All cross country services suspended 23/08/26

[AdamWW]

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

Perhaps staff can't start a shift as this requires signing on electronically and this isn't working and there's no back up method?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Sunday at 09:35 ==

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

Look on the bright side - with GBRF and greater centralisation whatever has happened could have taken out the whole railway.

 

[70014IronDuke]

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. Any foreign military intelligence services with bad intent - I suspect there are one or two around - will surely be taking note of how incredibly easy it is to cripple train movements over trunk routes in the UK.

 

[Oxfordblues]

Chiltern are doing their bit this morning, running Oxford-Birmingham services in the XC paths:

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:09539/2026-08-23/detailed

 

[birchesgreen]

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

Probably someone who moved on a long time ago to another bunch of suckers.

 

[RUK]

Chiltern are doing their bit this morning, running Oxford-Birmingham services in the XC paths:

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:09539/2026-08-23/detailed

How do they have the staff and rolling stock availability to do things like this at short notice? With an ECS move like with the LNER one, I understand that the train and staff are already going somewhere, rather than the train undergoing maintenance.

 

[SuspectUsual]

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.

Perhaps that reporting is on an exception basis, and because all the services have been pulled from the timetable if nothing is being reported as late does the website go green?

 

[Horizon22]

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

I do find it odd there is absolutely zero, even a bare bones backup. Nearly every other operator I know has one.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Sunday at 09:51 ==

Perhaps staff can't start a shift as this requires signing on electronically and this isn't working and there's no back up method?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Sunday at 09:35 ==

It won’t be something as simple as that. Just a paper form will suffice and signed off by a Duty Manager in Control.

Of course if telephony has gone down too, that will be more challenging.

 

[Djgr]

Look on the bright side - with GBRF and greater centralisation whatever has happened could have taken out the whole railway.

Presumably GBR will build in more appropriate resilience

 

[Bow Fell]

I do find it odd there is absolutely zero, even a bare bones backup. Nearly every other operator I know has one.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Sunday at 09:51 ==



It won’t be something as simple as that. Just a paper form will suffice and signed off by a Duty Manager in Control.

Of course if telephony has gone down too, that will be more challenging.

I think the issue is their contingency has also failed with no IT / phone access.

Don’t forget for a control and therefore a train service to function, there are roles which are vital if there was a unit fault on a Voyager that would be dealt with by the maintenance controller, if there is no way of working through fault finding then that service is effectively stranded.

The Duty Control Manager is a safety case holder and ultimately has the final decision making authority with anything to do with the Cross Country train service or any incident and traincrew management.

There are some roles that could be delegated elsewhere through Network Rail for example.

 

[brad465]

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

Could she use this as an excuse to bring forward nationalisation of the operator? I'm not saying that would instantly improve things, but it wouldn't be the first time a TOC was stripped due to some issue the TOC was responsible for.

 

[Fokx]

Having worked during the recently Manchester power outage, in my opinion, suspending service entirely is the best and most sensible decision, and it's also objectively best for the passengers from a customer service point of view as you can atleast say "There will be no XC trains, travel with any alternative operator" rather than "please wait until further notice for several hours for no information or instruction".

My TOC had one contingency mobile phone, the line was occupied for pretty much the entire day and I received no information or instruction on my 10 hour shift.

The last thing you want in a month where we have had a few major incidents involving trains detailing is no access to control.

 

[150219]

How do they have the staff and rolling stock availability to do things like this at short notice? With an ECS move like with the LNER one, I understand that the train and staff are already going somewhere, rather than the train undergoing maintenance.

One answer is that there are less train and crew diagramming constraints on a Sunday, so there's possibly more of an opportunity to operate this rather than doing the same on a Monday (for example).

Another answer is moving resources around and adapt the diagrams to free up the trains and train crew.

 

[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 ==



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

Since I posted just before 7am, I see that Avanti, LNER & Lumo have been added.

 

[Magdalia]

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.

Apart from the "last mile" into Peterborough, all of this is now on railway operated by the Greater Anglia Integrated Business Unit.

GBR Anglia

Today with the press reveal of GBR Anglia units 357008/020 and 720144/501 and an outline of plans for GBR Anglia and the following press release produces some clarity on proceedings...

www.railforums.co.uk

Could that have something to do with it?

BBC now has a report see here:

CrossCountry cancels 'almost all' UK services after power cut

The operator says services will be "significantly disrupted" until further notice.

www.bbc.co.uk

Trains across the UK have been cancelled after a power cut at train operator CrossCountry's control centre.

The power outage started in Birmingham on Saturday and as a result, many of the systems used to manage the railway are unavailable, the operator said.

Services across almost all its routes, with cancellations affecting most routes from Glasgow to Penzance, until further notice as experiences outage causes "significant and unforeseen disruption".

 

[Halwynd]

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

I'd be very surprised if you heard anything from Heidi Alexander, or Hendy for that matter. And if you did it would just be another standard format, insincere DfT statement.

People have just become used to this sort of thing and passenger expectations of the railway are not high, so there's absolutely no need for Alexander and Hendi to interupt their weekend just for the plebs.

A good day to bury bad news for the Lumo West Coast though, whose farcical service continues...

 

[MalaiseForever]

Could she use this as an excuse to bring forward nationalisation of the operator? I'm not saying that would instantly improve things, but it wouldn't be the first time a TOC was stripped due to some issue the TOC was responsible for.

