CrossCountry news
News about the CrossCountry rail franchise, which comprises long-distance and regional routes in England, Scotland and Wales, extending from Aberdeen to Penzance. It is operated by Deutsche Bahn’s Arriva UK Trains business.
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Rail Business UKCrossCountry gets more Voyagers as refurbishment plan agreed
UK: CrossCountry has selected Alstom as preferred bidder to refurbish its fleet of Voyager DMUs over a broadly two-year period as part of an investment package aimed at increasing capacity on its network by up to 25%. The national long-distance operator also announced on March 25 ...
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Rail Business UKCrossCountry Managing Director leaves
UK: Managing Director Tom Joyner left CrossCountry with immediate effect on February 15.
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Rail Business UKCapacity increase future-proofs Birmingham’s University station
UK: A three-year project to increase passenger capacity at University station on Birmingham’s Cross City Line was completed with the opening of two buildings on January 28. The station was designed for 500 000 passengers/year when it opened in 1978, but expansion of the university and ...
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Rail Business UKCrossCountry train services agreement extended
UK: Alstom is to continue to service and maintain the CrossCountry Voyager and Super Voyager trainsets until 2031 under a €950m eight-year extension to its existing train services agreement. The extension announced on November 2 covers 34 Class 220 Voyager and 24 Class 221 Super Voyager ...
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Rail Business UKInterview: Rethinking ‘unusual and special’ CrossCountry
UK: CrossCountry’s National Rail Contract came into force on October 15, giving the business some medium-term certainty and Managing Director Tom Joyner a chance to reflect with Rail Business UK on its evolving role as a truly national train operator.
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NewsDeutsche Bahn to sell Arriva Group to I Squared
EUROPE: German national railway Deutsche Bahn has signed an agreement to sell the whole of Arriva Group to infrastructure investment manager I Squared Capital. The transaction announced on October 19 is expected to complete in 2024, subject to customary closing conditions including the approval of the ...
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Rail Business UKVoyager transfer anticipated as CrossCountry gets National Rail Contract
UK: The Department for Transport has directly awarded Arriva UK Trains a National Rail Contract to continue to operate CrossCountry long-distance passenger services. The contract announced on September 19 succeeds a unique Operating Cost Franchise Agreement which DfT entered into in October 2020 during the pandemic. ...
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Rail Business UKAsking passengers what they want from train interiors
UK: A report into what passengers want from train interiors has been produced to help inform the proposed refurbishment of Turbostar diesel multiple-units. Built by Bombardier Transportation from the late 1990s, the units are widely deployed by various train operators on regional services across the British ...
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Rail Business UKTrain driver sentenced for Bromsgrove collision
UK: A train driver who was distracted by a using mobile phone leading to a collision between a DB Cargo locomotive and a passenger train has been sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment, suspended for 18 months. He must also undertake 120 h of unpaid work and ...
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Rail Business UKCrossCountry direct award planned
UK: The Department for Transport has published a prior information notice which gives it the ability to directly award a contract for the operation of CrossCountry passenger services. The services have been operated by Arriva subsidiary XC Trains Ltd since 2007. The franchise was originally due ...
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Rail Business UKCrossCountry deploys ITAL Revenue Protection platform
UK: CrossCountry has rolled out ITAL’s Revenue Protection platform, following trials with a prototype and testing by selected ticket inspectors. A digital daily duty monitor captures activities throughout a inspector’s shift and automatically produces a detailed report, removing the need for manual data entry and analysis. ...
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Rail Business UKNew CrossCountry contract includes capacity, accessibility and environmental improvements
UK: The Department for Transport has directly awarded incumbent Arriva a new contract to operate CrossCountry services for a further three years. CrossCountry Managing Director Tom Joyner tells Rail Business UK about the operator’s plans, saying ’the good thing is the longevity, which CrossCountry really needs as it gives us a real chance to do some serious planning for the future.’
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Rail Business UK‘Changing’ CrossCountry appoints regional directors
Source: Tony Miles UK: CrossCountry has announced the appointment of four regional directors with responsibility for operational and financial performance at the franchise, which is held by Arriva under a directly-awarded contract that currently runs to October 2020. ‘CrossCountry is changing and these regional directors will enable ...
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Rail Business UKProviding ‘pertinent, targeted and predictive’ information to operating staff
UK: ‘If it works for CrossCountry it will work for any operator’, the inter-city operator’s Duty Control Manager Matthew Reeves told Railway Gazette International at the unveiling of Arrakis, a software suite which technology company Nexus Alpha has developed with the aim of transforming the quality of communications between train ...
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NewsBeacon Rail buys Voyager DEMU fleet
UK: Beacon Rail Leasing has expanded its UK rolling stock portfolio with the purchase of the Bombardier Class 220 and Class 221 Voyager diesel-electric multiple-unit fleets from subsidiaries of Lloyds Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland. The 352 vehicles are formed into 78 four and five-car sets, of which 58 ...
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NewsArriva directly awarded new Cross Country contract
UK: The Department for Transport announced on September 29 that incumbent Arriva CrossCountry had been directly awarded a new contract to operate the Cross Country franchise. The most geographically extensive franchise in the UK covers a 2 400 route-km network of long-distance passenger services serving more than 100 stations. ...