Cross Country Trains

CrossCountry Trains, also known as Arriva CrossCountry, is the brand name of XC Trains Ltd., a British train operating company owned by Arriva. The company operates a network of express and long-distance train services between a variety of towns and cities out the city of London. If you are looking to travel outside London, you can rest assured the CrossCountry Trains will help you arrive where you want to go as fast and safely as possible.

History
Midland-based Central Trains formed CrossCountry Trains through the merger of the former CrossCountry franchise held by Virgin Trains. On 10 July 2007, the department of transport announced that Arriva had won the rights to the franchise with the company taking control on 11 November 2007.
CrossCountry Trains Features
Performance
The latest performance figures released by the ORR show a quarter rating of a PPM of 88.8% and a Monthly Annual Average (MAA) up to 31 March 2010 of 90.1%.
Assistance
CrossCountry Trains says, “We're here to help when you need extra assistance when making your journey.”

You’ll always receive the assistance you need with CrossCountry. CrossCountry Trains wants travelling to be trouble-free for all passengers from the time you plan your trip to the time you arrive at your destination. If you need any extra support to help you make your trip, CrossCountry Trains offers their JourneyCare service.

The JourneyCare team will help you arrange your journey, consider ticket options, and pre-arrange the assistance you require when you travel. You can pre-arrange this help on the CrossCountry website or you can contact them by telephone or text phone anytime. When you contact CrossCountry before your trip the staff will meet you upon arrival and help you throughout your journey!

There are devoted spaces for wheelchair users in both First Class and Standard accommodations on all CrossCountry trains. If you need help getting on and off the train, they will even make preparations for you to be supported during your journey, including during any changes you need to make between trains.

You can select and even book this kind of assistance for your trip when you buy your tickets—the CrossCountry website lets you choose exactly what help you need from a list of detailed options. On the other hand, you can call the JourneyCare team to book aid and buy tickets.

A Railcard is also available for passengers with disabilities, which entitles the holder and their travel companion to cut-rate travel cost. Passengers can save 1/3 on most tickets.
CrossCountry Trains also publishes a Disabled People’s Protection Policy manual. It explains the full range of services you can expect from CrossCountry. This includes the right to buy your ticket on the train—for you and one person travelling with you—without being charged extra or penalty fee’s if you hold a Disabled Persons Railcard.

CrossCountry Trains can also provide timetables and more information in large print formats if needed.

Performance Monitoring
Working with Network Rail, CrossCountry Trains incessantly aims to make their train services more dependable. They monitor all our services each and every day to check to make sure that they are achieving this goal.

The standard measure used all the way through the rail industry in Great Britain is the Public Performance Measure also known as PPM. This is a shared appraise of how many trains timetabled to operate have run throughout the entire route and calling points and how many have arrived at their final destination within ten minutes of their appointed time.  CrossCountry Trains Public Performance Measure (PPM) from Sunday 22 August to Saturday 18 September 2010 was 92.2%.

Ticketing, Passes and Season Tickets
Train Fares
You should look to purchase tickets in advance, as they’re usually cheaper and you can get the best deals on train tickets. There are three main categories of fares: Anytime, Off-peak and Advance. These categories apply to single and return fares in Standard and First Class. Check the CrossCountry Trains website for more fare information.

Railcards
Railcards give discounts of 1/3 on the price of most train tickets. A Railcard usually costs £26 a year, and can pay for itself in just one rail journey! It’s a great way to save money on train tickets.

How Railcards work:
Railcards are annual discount cards for particular groups of people.  The total cost is much lower than the savings you can make on the cost of your train tickets over a year!

Savings and benefits:
Railcards give discounts of 1/3 on most adult Standard and First Class rail fares.
The Family & Friends Railcard also saves 60% on child fares.
As a bonus, Railcard holders can save money on lodging, restaurants, days out, and much more!

16 - 25 Railcard:
Who can own one:
Anyone aged 16 to 25
Students aged 26 or older

Cost:
£26 for one year
£65 for three years
Family & Friends Railcard - Who can own one:
Families of up to four adults and four children (aged 5-15)
The whole family can travel together on just one Family & Friends Railcard.

Cost:
£26 for one year
£65 for three years
Senior Railcard - Who can own one:
Anyone age 60 or older

Cost:
£26 for one year
£65 for three years
Disabled Persons Railcard - Who can own one:
You might qualify if you have a hearing impairment, a visual impairment, have epilepsy or are in receipt of a benefit that is disability-related.
Covers the cardholder and one other person travelling with them

Cost:
£18 for one year
£48 for three years

Season Tickets
Passengers can buy season tickets for a whole month or even more time using the CrossCountry online season ticket service.  The season tickets can also be bought for seven days, for a whole month or longer periods of time from any station with a staffed ticket office. Please remember, if it is the first time you are buying a season ticket that will last a month or a longer period of time, you will have to fill out an application form. You will also need to have a photo card or any other form of identification card to buy nearly all season tickets.

7 day ticket:  Valid for 7 days in a row and can start on any day of the week. The price is usually less than the amount you have to pay for 5 Anytime Day Return/Anytime Return tickets.

Monthly ticket:  Valid for a whole calendar month and it can start on any day of the month. This ticket can save you around 4% compared to buying 7-Day season tickets for the same period.

