Cross Country cutting out Winchester, Basingstoke and other stops

[swt_passenger]

Relatedly, XC are also apparently cutting calls at Wakefield on some weekends - the local MP is apoplectic about it although I can’t actually find what was cut and what was not, and XC’s website is less than helpful:

Passengers ‘left in the lurch’ over decision to axe long-distance services at Wakefield Westgate

A train operator has been accused of leaving passengers ‘in the lurch’ over its decision to withdraw services at Wakefield’s main railway station.

www.wakefieldexpress.co.uk

Summer Saturdays. Although the local news article doesn’t make that clear. It has been known since March, but the story was spread around 3 or 4 forum threads, such as in the main June 2024 timetable discussion. I linked to it back in April, in post #3.

Cross Country’s own PR people hid the announcement about removal of calls from the four stations within their announcement headlined about extra trains:

Bigger fleet, more seats: CrossCountry reveals plans to transform customer experience by May 2025 | CrossCountry

Train operator announces massive expansion to long-distance fleet, transforming journeys with around 25% more seats available than today.

www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk

 

[Fermiboson]

Ah yes the 2 coach 195s on the Northern services via Barnsley which can already be crush loaded without the extra passengers from Wakefield bring displaced from XC services.

Don't worry passengers of Barnsley, if you can't squeeze on the stopper is behind it.

Well yeah, there aren’t a lot of places on the network with spare capacity or spare units. But they certainly have a better deal than Winchester <> Reading and Oxford <> Banbury, or for that matter Sheffield <> Doncaster.

 

[duffield]

Depending where you're coming from, changing onto a southbound XC service at Wakefield can gain you an entire hour, avoiding a just missed connection and a long wait if you go into Leeds instead. So potential long-distance XC customers will be sacrificed to get rid of the unwanted short distance Wakefield<-> Leeds traffic. The DfT will be pleased no doubt, the fewer passengers the better seems to be their current stance.

 

[Fermiboson]

Depending where you're coming from, changing onto a southbound XC service at Wakefield can gain you an entire hour, avoiding a just missed connection and a long wait if you go into Leeds instead. So potential long-distance XC customers will be sacrificed to get rid of the unwanted short distance Wakefield<-> Leeds traffic. The DfT will be pleased no doubt, the fewer passengers the better seems to be their current stance.

Northbound as well. Oxford > Wakefield for example can be delayed by up to 45 minutes due to the connection at Sheffield plus the slower speed of the stopper. But with the frequent engineering works going on at Church Fenton it really seems like there are more Saturdays where XC don't run via Leeds at all than where they do anyways - at least that was the case earlier in the year.

Of course, we all know the true solution is to boost capacity on the network and stop using 5-car an 4-car sets, but that isn't happening anytime soon.

 

[Bikeman78]

Depending where you're coming from, changing onto a southbound XC service at Wakefield can gain you an entire hour, avoiding a just missed connection and a long wait if you go into Leeds instead. So potential long-distance XC customers will be sacrificed to get rid of the unwanted short distance Wakefield<-> Leeds traffic. The DfT will be pleased no doubt, the fewer passengers the better seems to be their current stance.

There are six trains per hour from Leeds to Wakefield Westgate. It doesn't help that the XC has a 23 minute gap ahead of it.

 

[Kite159]

There are six trains per hour from Leeds to Wakefield Westgate. It doesn't help that the XC has a 23 minute gap ahead of it.

And goes a few minutes in front of a LNER service (although as some of those trains can also be 5 coaches it's not like they are carrying much fresh air).

The biggest issue for passengers at Wakefield is that the two stations are nearly a mile apart from each other.

It's a bit like at Basingstoke where the XC normally goes around XX:47 with the next stopper going around XX:52 with the previous stopper being at XX:23 so passengers at Basingstoke will generally head towards the XC as it departs before the stopper (and sometimes even delays the stopper if its running late).

 

[Bikeman78]

And goes a few minutes in front of a LNER service (although as some of those trains can also be 5 coaches it's not like they are carrying much fresh air).

The biggest issue for passengers at Wakefield is that the two stations are nearly a mile apart from each other.

It's a bit like at Basingstoke where the XC normally goes around XX:47 with the next stopper going around XX:52 with the previous stopper being at XX:23 so passengers at Basingstoke will generally head towards the XC as it departs before the stopper (and sometimes even delays the stopper if its running late).

