All cross country services suspended 23/08/26

[150219]

Worth pointing out that in Birmingham there is already a Network Rail Control Centre where XC would not need to do more than agree for a couple of desks to be set aside for them. Given how critical a hub Birmingham New Street, using that control centre on a regular basis would also make a lot of sense. It'd also mean that big things like access to systems and silly things like staff access cards would be already set up for emergency relocation.

Even more handily, Birmingham ROC is a half-hour walk, 10 minute taxi, or 10 minute bus ride from XC's offices.

I'm not certain there's room for any extra provision. The control floor is/has recently been refurbished and is occupied by WMR.

It's not a bad idea, but I think the practicality of doing so here when space is already tight may prevent it from happening.

PS - I certainly wouldn't relish the idea of walking there!

Let's wait and see what the root cause is and determine what change is necessary, whether this is published or not.

 

[macka]

This is just speculation of course but the fact this power cut at XC's headquarters brought down all of their railway operations yesterday suggests to me that they consolidated many of their services (control, IT, etc) under one roof. Had the control desks gone down on their own the staff and the depots might've coordinated to keep their trains running, and had IT or communication services gone down the control staff could've resorted to using alternative means of communication with their staff, but if they all went down there just wasn't any way for the XC staff to operate.

 

[Elorith]

Why would XC move into BROC when they deal with 11 out of the 14 Network Rail routes? Integration makes a lot of sense for local operators like WMT/LNWR where the train service is confined to just 1 or 2 and they only deal with the Train Running Controllers/Route Control Managers etc., for those specific routes. Not so for long distance operators.

Rugby was also suggested earlier in the thread. That makes even less sense given how little involvement with West Coast South XC have.

 

[Western Sunset]

Surely XC potentially moving into BROC might mitigate one risk, but create another.

 

[AlterEgo]

That should be fairly obvious, if pick a large operator (something like 700+ carriages) chances are they invest on better back up and security than a smaller organisation, so going to be much more difficult to attack. So not too big.

Then if going to attack, presumably would time it for when less likely to be security and IT restoration staff available, middle of weekend or overnight would be likely

The other reason is geographic, if you were a rogue in the business of causing disruption, then targeting something nationwide is going to have more effect than something that only operates in a local area.

Trucking company KNP (also known as Knights of Old) is classic example of what can go wrong, cyber attack in 2025 permanently closed it, even though it was big with about 700 employees

XC on a Sunday is pretty much the lowest priority for someone looking to cause disruption. Do GTR on a Monday morning.

What happened as a result of all this? Almost nothing of note. It's just a leisure route on Sunday with low value discretionary traffic which can entirely be duplicated (with a delay) by other operators, hardly going after UK plc is it?

Why would XC move into BROC when they deal with 11 out of the 14 Network Rail routes? Integration makes a lot of sense for local operators like WMT/LNWR where the train service is confined to just 1 or 2 and they only deal with the Train Running Controllers/Route Control Managers etc., for those specific routes. Not so for long distance operators.

Rugby was also suggested earlier in the thread. That makes even less sense given how little involvement with West Coast South XC have.

Rugby had the space at the time; you're right in that XC have to interact with nearly every Route but the real benefit here is the resilience of the property at somewhere purpose-built, which is the focus of the thread.

 

[Elorith]

Rugby had the space at the time; you're right in that XC have to interact with nearly every Route but the real benefit here is the resilience of the property at somewhere purpose-built, which is the focus of the thread.

I'm sure floor space isn't an issue, even after LNWR's expansion there, but if the industry was really set on XC moving out of Multistory/Cannon House there are dozens of better locations than Rugby.

 

[43096]

And who else are you going to travel with ? On a lot of routes XC is the only choice

Car wins every time over the hell that is XC.

 

[Mark J]

Can anyone provide more context on this service that was running yesterday by Chiltern Railways.

It appeared these Chiltern services replaced all the usual Sunday GWR stopping services to Banbury.

Is this a new service, a trial service, or one that was put together last minute due to XC issues.

Needless to say, it would come as great relief to many, if such a service was full time from Oxford!

 

[imagination]

Can anyone provide more context on this type of service that was running yesterdayby Chiltern Railways.

