All cross country services suspended 23/08/26

[sir_gummerz]

Due to a power failure at the head office and control center in Birmingham, all XC trains look to have been removed from the timetable today. Services aren't showing as cancelled on any screens, rather they have been completely removed.

Attached, a photo of the special notice stating the issues at bristol temple meads

No crosscountry service today due to a power failure within their HQ. You may use your ticket, at no cost, on GWR. NRE.co.uk/disruption

 

[robbeech]

Cue platform staff claiming to know nothing about a Plymouth train as usually happens when it’s removed and not cancelled. At least they’re showing cancelled online so the 100,000 or so people expecting to use their trains today might have a fighting chance.

It’s a little bit surprising there appears to be such a single point of failure here, I say a little bit surprising it should be absolutely shocking but I’ve come to realise the railway is so unstable and poorly run as a whole it really is only a little bit surprising.

 

[cats_five]

If that happens when I'm going from Edinburgh to Penzance I would need to use my ticket on LNER, Lumo or Avanti as I would be having to go via XC & Paddington.

Update: I see that my ticket would be valid on Avanti and the London Underground but not LNER or Lumo.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Sunday at 07:00 ==

<snip>

It’s a little bit surprising there appears to be such a single point of failure here, I say a little bit surprising it should be absolutely shocking but I’ve come to realise the railway is so unstable and poorly run as a whole it really is only a little bit surprising.

We have no idea if the power issue is internal or external to XC.

 

[sir_gummerz]

Cue platform staff claiming to know nothing about a Plymouth train as usually happens when it’s removed and not cancelled. At least they’re showing cancelled online so the 100,000 or so people expecting to use their trains today might have a fighting chance.

It’s a little bit surprising there appears to be such a single point of failure here, I say a little bit surprising it should be absolutely shocking but I’ve come to realise the railway is so unstable and poorly run as a whole it really is only a little bit surprising.

It apears they are now all showing on the boards as cancelled. At least at bristol

 

[kitchenoven]

Update: I see that my ticket would be valid on Avanti and the London Underground but not LNER or Lumo.

National Rail Enquiries saying tickets are accepted via any reasonable route with Avanti West Coast, Chiltern Railways, East Midlands Railway, Greater Anglia, Great Western Railway, London Northwestern Railway, Lumo, ScotRail, South Western Railway, TransPennine Express, Transport for Wales and West Midlands Railway. Given the extent of the XC network it seems to be mostly all the main operators apart from Northern and GTR? Sleepy brain can't think of anybody else

(Disruption page - https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service-disruptions/xc-disruption-20260823/)

 

[LowLevel]

Rather confusing as to how it can happen really. It appears they were evacuated from their control office yesterday afternoon which has lost power and they can't access the majority of their IT to even send out disruption messages or updates. Seems the only trains they are running are the Peterborough - Stansted shuttles with all other services cancelled.

Basically nationwide ticket acceptance with LNER looking at extra stops where they can.

 

[yorkie]

If that happens when I'm going from Edinburgh to Penzance I would need to use my ticket on LNER, Lumo or Avanti as I would be having to go via XC & Paddington.

Update: I see that my ticket would be valid on Avanti and the London Underground but not LNER or Lumo.

Here is the relevant condition in the National Rail Conditions of Travel (NRCoT):

https://assets.nationalrail.co.uk/e8xgegruud3g/7iflSDtwN50mQZMP6SKWH0/3bded7549df32c2f5eeadefac8bcb5d9/National_Rail_Conditions_of_Travel_July_2026.pdf

...Where disruption prevents you from completing the journey for which your Ticket is valid and is being used, any Train Company will, where it reasonably can, provide you with alternative means of travel to your destination...

 

[Mojo]

Rather confusing as to how it can happen really. It appears they were evacuated from their control office yesterday afternoon which has lost power and they can't access the majority of their IT to even send out disruption messages or updates. Seems the only trains they are running are the Peterborough - Stansted shuttles with all other services cancelled.

I believe XC’s control is based at their HQ in Cannon House which is just a serviced office building shared with other (non-railway) companies. I would therefore be surprised if it had the resilience that one would expect from a more conventional control centre [notwithstanding the fact there have been some high-profile failures elsewhere on the network before].

