CrossCountry upgrade will see 25% more rail seats

[whole diary]

[CyclingSid]

Sorry for those who do not like Voyagers, but
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-68657138
as a humble traveller more trains and less overcrowding will be welcome.

[grahame]

Sorry for those who do not like Voyagers, but
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-68657138
as a humble traveller more trains and less overcrowding will be welcome.

Indeed

Twelve new trains will be in place by May 2025, increasing capacity on north-south routes by over 36,000 seats per week.

[snip]

Extra trains will be progressively introduced from June, following their release from Avanti West Coast, increasing capacity by around 12,000 seats per week in time for the busy summer holiday period.

Replacements for the gap left by the withdrawal of the HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) - and (?) some more.

[old original]

Perhaps reinstating the third XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) through to/from Penzance that hasn't reappeared post Covid and also Summer Saturday services to Newquay!!

won't be holding my breath..

[simonw]

My main uses of Cross Country is travelling to Worcestorshire Parkway ( I have to change at Cheltenham) and Liverpool Lime St (change at Birmingham or Stafford).

Cross country from Bristol to Birmingham needs 8 carriages for many journeys (morning and evening), and adding more 4-car or 5-car trains will stop all the regular, spurious cancellations, but not really address capacity.

A direct stopping service from Bristol to Birmingham Moor St would certainly help (GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)?)!

Direct trains from Bristol to Liverpool stopped about 20 years ago when the WCML^▸ (West Coast Main Line) was upgraded, but it would be nice if Cross Country added Liverpool back in the mix every 2-3 hours.

[Electric train]

Think these acquisitions is more about increasing capacity on existing services than the introduction of additional services.

[Mark A]

That useful... was it Portsmouth to Liverpool... regional railways train... that appeared possibly a little before privatisation and disappeared as soon as was (indecently) possible thereafter... as no franchise appeared tasked with what what the then Regional Railways conspired to do, more's the pity.

That train dropped by Bath Spa at around 8:30am, can't recall if it then missed Newport altogether* before heading up the Marches line, across to Crewe and then to Liverpool.

Mark

* In the days before the Maindee curve at Newport got the MVP** treatment.

** "Minimum Viable Product"***.

*** Perhaps 'MVP' should be a new target for a Coffeeshop TLA^▸ (three letter acronym) buster. Wikipedia indicates that an MVP may be put in place when the viability of something need to be proved - that is, to maximise the benefit, that should be quickly followed by a plan A, B or C and I'm not quite confident the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) or various other transport bodies get the principle of a follow-through - including the benefit of including a little passive provision, or at least not to heap expense in the way of further enhancement.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_viable_product

[IndustryInsider]

Think these acquisitions is more about increasing capacity on existing services than the introduction of additional services.

I believe they are wanting to introduce the daily Cardiff<>Edinburgh service, refill the gaps in the Stansted service, and, from May 2025, restore the hourly Reading<>Newcastle’s only a few of which run now.

[Noggin]

My main uses of Cross Country is travelling to Worcestorshire Parkway ( I have to change at Cheltenham) and Liverpool Lime St (change at Birmingham or Stafford).

Cross country from Bristol to Birmingham needs 8 carriages for many journeys (morning and evening), and adding more 4-car or 5-car trains will stop all the regular, spurious cancellations, but not really address capacity.

A direct stopping service from Bristol to Birmingham Moor St would certainly help (GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)?)!

Direct trains from Bristol to Liverpool stopped about 20 years ago when the WCML^▸ (West Coast Main Line) was upgraded, but it would be nice if Cross Country added Liverpool back in the mix every 2-3 hours.

If Bristol to Worcester can merit a 5-car 80x then I think we can safely say that Cross Country merit some 9- and 5-car 80x stock, not least because they spend a considerable time under the wires, and probably settle the business case for Bromsgrove to Bristol and Birmingham to Derby.

IIRC^▸ (if I recall/remember/read correctly), TfWM have an aspiration to run 1TPH to Bristol and 1TPH to Cardiff. I believe that there is also a plan afoot to beef up the Leeds to Nottingham stoppers (CC services to Chesterfield already having been significantly pruned) - I wonder at what point CC might introduce some kind of premium or reservation-only policy to keep the commuters out?

[paul7575]

Think these acquisitions is more about increasing capacity on existing services than the introduction of additional services.

I believe they are wanting to introduce the daily Cardiff<>Edinburgh service, refill the gaps in the Stansted service, and, from May 2025, restore the hourly Reading<>Newcastle’s only a few of which run now.

The latest track access application (TAA) did read that trains on the “Reading Newcastle service group” would be ‘mostly hourly’ from May/June 2025, but it’s suggested elsewhere that only alternate trains will be able to run north of York, because of the ongoing ECML^▸ (East Coast Main Line) capacity issues giving priority to London to Newcastle and Edinburgh trains.  They also refer to the “Reading Newcastle corridor” which is a somewhat loose term that possibly allows for shortening at either end.

I think it’s pretty clear another extension that’s never coming back is the 2 hourly Reading to Southampton Central, again they’re not mentioned in their TAA.

Paul

[TonyN]

Just Need some extra drivers to go with the extra trains. Maybe they could get some from Avanti

[JayMac]

60 new carriages after the withdrawal of 40 Mk3 carriages. Is that really a 25% increase in capacity?

[grahame]

60 new carriages after the withdrawal of 40 Mk3 carriages. Is that really a 25% increase in capacity?

Doesn't it depend on a 25% increase from when?

[paul7575]

60 new carriages after the withdrawal of 40 Mk3 carriages. Is that really a 25% increase in capacity?

Doesn't it depend on a 25% increase from when?

I guess it’s 25% from now, as the HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) are long gone. But how often did they ever use more than 2 of them per day?  Does before and after diagrammed capacity give a different % figure to before and after fleet size?  Should the PR^▸ (Public Relations) figures only consider the Voyagers, and seats on the north/south main network? Is the lack of any reported increase in the 170 fleet just a minor point that can be ignored?

[CyclingSid]

MVP = Most Valued Professional, of Microsoft applications!

[JayMac]

CrossCountry have previewed their new livery concept on their LinkedIn blog:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/crosscountry-trains_we-have-been-working-on-a-lot-of-exciting-activity-7189192983517278208-YRTF