UK: CrossCountry is cutting services from August 10 until November 9 in an effort to reduce on-the-day cancellations while it catches up on a post-pandemic backlog of driver training.
On July 29 the operator said prolonged industrial action across the rail industry had prevented it from dealing with the backlog which accumulated when social distancing restricted training during the pandemic.
It said on-the-day cancellations cause the most inconvenience to passengers, and reducing services on some routes while running longer trains ‘wherever possible’ would retain maximum capacity while enabling it to work through the driver training. A trial over Easter had led to a 94% decrease in on-the-day cancellations.
Changes:
- Scotland: no CrossCountry services beyond Edinburgh to Aberdeen or Glasgow;
- Scotland – southwest: minimal alterations between Scotland and the southwest via Birmingham. Some services from Newcastle to Birmingham via Doncaster will not run;
- Newcastle – Reading: some services from Newcastle to Birmingham via Doncaster will not run;
- Manchester – Bournemouth: minimal alterations;
- Manchester – Bristol/Paignton: minimal alterations to services between Bristol, Birmingham and Manchester, but there will be fewer services to Paignton;
- Nottingham – Cardiff: fewer services than normal, and some services will start or finish at different stations;
- Birmingham – Stansted Airport: minimal alterations.
- a trial which saw some station calls removed at Wakefield Westgate and Chesterfield will end as planned in September.
Customers who have tickets for impacted services can travel on an alternative service or request a full refund.
‘This is a difficult decision, but by taking proactive action now we are investing in building a more resilient and dependable service for CrossCountry customers for the future’, said Ben Simkin, Regional Director for the North East & Scotland.
