A power outage at its Birmingham control centre forced CrossCountry to cancel the vast majority of its train services across Great Britain on Sunday. Affected routes included major connections between Glasgow and Edinburgh, Manchester and Birmingham, Cheltenham and Cardiff, and Newcastle and Edinburgh. The only service expected to operate at near-normal capacity was between Peterborough, Cambridge and Stansted Airport, while a rail replacement bus service was arranged between Leicester and Peterborough.
The train operator anticipated running a very limited number of trains from around 6pm on Sunday, with service restoration expected by Monday. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander expressed concern about the disruption and stated that publicly owned operators had been asked to provide additional services where feasible. Network Rail power teams were deployed to the site to work on restoring electrical systems.
CrossCountry made arrangements to mitigate passenger inconvenience by allowing tickets to be used with competing train operators on the same routes. Tickets remained valid on CrossCountry services until 26 August. Rival operators Chiltern Railways and LNER announced they would accept CrossCountry tickets to help affected customers reach their destinations. Passengers entitled to compensation for delays of 30 minutes or more could file claims, and those choosing not to travel were eligible for refunds.
This incident represented another service disruption for the operator, which has faced ongoing scrutiny regarding performance standards. In June, the passenger advocacy organization Transport Focus issued a warning that CrossCountry needed improvement, particularly in passenger communication during service interruptions and management of train crowding. Survey data showed that while 87 percent of rail customers overall reported satisfaction, this figure dropped to 79 percent for CrossCountry passengers, who expressed particular dissatisfaction with how delays were handled.
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