I did a journey enquiry from Bristol Temple Meads to Wakefield Westgate. One option suggested is to carry on to Leeds and then take the Crosscountry back to Wakefield! Though it says no fares available, please choose another journey. So why even mention it? The other option is change at Sheffield and get the Northern train to Wakefield Kirkgate, adding 35 minutes to the journey. Is it really worth it just to stop a few people travelling from Wakefield to Leeds? The more I look into this, the less I understand it. If we're going to take the attitude that long distance trains should not carry passengers on short hops then perhaps LNER should cease calling at Wakefield as well. And XC should stop calling at Newport.

 

[MasterPhillips]

First day is this new timetable and pleased to say some common sense has been used with services booked as double Voyagers still calling at Basingstoke in both directions.

 

[Kite159]

First day is this new timetable and pleased to say some common sense has been used with services booked as double Voyagers still calling at Basingstoke in both directions.

Looking at RTT the Basingstoke skips have been a bit random. Although still very annoying when a Bournemouth train does skip as it does increase journey times by an hour for any passengers wanting stations served by the Salisbury stopper as the following GWR stopper doesn't connect.

 

[fandroid]

Do we know how this is turning out in practice for stops at Basingstoke (BSK) ? .I've had experience on Saturdays in June and July of no Crosscountry stops northbound on Saturday afternoons. I'm trying to advise a friend about northbound trains from Bournemouth to Basingstoke on Saturday 24 August. NRE website seems to indicate that Crosscountry trains will be stopping northbound at BSK in the late afternoon, which is the potential time of travel.

Later edit: NTE corrected to NRE

 

[mangyiscute]

Do we know how this is turning out in practice for stops at Basingstoke (BSK) ? .I've had experience on Saturdays in June and July of no Crosscountry stops northbound on Saturday afternoons. I'm trying to advise a friend about northbound trains from Bournemouth to Basingstoke on Saturday 24 August. NTE website seems to indicate that Crosscountry trains will be stopping northbound at BSK in the late afternoon, which is the potential time of travel.

If its scheduled to stop (and hence showing up in a journey planner), it'll stop, if its not scheduled to stop, it won't stop, so that train you have found sounds fine.
SWR also run Bournemouth to Basingstoke direct each hour, so that's always an option too.

 

[fandroid]

I am a bit wary of journey planners on this issue. On one of those previous Saturdays I was with a friend who was relying on Trainline for the journey. When we got to Winchester station the Crosscountry train that was on the Trainline journey planner as stopping at Basingstoke was showing on the Winchester departure boards as not stopping there. We didn't want to run the risk of going to Reading, so we let it go!

 

[LUYMun]

One wonders how passengers at Basingstoke, Winchester and the like might be feeling this afternoon and evening as SWR services are disrupted in and out of Waterloo following a trespassing incident, while XC skips out the aforementioned stations…

 

[Kite159]

One wonders how passengers at Basingstoke, Winchester and the like might be feeling this afternoon and evening as SWR services are disrupted in and out of Waterloo following a trespassing incident, while XC skips out the aforementioned stations…

Considering XC was only skipping Basingstoke on Saturdays it shouldn't be affected by today's events, (unless they had orders to skip Basingstoke due to overcrowding)

 

[Trainman40083]

A BBC report today, states that as of last Sunday, Wakefield Westgate has been reinstated as a station stop.

 

[swt_passenger]

A BBC report today, states that as of last Sunday, Wakefield Westgate has been reinstated as a station stop.

Winchester and Basingstoke hourly services appear to have returned last Sunday as well. It’s surprising that the return has been so early in the month, they originally just said June to September, so I expect many people assumed the wors possible dates…

 

[HamworthyGoods]

Winchester and Basingstoke hourly services appear to have returned last Sunday as well. It’s surprising that the return has been so early in the month, they originally just said June to September, so I expect many people assumed the wors possible dates…

Last weekend was the last day of the summer timetable period nationally.

 

[Trainman40083]

Last weekend was the last day of the summer timetable period nationally.

Didn't it used to run later into September?

 

[HamworthyGoods]

Didn't it used to run later into September?

It has been the around the 2nd weekend of September for many years now.

 

[Trainman40083]

It has been the around the 2nd weekend of September for many years now.

Shows how often I use rail at this time of year