It appeared these Chiltern services replaced all the usual Sunday GWR stopping services to Banbury.

Is this a new service, a trial seevice, or one that was put together last minute due to XC issues.

Needless to say, it would come as great relief to many, if such a service was full time from Oxford!

They replaced Cross Country services, not GWR ones. GWR only run 3 trains a day from Oxford to Banbury in each direction on Sunday, which they did yesterday as usual.

 

[Starmill]

They replaced Cross Country services, not GWR ones. GWR only run 3 trains a day from Oxford to Banbury in each direction on Sunday, which they did yesterday as usual.

The Oxford Canal stopper on Sundays is a right funny one, from 4 October onwards it doesn't run at all. I guess it returns at the May change the following year.

 

[QueensCurve]

I suspect this will be part of the answer:

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody couldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have.

In 'Wilko' I used to hear announcements for 'a male member of staff to the back door. I wondered if there would be a mad rush or if nobody would go.

 

[djox]

Can anyone provide more context on this type of service that was running yesterdayby Chiltern Railways.

It appeared these Chiltern services replaced all the usual Sunday GWR stopping services to Banbury.

Is this a new service, a trial seevice, or one that was put together last minute due to XC issues.

Needless to say, it would come as great relief to many, if such a service was full time from Oxford!

Agree I wish this was the regular Oxford - Brum service, hope Chiltern/DFT look at how it can be implemented as relief from XC on that stretch.

 

[Dave61]

Car wins every time over the hell that is XC.

I have a fair number of get togethers pub crawls with ex-work collegues in Birmingham (or Worcester, Litchfield...) and coming from Long Eaton I have to use XC as some point as it means *not* having to drive and enjoing a drink or 2...or 3 or was it 4...sorry I loose count !

 

[Requeststop]

XC not doing themselves any favours. 1V52 -0703 Edinburgh to Penzance is presently 119 late at Marsh Barton.
The return journey 1M92 from Penzance to Birmingham is cancelled between Penzance and Par. Reason Given: Unknown cause.

 

[800001]

XC not doing themselves any favours. 1V52 -0703 Edinburgh to Penzance is presently 119 late at Marsh Barton.

What is the reason for the delay?

Caused by XC themselves? Or due to a situation out of there control?

Context is everything.

Edit - after looking at the reason for the delay it was due to a safety inspection of the track between Gloucester and Bristol.

 

[Haywain]

The return journey 1M92 from Penzance to Birmingham is cancelled between Penzance and Par. Reason Given: Unknown cause.

Late running of inbound service.

What is the reason for the delay?

No idea. But according to RTT it lost 82 minutes between Barnwood Junction and Gloucester Yard Junction.

 

[800001]

Late running of inbound service.

No idea. But according to RTT it lost 82 minutes between Barnwood Junction and Gloucester Yard Junction.

As a result of a safety inspection or the track as I posted above.

 

[AlterEgo]

XC not doing themselves any favours. 1V52 -0703 Edinburgh to Penzance is presently 119 late at Marsh Barton.
The return journey 1M92 from Penzance to Birmingham is cancelled between Penzance and Par. Reason Given: Unknown cause.

Safety inspection of the line at Bristol Parkway, hardly their fault.

 

[800001]

Safety inspection of the line at Bristol Parkway, hardly their fault.

And the return working will start short at Par, most likely off 1V52 terminating short due to the late running.

 

[embers25]

XC Journey check said it was term at Plymouth not Par

 

[bramling]

XC on a Sunday is pretty much the lowest priority for someone looking to cause disruption.

I was thinking exactly the same. When I read the mention of Russia I had visions of Putin smiling with the satisfaction of having disrupted Simon & Linda on the way back from their weekend break in Cornwall.

It just isn’t what you’d want to pick if actively seeking to cause disruption.

 

[SuspectUsual]

Having written business continuity and disaster recovery plans, and sadly had to act on them more than once, there are ALWAYS curveballs, wrinkles or unexpected stuff that happens. DR and BC plans are intended to help and guide you respond to a situation. Beyond the immediate danger to life and limb (e.g. fire, and very memorably for me the Buncefield oil depot explosion) they don't provide a perfect check list of actions that will result in your business or operations magically regenerating in another location.

