XC Industrial Action from 23rd August onwards…

[dk1]

Severe overcrowding yesterday between Ely and Peterborough as trains were full and standing leaving Norwich. Today’s going to be interesting.

 

[Intercity_225]

It is going to be hell today. March (for example) has only 1tp2h to Peterborough and Ipswich, and all except 2 EMR services today are planned to be 2 cars. Horrifying.

 

[dk1]

It is going to be hell today. March (for example) has only 1tp2h to Peterborough and Ipswich, and all except 2 EMR services today are planned to be 2 cars. Horrifying.

Shame the Stockport works have finished.

 

[Mag_seven]

GWR services in the West Country will also be under pressure today. I've just seen the 08.03 Paddington-Penzance depart Reading almost full and standing already and that's before it gets anywhere near lines where there will be gaps in services due to no Cross Country trains.

 

[dk1]

GWR services in the West Country will also be under pressure today. I've just seen the 08.03 Paddington-Penzance depart Reading almost full and standing already and that's before it gets anywhere near lines where there will be gaps in services due to no Cross Country trains.

And with the 11:15 Penzance to Edinburgh cancelled passengers will find the following 11:50 GWR service terminating Par due to shortage of traincrew too.

 

[tram21]

It is going to be hell today. March (for example) has only 1tp2h to Peterborough and Ipswich, and all except 2 EMR services today are planned to be 2 cars. Horrifying.

And three EMR services cancelled, one because of a points faliure and two due to driver shortage.

 

[dk1]

And three EMR services cancelled, one because of a points faliure and two due to driver shortage.

At least 1R68 is starting Ely after being spun so should assist with the displaced XC passengers.

 

[Wyrleybart]

We sailed into Southampton this morning off a cruise, and P&O were displaying on the cabin screens that XC industrial action meant no XC services from Southampton today.

 

[TrainzBK]

It varies from station to station. There's some places with a silly amount of different dispatchers all Dispatching there own tocs trains but not others. Manchester Piccadilly has 3 different pools of staff, although I cant remember who does what exactly. I know TPE used agency dispatch staff at one point, and cross country gets dispatched by northen staff. These will be negotiated between tocs. Cross country used to have dedicated dispchers at some stations but a few years ago there was a push to get rid off them

TPE have Carlisle Support Services dispatchers who dispatch only the TPE services out of Piccadilly, Avanti dispatchers that only dispatch Avanti services and Northern dispatchers who dispatch Northern, CrossCountry, EMR and TFW services, Northern are also responsible for the dispatch of any charter services out of Piccadilly.

 

[Class 170101]

TPE have Carlisle Support Services dispatchers who dispatch only the TPE services out of Piccadilly, Avanti dispatchers that only dispatch Avanti services and Northern dispatchers who dispatch Northern, CrossCountry, EMR and TFW services, Northern are also responsible for the dispatch of any charter services out of Piccadilly.

No wonder the railway is expensive. Nationalisation, one would hope, bring this to an end and result in one dispatcher for the lot.

 

[Kite159]

No wonder the railway is expensive. Nationalisation, one would hope, bring this to an end and result in one dispatcher for the lot.

Completely agreed, something similar to Birmingham New Street where the dispatch staff are one team?

 

[Wychwood93]

With regard to cancellation of XC services today, I have just stumbled across this STP SWR working from Basingstoke to Bournemouth in what would normally be the path of the XC service.

Realtime Trains | 1Z93 1712 Basingstoke to Bournemouth | 23/08/2025

Real-time train running information for 1Z93 1712 departure from Basingstoke to Bournemouth on 23/08/2025. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

I will have a look and see if there were more.

Edit: STP services through Christchurch today: https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/se...2025-08-23/0000-2359?stp=S&show=all&order=wtt

The 1Z90 to 1Z93 are in normal XC paths.

Further edit: They were all 10-car formed of 444013/444042.

 

[SCDR_WMR]

No wonder the railway is expensive. Nationalisation, one would hope, bring this to an end and result in one dispatcher for the lot.

That depends on how many the headcount could be reduced by. At New St for instance there is always 2 staff per platform so that's 24 per shift (plus break cover).

Pic may have less than that currently split between the differing TOCs

 

[Andyh82]

No wonder the railway is expensive. Nationalisation, one would hope, bring this to an end and result in one dispatcher for the lot.

Manchester Piccadilly has always been a bit weird like this. See also how different platforms have/had different barriers/no barriers/manual barriers.