 

[sir_gummerz]

Another thing to add, I believe cross country control is also responsible for grand centrals day to day operations, yet ive not seen any info regarding disruption. Although the first services likely aren't scheduled to depart yet.

This was the case a few years ago not sure if they still share control staff.

 

[yorkie]

Another thing to add, I believe cross country control is also responsible for grand centrals day to day operations, yet ive not seen any info regarding disruption. Although the first services likely aren't scheduled to depart yet.

This was the case a few years ago not sure if they still share control staff.

No GC cancellations showing currently and the stock for the 0755 from Bradford has arrived at the station

 

[TUC]

National Rail Enquiries saying tickets are accepted via any reasonable route with Avanti West Coast, Chiltern Railways, East Midlands Railway, Greater Anglia, Great Western Railway, London Northwestern Railway, Lumo, ScotRail, South Western Railway, TransPennine Express, Transport for Wales and West Midlands Railway. Given the extent of the XC network it seems to be mostly all the main operators apart from Northern and GTR? Sleepy brain can't think of anybody else

(Disruption page - https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service-disruptions/xc-disruption-20260823/)

It seems broader than that. Cross Country is saying:

'Tickets purchased for travel on CrossCountry services on Sunday 23 August can be used for travel with other train operators on that route'.

That does not imply any relevant operators for a given route being excluded.
https://www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk/travel-information/disruption/latest-travel-information?

 

[robbeech]

We have no idea if the power issue is internal or external to XC.

It doesn’t matter who is to blame the fact remains it seems like a single point of failure that has stopped an entire train operating company operating its trains.

 

[bcarmicle]

As a result of a power cut affecting CrossCountry control centre, train services across almost all routes will be withdrawn until further notice on Sunday 23 August*, with the exception of services between Peterborough, Cambridge and Stansted Airport.

*A near-normal service is expected between Peterborough, Cambridge and Stansted Arport due to the impact of planned engineering work. A rail replacement bus service will remain in place as planned between Leicester and Peterborough.

Does anyone have any idea why the Peterborough/Cambridge/Stansted services can run? It seems weird that Control being unavailable would allow some sections to work as normal while others cannot.

 

[800001]

Does anyone have any idea why the Peterborough/Cambridge/Stansted services can run? It seems weird that Control being unavailable would allow some sections to work as normal while others cannot.

Possibly they know which unit/s are there, and can just ask NR to allocate them to the headcodes on that route?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Sunday at 07:57 ==

It doesn’t matter who is to blame the fact remains it seems like a single point of failure that has stopped an entire train operating company operating its trains.

I wonder wether it has affected them accessing IT systems ie locked themselves out, is usually when XC evacuate they continue operating normally and messages continue to be sent out etc

 

[Harpo]

No GC cancellations showing currently and the stock for the 0755 from Bradford has arrived at the station

Grand Central also now included on the NRES ticket availability list as per the link in post #5.

 

[A S Leib]

A small number of afternoon non-Leicester services are showing in RTT as not (yet) cancelled; how likely is it that they'd run?

 

[DelW]

National Rail Enquiries saying tickets are accepted via any reasonable route with Avanti West Coast, Chiltern Railways, East Midlands Railway, Greater Anglia, Great Western Railway, London Northwestern Railway, Lumo, ScotRail, South Western Railway, TransPennine Express, Transport for Wales and West Midlands Railway. Given the extent of the XC network it seems to be mostly all the main operators apart from Northern and GTR? Sleepy brain can't think of anybody else

South Eastern and C2C are also absent - like GTR, there are no XC routes in their area.

 

[Segedunum]

LNER are running what would usually be an empty stock move from Edinburgh to Newcastle in passenger service to assist this morning - https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:09583/2026-08-23/detailed

Remains to be seen whether or not it actually sits in the loop at Wooden Gate Jn or just continues on.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

South Eastern and C2C are also absent - like GTR, there are no XC routes in their area.

To be really pernickety, GTR does of course have XC routes in their area (at Peterborough and Ely-Cambridge South*) but these aren't affected, else they might have had acceptance for Peterborough - Cambridge/Stansted via Hitchin.

*Southern also meets XC at Southampton Central, and occasionally Airport Parkway, but acceptance wouldn't give any help here

 

[ac6000cw]

South Eastern and C2C are also absent - like GTR, there are no XC routes in their area.