They don't want to taint the GBR brand with CrossCountry anytime soon.

 

[Recessio]

Do CrossCountry not have procedures in place for this? In my line of work we have a "Disaster Recovery" procedure that means we can be set up at a backup office within one working day - and if the test drills of the DR procedure fails, people get the sack...

 

[kristiang85]

At risk of asking a stupid question, why aren't there backup generators for critical operations such as this?

 

[ricoblade]

Does XC (and whoever owns them today) not have Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) plans that are regularly tested as part of their business management system? I bid into government (in non-rail sectors) and it's a standard requirement to have either ISO 22301 (the BCDR standard) or management systems that meet its requirements and these are then reflected in a contract schedule to ensure compliance.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Sunday at 10:32 ==

Do CrossCountry not have procedures in place for this? In my line of work we have a "Disaster Recovery" procedure that means we can be set up at a backup office within one working day - and if the test drills of the DR procedure fails, people get the sack...

Our posts overlapped, making the same point!

 

[Recessio]

Does XC (and whoever owns them today) not have Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) plans that are regularly tested as part of their business management system? I bid into government (in non-rail sectors) and it's a standard requirement to have either ISO 22301 (the BCDR standard) or management systems that meet its requirements and these are then reflected in a contract schedule to ensure compliance.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Sunday at 10:32 ==


Our posts overlapped, making the same point!

And I would even freely admit that my line of work is nowhere near as important to the daily lives of people as a train service is!

 

[D6130]

Yet another sad indictment of thirty years of a fragmented - in more ways than one - railway system. What was it that John Major, Brian Mawhinney, et al, we're saying all those years ago? Something along the lines of privatisation increasing passenger choice and service efficiency? If it does really turn out that there were no workable back-up systems in place, the boss of Cross Country should fall on her sword.

 

[class 9]

At risk of asking a stupid question, why aren't there backup generators for critical operations such as this?

Because XCs Control office is just a floor in rented office building shared with many other non railway, non safety critical businesses.

 

[kristiang85]

Because XCs Control office is just a floor in rented office building shared with many other non railway, non safety critical businesses.

Ok fair enough, thanks! That's surprising though.

Thankfully I was meant to be on a CC route this weekend but cancelled my plans. That has saved me a lot of stress it seems.

 

[Halwynd]

Yet another sad indictment of thirty years of a fragmented - in more ways than one - railway system. What was it that John Major, Brian Mawhinney, et al, we're saying all those years ago? Something along the lines of privatisation increasing passenger choice and service efficiency? If it does really turn out that there were no workable back-up systems in place, the boss of Cross Country should fall on her sword.

Indeed, and I remember all those career railwaymen who left BR and took all their operating experience with them because the privateers thought they could do it better. Well, here we are now.

 

[Russel]

Because XCs Control office is just a floor in rented office building shared with many other non railway, non safety critical businesses.

Not sure the location is relevant, XC have been based at Cannon House for the best part of 20 years and this is the first issue on the scale we're seeing...

What is relevant though is the clear lack of any contingency, but then, that isn't surprising.

 

[172007]

Because XCs Control office is just a floor in rented office building shared with many other non railway, non safety critical businesses.

Its also a 1960/70s building that appears not to be refurbished to a modern spec (you can see the lighting internally compared to new buildings looks ancient in colour). I bet the electrical wiring internaly in places is old and has not been touched.

I am sure XC had the option to move i to BROC / WMSCC and rejected it unlike WMR/LNR and in the case of the West Mids Operation control is split between BROC and Rugby ROC so i immagine there is far more contingency.

 

[D6130]

Indeed, and I remember all those career railwaymen who left BR and took all their operating experience with them because the privateers thought they could do it better. Well, here we are now.

Yes....the late Peter Rayner for one. Well worth reading his excellent book "On and Off the Rails" for his candid opinions on the cack-handed way the railways were privatised.

 

[RUK]

One answer is that there are less train and crew diagramming constraints on a Sunday, so there's possibly more of an opportunity to operate this rather than doing the same on a Monday (for example).

I did consider that there would be fewer services on a Sunday than on a week-day, but I also thought that there would be proportionally fewer staff to work those services, and perhaps more maintenance work scheduled on the trains, so fewer trains might be available for use - but I suppose if frequency is lower on a Sunday, but the length of rota duties is the same in terms of length of time, then more services could be fit in to be worked during a shift.

 

[172007]

Its also a 1960/70s building that appears not to be refurbished to a modern spec (you can see the lighting internally compared to new buildings looks ancient in colour). I bet the electrical wiring internaly in places is old and has not been touched.

I am sure XC had the option to move i to BROC / WMSCC and rejected it unlike WMR/LNR and in the case of the West Mids Operation control is split between BROC and Rugby ROC so i immagine there is far more contingency.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Sunday at 10:56 ==

Not sure the location is relevant, XC have been based at Cannon House for the best part of 20 years and this is the first issue on the scale we're seeing...

What is relevant though is the clear lack of any contingency, but then, that isn't surprising.

So the building has not been refurbed in 20 years, the wiring is ancient considering the increased demands by modern computers etc. Backs up my previous comment

 

[Russel]

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Sunday at 10:56 ==


So the building has not been refurbed in 20 years, the wiring is ancient considering the increased demands by modern computers etc. Backs up my previous comment

It was stripped back to a bare shell before XC moved in and has recently undergone some major works.

See Skyscrapercity thread