Arriva CrossCountry
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Introduction
"crosscountrytrains.co.uk your search engine"Covering around 1,600 route miles with almost 300 trains a day, serving 131 stations stretching from Aberdeen to Penzance and from Stansted to Cardiff, CrossCountry is the most extensive intercity rail service in the UK. The franchise started operating on 11 November 2007 and lasts until 31 March 2016.
For the first month of the franchise, services between Scotland and the South of England via Carlisle and Preston were jointly operated with Virgin West Coast. From 10th December 2007, services between Scotland and Birmingham were transferred to Virgin West Coast and services between Scotland Manchester were transferred to First TransPennine Express.
CrossCountry operate Class 220 and Class 221 trains on their services to and from Scotland. All of CrossCountry's Class 220 and Class 221 trains are now in the CrossCountry livery.
Rolling Stock
The 220 and 221 units are getting refurbished by Bombardier currently. The work will includes the removal of the onboard shop and the bike stowage area which will become a trolley base. CrossCountry trains will only have trolley catering (Service at-seat) from late 2009. Seats will be altered to get more into the coaches and more luggage space will be provided. Many trains have been de-shopped, these can be identified by a blue strip on the coupler.Five HSTs have been reintroduced in daily service on the Edinburgh - Plymouth route from December 2008. These will also be used on extra summer holiday services to the South Coast from the North East of England. The trains were given a full refurb and will internally recieved enhancements which include a NXEC style refurbishment. The HST powercars have all recieved MTU engines similar to National Express HSTs. Wabtec in Doncaster carried out the refurbishment of the HSTs. All XC HSTs are fully refurbished and 4 operate passenger services each day. One HST remains spare each day.
Staff
New staff uniforms are due to be issued to all staff in May to coinside with a change of supplier. The new supplier is Wensum, the current Virgin Trains supplier. The new uniform will consist of a charcole grey suit, with white shirt and pink/silver/warm black tie design. The new staff jackets are the same design as Virgin Trains however in a chocolate brown colour with the CrossCountry logo visible, and staff lanyards will be black and clearly display the CrossCountry logo.Ticketing
CrossCountry strongly encourage its customers to purchase tickets online. Advance purchase tickets are avaliable for most routes. Mobile tickets are currently being trialled between Edinburgh and York for reduced fares, with a view to this initiative being rolled out across the whole company. Tickets purchased via the CrossCountry site for XC services are available to be printed at home. Season tickets can also be purchased/renewed via the XC website.First Class
CrossCountry offer a comprehensive First Class service. At-seat complimentary food and drinks (including Starbucks Coffee) are available from Newcastle-Bristol Temple Meads and Manchester Picc-Reading. Outside of these zones first class items can be recieved from the catering trolley or onboard shop (where available on 220/221 units). A copy of the first class menu is available from the XC website - crosscountrytrains.co.uk.Timetable
The current December to May timetables are available below:- Scotland-North East-Midlands-South Coast/South West
- South Coast-Midlands-Machester/North East-Scotland
- South West-Midlands-Machester/North East-Scotland
HST Timetable
The HST workings are currently :
Monday to Friday
XC801
06.00 LEEDS - PLYMOUTH
12.21 PLYMOUTH- GLASGOW
XC802
06.32 DUNDEE-PLYMOUTH
17.21 PLYMOUTH-LEEDS
XC803
06.32 YORK-PLYMOUTH
13.21 PLYMOUTH-EDINBURGH
XC804
06.08 EDINBURGH-PLYMOUTH
15.21 PLYMOUTH-LEEDS
Saturday
XC801
06.00 LEEDS-PLYMOUTH
12.21 PLYMOUTH-GLASGOW
XC802
07.00 GLASGOW-PLYMOUTH
17.21 PLYMOUTH-LEEDS
XC803
SPARE
XC804
09.00 GLASGOW-PENZENCE
21.32 PENZENCE-PLYMOUTH