A power outage affecting CrossCountry’s control centre in Birmingham resulted in the cancellation of nearly all train services operated by the company on Sunday. Major routes impacted included services from Glasgow to Edinburgh, Manchester to Birmingham, Cheltenham to Cardiff, and Newcastle to Edinburgh. The operator stated that a minimal number of trains would resume operation from approximately 6pm that day, with expectations for normal service to resume the following day.
The outage prompted responses from both transport officials and competing operators. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander expressed concern about the disruption and indicated that publicly owned operators had been asked to provide additional services where feasible. Network Rail’s power teams were deployed to the site to restore electrical systems. Chiltern Railways and LNER both announced they would honour CrossCountry tickets on alternative routes to assist stranded passengers.
CrossCountry maintained one partially functioning service between Peterborough, Cambridge and Stansted Airport, while a replacement bus service operated between Leicester and Peterborough. The operator allowed customers with tickets for Sunday services to use them with other train operators on the same routes, with validity extended through Wednesday 26 August. Passengers experiencing delays of 30 minutes or longer remained eligible for compensation, and those choosing not to travel could request refunds.
This incident represents another disruption for the train operator, which has faced ongoing scrutiny regarding service reliability. Earlier in the year, passenger watchdog Transport Focus had cautioned CrossCountry about the need to enhance performance metrics, including passenger communications during disruptions and management of overcrowding. A survey conducted by the organisation found that while 87 percent of rail customers expressed satisfaction overall, this figure declined to 79 percent specifically for CrossCountry passengers, with particular dissatisfaction regarding how the operator handled service delays.
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