and other long-distance passenger trains across Great Britain, but does not serve Greater London. It operates the UK's longest direct rail passenger service, from Aberdeen in the north-east of Scotland to Penzance in western Cornwall, which has a journey time of more than 13 hours.

 

While some services on the West Coast Main Line were promptly discontinued with the introduction of a new timetable on 9 December 2007, with some transferring over to both Virgin Trains West Coast and to First TransPennine Express, new services, such as a daily Nottingham to Bournemouth service introduced during December 2008, were also implemented.

 

CrossCountry has designated four stations as alternative changeover stations: Cheltenham Spa, Derby, Leamington Spa and Wolverhampton. Special services have occasionally been run, such as between Bournemouth and Weymouth in support of the Sailing at the 2012 Olympics & Paralympics.