Monthly Plus ticket: Valid for any number of months and days between one month and one year. It can save you around 4% if compared to 7-Day season tickets for the same period. Ideal for extending your season ticket up to your holiday

Weekend Upgrades
With prices starting from as low as £10.00 one-way, the Weekend Upgrade ticket offers the benefits of First Class travel to those travelling on the weekend and selected Bank Holidays.

You can purchase the Weekend Upgrade ticket on board the train provided you hold a valid Standard ticket and as long as there is enough space available in First Class. If purchasing your ticket at the station in advance it may be possible to purchase the upgrade with certain ticket types and reserve a seat, but CrossCountry cannot guarantee a seat will be available if you choose to travel on a different service.

Please remember that Child and Railcard discounts do not apply. Also please remember that it is not possible to purchase an upgrade in conjunction with all types of tickets such as customers holding Standard Advance tickets cannot purchase the First Class upgrade. CrossCountry suggests that you purchase an Advance First ticket for your journey if you are looking to travel in First Class.

Group Bookings
Large groups
If you want to travel with a large group - ten or more passengers - CrossCountry can help you find the right train at the right time, at the right price. Just fill out a CrossCountry Trains Group booking form and a Customer Relations team member will be in touch to help arrange your booking.

Small groups
If you want to travel with a smaller group – between three and nine passengers - CrossCountry Trains Small Group tickets are available for most CrossCountry journeys. This is an innovative ticket, allowing groups of between three and nine passengers to travel and giving savings on Advance Standard ticket prices. The tickets are subject to availability at all times and can only be used on the service(s) specified on the ticket or accompanying reservation confirmation.

Routes
CrossCountry operates a quantity of inter-city routes out of the London area.  These routes include the CrossCountry Route that runs from the northeast to the southwest, in addition to a variety of local services that are used for shorter distances. Different from the majority of franchise operators that are located in the United Kingdom, CrossCountry Trains does not have any stations under their management despite the fact there are some stations that are served only by CrossCountry.




Core
Each one of the basic routes is served by an hourly service:
No.    Map colour        Route                        Rolling Stock
________________________________________________________________________________

1    Orange        Plymouth – Edinburgh Waverly            Super Voyagers & HST’s

2    Green        Reading - Newcastle Central                Super Voyagers

3    Turquoise    Bristol Temple Meads – Manchester Piccadilly    Super Voyagers       
4    Purple        Bournemouth – Manchester Piccadilly        Super Voyagers

5    Dark Blue    Cardiff Central - Nottingham                Turbostars

6    Red        Birmingham New Street – Leicester and        Turbostars
Stansted Airport

Extensions
There are also some extensions that can be found within the basic service:
From Edinburgh Waverly to Glasgow Central
From Plymouth to Penzance 
From Bristol Temple Meads to Paignton
From Edinburgh Waverly to Aberdeen
From Bristol Temple Meads to Cardiff
From Reading to Guildford

On Saturdays during the summer season, there are also trains that go to Newquay departing from numerous places within the network.

Frequency
During daytimes on the weekdays, all of the six routes have 1 CrossCountry train p/h.  There are only two exceptions, Birmingham–Nottingham and Birmingham–Leicester — which have not one but two trains per hour. These services unite to offer more frequent services on the routes mentioned below:
To Cheltenham from Bristol: 2 trains p/h
To Leamington from Reading: 2 trains p/h
To Derby from Birmingham: 4 trains p/h
To Birmingham from Cheltenham: 3 trains p/h
To Sheffield from Derby: 2 trains p/h
To Leicester from Birmingham: 2 trains p/h
To Newcastle from York: 2 trains p/h
To Manchester from Birmingham: 2 trains p/h

Types of Trains
Multiple unit fleet
Virgin CrossCountry Trains formerly controlled the Class 221 and Class 220 DEMU’s. 21 Class 221 units have now been reassigned to the Virgin West Coast franchise to control the North Wales route and the West Midlands to Scotland services. CrossCountry also uses Class 170 Turbostars from Central Trains. Class 220’s and 221’s are going through restoration. This includes adding some extra space for luggage and removing the shop. In August 2009 the whole refurbishment was completed.

HST fleet
The renovation of the very first CrossCountry HST power car was finished on 16 July 2008. In order to make possible to identify its fleet, CrossCountry Trains is re-numbering all of the HST units that they have, adding an extra 200 units—the new HST 43301 (originally they were known as 43101). Brush Traction had to completely rebuild 43301, as it has been out of working condition for more than five years. CrossCountry Trains is installing, as a standard in all their trains, MTU Friedrichshafen engines instead of the Paxman Valenta engines, and is re-painting the units with the two-tone CrossCountry colours of brown and grey/silver.

Expansion and Improvement Plans
CrossCountry Trains included plans to re-open the Kenilworth railway station. In April 2008, CrossCountry agreed with the County Council of Warwickshire to create a new business case.
There are suggestions for the creation of a station near the city of Worcester, at Worcester Parkway to be more precisely, which is at present by passed by CrossCountry's trains.

Additionally, CrossCountry Trains wishes to extend the service that currently runs to Leicester from Birmingham New Street.  The proposed extension would be to get to Cambridge. The company has hopes to boost frequency on the service that runs from Bournemouth to Reading.  The frequency would be every thirty minutes.  This can be achieved by broadening its Reading to Newcastle service further to Bournemouth.