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CrossCountry

[adj. kraws-kuhn-tree, kros-; n. kraws-kuhn-tree, -kuhn-, kros-]

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.

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.

Routes

Core

The proposed hourly service from December 2008 will operate on each basic route:

No	Route	Rolling stock
1	Plymouth to Edinburgh Waverley (via Leeds)	(Super) Voyagers & HSTs
2	Reading to Newcastle (via Doncaster)	(Super) Voyagers
3	Bristol Temple Meads to Manchester Piccadilly	(Super) Voyagers
4	Bournemouth to Manchester Piccadilly (via Coventry)	(Super) Voyagers
5	Cardiff Central to Nottingham	Turbostars
6	Birmingham New Street to Leicester and Stansted Airport	Turbostars

Extensions

There are extensions to the normal service pattern:

to Penzance from Plymouth
to Glasgow Central from Edinburgh Waverley
to Aberdeen from Edinburgh Waverley
to Cardiff Central from Bristol Temple Meads
to Paignton from Bristol Temple Meads
to Guildford from Reading
to Bournemouth from Reading

Summer Saturdays will see 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.

Frequency

Typically, 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:

Bristol to Birmingham: 2 trains per hour
Cheltenham to Birmingham: 3 trains per hour
Reading to Birmingham: 2 trains per hour
Birmingham to Derby: 4 trains per hour
Derby to Sheffield: 2 trains per hour
York to Newcastle: 2 trains per hour
Birmingham to Leicester: 2 trains per hour

Withdrawal of Brighton services

The requirement for the franchise operation does 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 will cease in December 2008. Passengers for Gatwick Airport will have to change at Reading onto First Great Western's services.

Future services

Plans 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.

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.

Performance

Initial performance figures released by the ORR rate the new operator at a similar level to their predecessor with a PPM of 88.9% over the fourth quarter of the 2007/8 financial year.

Rolling Stock

Multiple Unit fleet

Virgin 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	Image	Type	Top speed		Number	Routes operated	Built
Class	Image	Type	mph	km/h	Number	Routes operated	Built
Class 170 Turbostar		Diesel multiple unit	100	160	29	Cardiff–Nottingham Route Birmingham–Stansted Airport Route	1999–2002 (2008*)
Class 220 Voyager		Diesel-electric multiple unit	125	200	34	Cross Country Route	2001
Class 221 Super Voyager		Diesel-electric multiple unit	125	200	28	Cross Country Route	2001

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.

Class	Image	Type	Top speed		Number	Routes operated	Built	Introduced
Class	Image	Type	mph	km/h	Number	Routes operated	Built	Introduced
Class 43 High Speed Train		Diesel locomotive	125	200	5 sets	Cross Country Route	1976 - 1982 (2008*)	May 2008 (2x 7+2 Unrefurbished sets) Sept 2008 (1x Full refurbished set, 1x Unrefurbished set) Dec 2008 (5 Refurbished sets)
Mark 3 coach		Passenger coach	125	200	40	Cross Country Route	1975 - 1988 (2008*)	May 2008 (2x 7+2 Unrefurbished sets) Dec 2008 (5 Refurbished sets)