Not needed today (as XC is running Peterborough - Cambridge - Stansted), but Peterborough - Cambridge via Hitchin/Stevenage is a good alternative route using GTR services. XC and GTR both operate Ely - Cambridge.

 

[kw12]

Rather confusing as to how it can happen really. It appears they were evacuated from their control office yesterday afternoon which has lost power and they can't access the majority of their IT to even send out disruption messages or updates. Seems the only trains they are running are the Peterborough - Stansted shuttles with all other services cancelled.

Basically nationwide ticket acceptance with LNER looking at extra stops where they can.

Why were trains not affected until today (instead of from yesterday afternoon)?

 

[flitwickbeds]

Not sure what's going on with their website. Yellow "travel updates (1)" box at the top of every page which says about the cancellations when you click on it - but directly underneath this is a green box which says "live service update - good service reported". Most people would see this green box and be reassured without pulling down the yellow box first, I would imagine.

Then each of the individual route service pages (reached by clicking on the green box) also say good service for every one.

If they've been locked out of their IT then perhaps they can't update their site - but then how have they activated the yellow box?

I'm also confused about the "power" situation - if as reported above the evacuation happened yesterday afternoon then how could trains continue running yesterday but not today? Could this be some kind of cyber incident?

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

It doesn’t matter who is to blame the fact remains it seems like a single point of failure that has stopped an entire train operating company operating its trains.

Indeed and off the back of the issue in Manchester a few weeks back. The industry really isnt showcasing itself very well at the moment and as usually leaving the front line staff to soak up the flack.

 

[KNN]

Seems remarkable that they don't have a contingency plan for this situation. What if there is a fire and they can't go back to that office at all?

 

[Horizon22]

Not sure what's going on with their website. Yellow "travel updates (1)" box at the top of every page which says about the cancellations when you click on it - but directly underneath this is a green box which says "live service update - good service reported". Most people would see this green box and be reassured without pulling down the yellow box first, I would imagine.

Then each of the individual route service pages (reached by clicking on the green box) also say good service for every one.

If they've been locked out of their IT then perhaps they can't update their site - but then how have they activated the yellow box?

I'm also confused about the "power" situation - if as reported above the evacuation happened yesterday afternoon then how could trains continue running yesterday but not today? Could this be some kind of cyber incident?

Some are linked directly to NRE and take a feed from there.

The fact that they’ve been able to remove services from the timetable no doubt required staff at NRES to do that for them en masse.

The vast majority of time, other TOCs can’t touch other TOCs service amendments which sometimes causes a bit of angst at multi-operator stations where one is a bit more on the ball with service information than another during a shared incident.

 

[Snow1964]

So when did the railway change to not working at all, unless a control room hundred miles away was operating.

Until mobile phones 25 years ago, staff just worked to the paper timetable and traffic notices regardless to maintain service, assuming the line was signalled. Just ran the normal scheduled service. Control only got involved if there were problems.

Where did this tick box idea of can only operate if a control room is online come from. Who banned idea of phoning control staff if they are working remotely.

And why are there are no contingency mobile phones numbers available to staff to provide a backup

 

[Toby268]

Got to hand it to LNER for running additionals where possible. Some quite creative timetabling, including running what would normally be an ECS from Newcastle to the high level bridge back to Newcastle, instead going ECS to Durham to work back to Newcastle as an additional service. To then form it’s booked working to King’s Cross.

 

[Johnnie2Sheds]

So when did the railway change to not working at all, unless a control room hundred miles away was operating.

Until mobile phones 25 years ago, staff just worked to the paper timetable and traffic notices regardless to maintain service, assuming the line was signalled. Just ran the normal scheduled service. Control only got involved if there were problems.

Where did this tick box idea of can only operate if a control room is online come from. Who banned idea of phoning control staff if they are working remotely

RE: First sentence, when the idiots took over. It's an absolute farce. Mind, not having to suffer a rancid voyager is a bonus I suppose. Didn't "control" used to be the regulator in a PSB? Replaced by Network Rails control and each TOCs control? Efficient then, going through many people to make a decision.

 

[Mike395]

Not a good look. Whoever approved non-redundant critical systems for CrossCountry operations at Arriva must be a bit red in the face today….

 

[Megafuss]

I'd be genuinely surprised if we don't hear from the Transport Secretary by lunch time. This is simply unacceptable