Absolutely true. But does “a power cut” really come under the heading of “curveballs and wrinkles and unexpected stuff”?!?

 

[CaptainHaddock]

I was thinking exactly the same. When I read the mention of Russia I had visions of Putin smiling with the satisfaction of having disrupted Simon & Linda on the way back from their weekend break in Cornwall.

It just isn’t what you’d want to pick if actively seeking to cause disruption.

XC don't need any help to cause disruption , they can manage it perfectly well on their own!

 

[Recessio]

I was thinking exactly the same. When I read the mention of Russia I had visions of Putin smiling with the satisfaction of having disrupted Simon & Linda on the way back from their weekend break in Cornwall.

It just isn’t what you’d want to pick if actively seeking to cause disruption.

Exactly. It's the railway, it's nearly always going to be cock-up over conspiracy, and speculation bordering on misinformation doesn't help anyone

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Monday at 18:11 ==

XC don't need any help to cause disruption , they can manage it perfectly well on their own!

You took the words right out of my mouth, I was going to joke did passengers actually noticed any difference from the normal abysmal XC service

 

[Elecman]

I'm sure floor space isn't an issue, even after LNWR's expansion there, but if the industry was really set on XC moving out of Multistory/Cannon House there are dozens of better locations than Rugby.

Thier own office block at Lampblock by New Street Station

 

[AndrewE]

Yesterday's collapse seems to have put a bomb under them (maybe an unfortunate simile) but their performance today has been astonishingly good - up to mid-day. I saw about half a dozen cancellations/terminating or starting short, and about the same again p.m. (Using RTT for BHM selecting XC only.)
Perhaps "they" realise they could be in the Last Chance saloon - and have realised they might even be made to suffer in their pockets.

 

[andyjhatton]

Is it a British thing that we seem to put up with this level of incompetence?

I can't help but think that in some other countries, those responsible for such ineptitude would have to fall on their sword or else be outed.

 

[RyanOPlasty]

Is it a British thing that we seem to put up with this level of incompetence?

I can't help but think that in some other countries, those responsible for such ineptitude would have to fall on their sword or else be outed.

In general, privatisations were not done with sufficient controls over those taking on the services. The lack of resilience may be a consequence of running at minimum cost, knowing there would never be any serious consequences.

 

[robbeech]

Yesterday's collapse seems to have put a bomb under them (maybe an unfortunate simile) but their performance today has been astonishingly good - up to mid-day. I saw about half a dozen cancellations/terminating or starting short, and about the same again p.m. (Using RTT for BHM selecting XC only.)
Perhaps "they" realise they could be in the Last Chance saloon - and have realised they might even be made to suffer in their pockets.

But (as eluded to below) what are the real world consequences? Those operators still operating privately have surely just knocked any form of care on the head by now as they freewheel towards being taken over? Why would they put any effort in?

In general, privatisations were not done with sufficient controls over those taking on the services. The lack of resilience may be a consequence of running at minimum cost, knowing there would never be any serious consequences.

 

[GoneSouth]

This… For some large businesses, failing to deliver a service to its customers could cause significant reputational and financial damage. But for Cross Country? Its reputation is already in the gutter due to overcrowding, cancellations, and strikes. It’ll have to refund some customers because they didn’t travel yesterday but many will just have self-transferred to services operated by other companies. The outage will have no major consequences because the vast majority of people who need to use Cross Country train services will use them again despite what’s happened. So the harsh reality is that there’s no incentive to make the business truly resiliant.

The really sad thing is not that Cross Country wasn’t resiliant. Its that vehicles operated by humans are unable to be used without the life-line of being able to contact a remote control centre - and apparently without being able to get in touch via a land-line at the control centre end. How did the railway run before computers and mobile phones I wonder?

Unfortunately they are the only operator in portions of their route so the option to transfer to other services wasn’t possible.

Also you are correct, people will use XC again, like me, because they simply don’t have a choice. Believe me, if I did then I would use another operator. You’re right about their reputation being in the gutter too, such a sorry state of affairs,