A power cut at CrossCountry’s control centre in Birmingham resulted in the cancellation of almost all train services operated by the company across Great Britain on Sunday. The outage affected major routes including services between Glasgow and Edinburgh, Manchester and Birmingham, Cheltenham and Cardiff, and Newcastle and Edinburgh. The operator stated that only a limited number of trains would resume around 6pm, with expectations for normal operations to resume the following day.
Certain services maintained partial operations during the disruption. A near-normal service continued between Peterborough, Cambridge and Stansted Airport, while a planned rail replacement bus service operated between Leicester and Peterborough. Chiltern Railways and LNER, competing operators, offered assistance by accepting CrossCountry tickets on alternative routes to help stranded passengers reach their destinations.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander expressed concern about the outage and indicated that publicly owned operators had been asked to provide additional services where feasible. Network Rail power teams were deployed to the affected facility to restore electrical systems and operations. CrossCountry permitted customers holding tickets for Sunday services to use them with other train operators on the same route, with validity extended through Wednesday 26 August for future CrossCountry travel.
Passengers entitled to compensation for delays of 30 minutes or more could claim delay repay benefits, and those choosing not to travel could request refunds. The incident marked the latest in a series of service disruptions for CrossCountry, following criticism from Transport Focus earlier in the year. A June survey by the passenger watchdog found that while 87% of overall rail customers reported satisfaction, CrossCountry customers registered only 79% satisfaction, with particular concerns about handling of delays and overcrowding.
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