Cross Country - what could have been?

[Fyldeboy]

It is the end of the last millennium, Virgin have the XC franchise and are genuinely running trains all across the country - including some (eg Birmingham London) that were perhaps treading on other franchises domains! I think that was acknowledged by the fact they were shown on platforms as 'Reading' but ran through to Paddington with passengers.

Then came Operation Princess and the financial failure that followed, leading the SRA to seriously cut back VXC to pretty much its core routes as today.
However, passenger numbers have more than doubled since then, so if the SRA had left VXC routes alone, would they be profitable by now?

Blackpool to Portsmouth anybody?

 

[JonathanH]

However, passenger numbers have more than doubled since then, so if the SRA had left VXC routes alone, would they be profitable by now?

No, because the short trains mean high costs relative to revenue and the disparate routes could never have been cost-effective or reliable to operate.

A leaner network was the only sensible way of getting XC under control.

As pointed out in this thread, XC never fulfilled Operation Princess in the manner intended as it didn't have all the paths it desired, it was unreliable and the rolling stock was insufficient.

https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/operation-princess-what-was-the-intended-timetable.220559/

Blackpool to Portsmouth anybody?

No, it was Liverpool to Portsmouth every two hours, Blackpool to Birmingham every two hours.

 

[TheBigD]

Waiting for XC and Brighton to be mentioned...

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

No, it was Liverpool to Portsmouth every two hours, Blackpool to Birmingham every two hours.

While that was certainly the pattern under Operation Princess prior to that Virgin XC most certainly did operate a daily round trip between Blackpool and Portsmouth with traction provided by any of 158s, 47/8s and HSTs. So the OP's question was a fair one.

 

[Snow1964]

To some extent cross country is now only a service from NE to SW England and South Coast to North Via Midlands with both very selective destinations.

There were a number of routes from cities / big conurbations that have never been part of the network. It has never been a full network, and it’s choice of fleet (some 4 car units) never really suited many of its services.

Its pricing vs journey time never made a lot of sense either, with many journeys like Southampton-Leeds (to use 2 big cities at random) often faster and cheaper by other rail companies,

I think the decision to abandon many quite large large cities (even if one train per day) meant it became an irrelevance in places like Swansea, Portsmouth, Brighton etc. If don’t serve somewhere then any advertising and offers cannot boost revenue very easily as bookings are likely to be made through others, and of course they are likely to offer you a deal that keeps you on their trains for longest

 

[JonathanH]

While that was certainly the pattern under Operation Princess prior to that Virgin XC most certainly did operate a daily round trip between Blackpool and Portsmouth with traction provided by any of 158s, 47/8s and HSTs. So the OP's question was a fair one.

Didn't that come from Liverpool as well? I seem to remember it as doing Edinburgh - Liverpool then Liverpool to Portsmouth immediately in the late 1990s.

Ah, this confirms once a day to Blackpool.
https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/the-evolution-of-cross-country.221293/page-3#post-5275019

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

Didn't that come from Liverpool as well? I seem to remember it as doing Edinburgh - Liverpool then Liverpool to Portsmouth immediately in the late 1990s.

Ah, this confirms once a day to Blackpool.
https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/the-evolution-of-cross-country.221293/page-3#post-5275019

The Blackpool was the one I used as its timings were very convenient for visits to relatives in Reading, namely 0730ish from Blackpool giving a breakfast time start from South Lancs with the return leaving Pompey around 1430. I would guess the "triangular" workings involving Edinburgh and Liverpool would have provided morning and mid-evening departures from the south coast. The link in your subsequent edit more or less confirms this though Manchester was also involved and no XC trains overnighted in Portsmouth.