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This article is about the train operating company in the United Kingdom. For other uses, see Cross country.
CrossCountry is a train operating company, the brand name of XC Trains Limited owned by Arriva, that has operated Great Britain’s Cross Country rail franchise since 11 November 2007. The franchise was formed through the amalgamation of most of the former Cross Country franchise previously held by Virgin Trains (which consisted of inter-city services that do not terminate in London) with some of the longer-distance routes (including some former Central Citylink services) operated by the former Central Trains. On 10 July 2007, the Department for Transport announced that Arriva plc had won the rights to the franchise.[1] The franchise is unusual in that it does not operate any stations, even though there are certain stations served by no operator other than CrossCountry.
[edit] Routes
[edit] CoreThe hourly service operates on each basic route:
[edit] ExtensionsThere are extensions to the normal service pattern:
Summer Saturdays sees trains to Newquay from various parts of the network. There are also some other train services which will go from one route to another (eg. from Nottingham to Bournemouth), in order to provide more direct journeys. 
[edit] FrequencyTypically, during weekday daytimes, each of these six routes sees one CrossCountry train per hour, with the exception of Birmingham–Leicester and Birmingham–Nottingham (which each see two). These services combine to provide higher frequencies on the following sections:
[edit] Withdrawal of Brighton servicesThe requirement for the franchise operation did not include retaining the current services south east of Reading/Guildford to Brighton. As a result all CrossCountry services to Kensington Olympia, East Croydon, Redhill, Gatwick Airport and Haywards Heath ceased on 13 December 2008. Passengers for Gatwick Airport now have to change at Reading onto First Great Western's services. [2] [edit] Future servicesPlans were included by CrossCountry to reopen the railway station at Kenilworth. In April 2008, they agreed with Warwickshire county council to draw up a business case[3]. There are proposals for a station at Worcester (Norton) Parkway near the city of Worcester, which is currently by-passed by CrossCountry's trains. If this station is built, then it may be served by CrossCountry services. [edit] PerformanceInitial performance figures released by the ORR rate the new operator slightly better than their predecessor with a PPM of 91.1%[4] over the first quarter of the 2008/9 financial year. [edit] Rolling Stock[edit] Multiple Unit fleetVirgin CrossCountry previously operated the Class 220 and Class 221 DEMUs. Now some 21 Class 221 units have been transferred to the Virgin West Coast franchise to operate the North Wales route and the West Midlands to Scotland services. CrossCountry also use Class 170 Turbostars inherited from Central Trains. Class 220s and 221s are undergoing refurbishment at Bombardier, Derby. This includes removing the shop and extra luggage space. The refurbishment is due to be completed in late 2009
[edit] HST Fleet
The first CrossCountry-livered HST powercar was released from its overhaul at Brush, Loughborough on 16 July 2008. To identify its fleet, CrossCountry is renumbering all of its HST units by adding an extra 200 to the old number, the newly repainted HST being 43301 (originally 43101). 43301 had to be completely rebuilt by Brush, as it has been out of service for more that 5 years. As a standard, CrossCountry is installing MTU engines to replace the old Paxman Valenta ones, and is repainting the units into the two-tone CrossCountry livery of grey/silver and chocolate brown.
(*) This shows the date refurbished. [edit] See also[edit] References
[edit] External links
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