Cross Country trains - services and incidents (merged posts)

[whole diary]

[JayMac]

As I type there is a CrossCountry Voyager sat down at Tiverton Parkway. 1V42 0610 Derby to Plymouth 221135. It has been damaged following suspected hitting an animal on the line.

The line has been blocked in both directions while fitters attend.

Severe congestion and delays. GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) have westbound trains backed up to Westbury. 1C72 is stuck behind the damaged train. 1C74 is being held at Taunton. 1C76 held at Castle Cary. 1C75 (with bobm on board!) held at Westbury.

Also held are westbound CrossCountry services 1V44 at Weston-super-Mare and 1V46 at Bristol TM^▸ (Train Manager, or possibly Ticket Machine, depending on context). With 2C71 (GWR Cardiff-Taunton) also held at Bristol TM.

Update as of 1130:

Passengers on the damaged Voyager have be de-trained at Tiverton Parkway and the set is being moved into the down Tiverton loop.

[JayMac]

Everything moving again with delays of up to an hour.

The damaged train is also on the move to Exeter. Presumably still with passengers on board as it still has a Class 1 headcode. So likely only looped to let the following GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) service pass it.

[JayMac]

Nope. I was wrong.

1V42 did continue empty to Exeter, and is now en route to Plymouth, running at 60mph max. The following GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) service 1C72 mopped up the CrossCountry passengers from Tiverton Parkway after it had a Special Stop Order.

[simonw]

Shortly before Christmas I booked a Friday morning 08:08 train from Bristol Parkway to Chester.

As I arrived at the station, I found out the train was cancelled, and that I had to get the 08:44 and three connections, or wait several hours for my single connection journey.  Not a great hardship, but I complained by to Cross Country and asked why could they not have messaged me and advised of the cancelled train, after all, the train was booked through their Customer website, and they cancelled the train at least two hours earlier.

Not getting a response, after a month I contacted my local MP^▸ (Member of Parliament, or Mile Post - a method of measuring the railway in miles and chains from a starting point - usually London, depending on context), and he has written twice and also failed to get a response. Why?

[ChrisB]

Did you book an Advance fare?

[simonw]

No, I booked two trains one at 08:08 and the other at 18:22 from. and selected Off Peak return ticket as it was the best option. Seats were also reserved on all trains I was supposed to get. 

[ChrisB]

You may not like this, but no operator do as you expect them to. Some do for Advances, but not for flexible tickets.

[Mark A]

My experience is that train companies routinely reply to customer emails, Crosscountry should have responded to what was a reasonable and for both parties useful observation. It's a route on which in a sane world TfW^▸ (Transport for Wales) would be snapping at their heels too.

Mark

[Richard Fairhurst]

Some apps do indeed alert you to a cancellation of (or other change to) the service you're booked onto, whatever the ticket type.

[ChrisB]

XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) are also very good at listing all changes on their Journeycheck page - but expect the customer to do the checking of it.

[infoman]

Could you not have travelled B.P. to Newport and then catch the 09:35 service direct to Chester?

[simonw]

I could have gone via Newport, to was still quicker to go via Birmingham/Crewe/Chester