A power failure at CrossCountry’s control centre in Birmingham resulted in the cancellation of almost all rail services operated by the company across Great Britain on Sunday. Major routes affected included services between Glasgow and Edinburgh, Manchester and Birmingham, Cheltenham and Cardiff, and Newcastle and Edinburgh. The operator stated that a small number of trains would resume operation around 6pm Sunday, with full service expected to return by Monday.
Services between Peterborough, Cambridge and Stansted Airport maintained near-normal operations throughout the disruption. A rail replacement bus service was implemented on the Leicester to Peterborough route. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander expressed concern about the outage and confirmed that Network Rail power teams had been dispatched to the site to restore systems. Public-sector operators were asked to provide additional services where feasible to assist stranded passengers.
CrossCountry permitted customers to use tickets on competing train operators’ services on affected routes, with validity extended through August 26. Partner operators including Chiltern Railways and LNER agreed to accept CrossCountry tickets to help affected travellers reach their destinations. Passengers delayed by 30 minutes or more are eligible for compensation, while those choosing not to travel may request refunds.
The incident marks another disruption for the operator, which has faced mounting criticism regarding service reliability. Transport Focus, the passenger watchdog, had previously warned CrossCountry this year that performance improvements were necessary. A survey conducted in June found that while 87 percent of rail customers overall expressed satisfaction, this figure dropped to 79 percent for CrossCountry passengers, who reported particular dissatisfaction with the operator’s handling of service delays and issues related to train overcrowding.
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