It’s probably the worst example of privatisation causing duplication

 

[Jamesrob637]

Why didn't this get called off? Previous ones in 23 and 24 did.

 

[357]

Why didn't this get called off? Previous ones in 23 and 24 did.

Because the issue hasn't had any progress towards being resolved?

 

[Jamesrob637]

I have just seen the below on Journey Check:

An additional train service has been planned to operate as shown 19:13 Birmingham International to Bournemouth due 22:27

Was this the only XC service today?

 

[Benjwri]

I have just seen the below on Journey Check:

An additional train service has been planned to operate as shown 19:13 Birmingham International to Bournemouth due 22:27

Was this the only XC service today?

I think that’s accidental and meant to be referring to tomorrow. No such service ran.

 

[tram21]

An EMR Intercity service (2125 ex STP) is calling additionally at Attenborough, I assume to substitute the final CrossCountry train there.

Very rare for a Class 222 to call at Attenborough though!

 

[Jamesrob637]

I have just seen the below on Journey Check:

An additional train service has been planned to operate as shown 19:13 Birmingham International to Bournemouth due 22:27

Was this the only XC service today?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 23 Aug 2025 ==

I think that’s accidental and meant to be referring to tomorrow. No such service ran.

Ah it must be a duplicate from tomorrow's journey then.

 

[Spartacus]

An EMR Intercity service (2125 ex STP) is calling additionally at Attenborough, I assume to substitute the final CrossCountry train there.

Very rare for a Class 222 to call at Attenborough though!

Nah, that was a substitute for 2L87 which went to the aid of 170508 which failed at East Mids Parkway.

 

[fandroid]

The strike had a beneficial effect for me yesterday. I was travelling from Brockenhurst to Basingstoke in the evening. Normally there's only one direct train per hour. The other Waterloo train not stopping at Basingstoke. But yesterday, in the absence of XC the xx.14 services added it as a stop.

I've used every consultation exercise going in the past to get SWT/SWR to add that stop in. To no avail. I don't want to spend time on a winter's evening on platform 1 at Winchester and endure an extra slower journey due to the additional Micheldever stop, before getting home.

And I'm not alone. I regularly see Basingstoke passengers forced to do that Winchester hop-off hop-on sequence.

Mind you, if I'd been travelling to Reading or beyond I would have cursed the lack of the non-stop service that XC provides from Basingstoke!

 

[Class 170101]

85 planned cancellations today so far

https://x.com/ChimeWhistle/status/1959504385081217224

"85 CrossCountry trains cancelled/part cancelled today"

 

[dk1]

85 planned cancellations today so far

Not as bad as expected then

 

[Spartacus]

85 planned cancellations today so far

Does that include the short notice ones and changes of origin which were being inputted this morning? Probably not as they shouldn’t be PGs, at least the ones I did weren’t.

 

[Class 170101]

Does that include the short notice ones and changes of origin which were being inputted this morning? Probably not as they shouldn’t be PGs, at least the ones I did weren’t.

Only what has been tweeted from ChimeWhistlePublishing

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 24 Aug 2025 ==

Not as bad as expected then

Probably get extra on Sundays

 

[dk1]

Only what has been tweeted from ChimeWhistlePublishing

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 24 Aug 2025 ==


Probably get extra on Sundays

Yes but many wouldn’t be interested.

 

[Snow1964]

Just out of interest has the strike / industrial action actually achieved the result the union wanted, or has it been a complete failure as far as getting the aims implemented.

I can't see anyone who has gained from this action
1) union / members haven't resolved the dispute satisfactory
2) passenger reputation of reliability of XC is even lower / if not almost zero
3) staff have lost money and goodwill of passengers
4) XC have lost revenue
5) ancillary businesses eg catering and station shops lost due to reduced flow

I wonder if others feel same, this action has failed completely to meet RMTs demands.

 

[Harpo]

I wonder if others feel same, this action has failed completely to meet RMTs demands.

Lets see what DfT lets XC do next.

 

[LowLevel]

Just out of interest has the strike / industrial action actually achieved the result the union wanted, or has it been a complete failure as far as getting the aims implemented.

I can't see anyone who has gained from this action
1) union / members haven't resolved the dispute satisfactory
2) passenger reputation of reliability of XC is even lower / if not almost zero
3) staff have lost money and goodwill of passengers
4) XC have lost revenue
5) ancillary businesses eg catering and station shops lost due to reduced flow

I wonder if others feel same, this action has failed completely to meet RMTs demands.

The current action it is probably too early to say, given it hasn't concluded yet.