CrossCountry Trains

For some background, I was undertaking my train journey because I had to go to a conference. The journey was Glasgow to Leeds. I travelled alone, and had a laptop and a small case on wheels for luggage. I opted for Cross Country trains on my return journey because I wanted to travel from Leeds to Glasgow with no changes. I ordered my tickets online and paid £34.50 for my single ticket. The train arrived at the station on time, which was all well and good. The problems started as soon as I got on board. Firstly, the luggage rack was hilariously small - especially for a train whose entire route was Penzance to Glasgow Central. I had no ...  Read the complete review

We are not train travellers by nature - almost all of our journeys are by car. Not through conscious choice I might add - simply poor public transport where we live. On this one occasion, we decided to try something different, and risked booking a return train journey from Birmingham to Edinburgh. Looking around online, the difference between Virgin and Cross country was financially quick striking. First class advance purchase from Cross country was still less than half the cost of Virgin economy! Treating ourselves, we paid £84 each for return first class travel. What a disappointment. We arrived in Birmingham in good time, only to discover the ...  Read the complete review

I have always found the Cross Country train services to be very efficient and effective. They are frequent with a variety of destinations, and in my opinion they operate a first class service. The trains are clean and well maintained. The staff are helpful and courteous. The stations are well maintained and station staff equally helpful. The prices are competitive and the price structures easy to follow. Due to the distances covered, the company has one of the hardest rail franchises to maintain, yet it seems to do this effectively with little, if any problems or causes for concern. My only criticism might be that trains always seem to arrive early - this is of course ...  Read the complete review

if you are a travelling between Leeds and Birmingham the cheapest way to travel between the two cities on Crosscountry before 0930 Monday to Friday if you are returning the same day is NOT to buy an anytime return ticket at a cost of £76 BUT to purchase 3 seperate anytime day return tickets Leeds to Sheffield £10.20 Sheffield to Derby £15.30 and Derby to Birmingham £13.60 which will cost you £49.10 in total saving you £26.90 which is a lot of money.You could save even more money if you was travelling of peak after 0930 but on the return journey from Birmingham off peak tickets to Derby are not valid between 1515 and 1815 ,the grand total of the 3 seperate off peak ...  Read the complete review

The technical details of the Crosscountry franchise are available elsewhere on the internet and so I'll not reproduce them here. For background, I use Crosscountry trains almost every day either commuting in Devon or for leisure between Bristol and Cornwall at weekends. I realise that it's fashionable to complain about train companies but there are train companies that have a lot of positives. This just isn't one of them. In the mornings, Crosscountry services out of Newton Abbot seem to have three carriages maximum. That's at peak commuting time. What are they thinking? People are standing or sitting everywhere. I pay well into four ...  Read the complete review