CrossCountry - CrossCountry Rolling Stock - I

 

 

CrossCountry services are operated using diesel trains only, since none of the routes it operates are fully electrified.

 

CrossCountry inherited 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.

 

In December 2007 Class 221 Super Voyagers 221101 - 113 and 221142 - 144 were transferred to Virgin Trains 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 Trains 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 engines and the Mark 3 carriages overhauled at Doncaster Works 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.

 

During 2008, the Class 170 Turbostar fleet was refurbished, during which the three-carriage units repainted at Marcroft Engineering, Stoke on Trent, the two-carriage units at EWS's Toton depot and the interiors renewed 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; tilting was not required on the parts of West Coast Main Line that CrossCountry serves. CrossCountry stated this change would improve reliability and reduce maintenance costs.

 

Between 2008 and 2009, both the Class 220 Voyagers and Class 221 Super Voyagers underwent refurbishment at Bombardier Transportation's Derby Litchurch Lane Works. This work involved the removal of 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 extra standard-class seats to the Class 221 Super Voyagers.

 

Three years later, a refresh of the interiors was conducted, during which the standard-class seats were re-covered in the existing red and blue moquette and while the first class seats were finished with a maroon moquette.

 

In summer 2014, CrossCountry began removing the quiet coach designation from such vehicles across its Voyager fleet, believing them to be outdated and to take up an excessive amount of space on a four-car unit; however, it did retain the quiet coaches on its five HST sets.

 

During November 2017, as a part of CrossCountry's franchise extension, two former Virgin Trains Class 221 Super Voyager driving cars of unit 221144 were reactivated, having been stored at Central Rivers TMD for several years. Two of the existing five-car sets releasing a centre carriage that, when combined with the reactivated pair of driving cars, formed an additional four-car set to be formed.

 

In 2021, six of the existing two-carriage Class 170s were lengthened. This happened as a result of East Midlands Railway only leasing the two-carriage driving vehicles of the West Midlands Railway 170/6 sets, hence six centre cars became available when they were replaced by West Midlands Trains for transfer to CrossCountry. The last InterCity 125s are scheduled to be withdrawn in October 2023.

 

 

^ The proposed withdrawal did not include the morning/evening services that run only between Edinburgh and Dundee.