Everything about Cross Country Route totally explained
The North-East/South-West route (sometimes simply The
Cross-Country Route) is the major British rail route running from South West England via
Bristol,
Birmingham,
Derby and
Sheffield to North-East England. It facilitates some of the longest inter-city rail journeys in the UK, eg
Penzance to
Aberdeen. It was also a major freight route, although in this role it has now largely been usurped by the
M5,
M6 and
M1 motorways.
History
The Birmingham to Bristol section was originally built as the
Birmingham and Gloucester Railway and the
Bristol and Gloucester Railway, which then briefly amalgamated as the
Birmingham and Bristol Railway before joining the
Midland Railway. From Birmingham northwards, the line originated as the
Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway to Derby, then the
North Midland Railway to Leeds, then the
York and North Midland Railway.
It ran through several regions of
British Rail and had timetabling priority in none of them, and as a result the services were poorly-promoted and thus not always well-patronised. This was offset somewhat on privatisation when the route was awarded as a single franchise to
Virgin Trains. (The route corresponds broadly to Virgin VT3.)
In the 1960s the route was understood to be pencilled in for
electrification — this would have been particularly beneficial for climbing the
Lickey Incline into Birmingham from
Cheltenham, as many of the early diesels were underpowered. However, this improvement didn't take place, and modern, more powerful multiple-units such as the new
Turbostars and
Voyagers have made this unnecessary.
During the
1990s and early
2000s, the network was served by
High Speed Trains, and
Class 47s, which hauled various types of coaching stock.
Many people want a new station at Worcester, called
Worcester Parkway to be built on the outskirts of Worcester (but only if
Shrub Hill station closed).
Route
The route is well-connected, meeting amongst others the
Great Western Main Line,
West Coast Main Line,
Midland Main Line,
Sheffield to Hull Line, and the
East Coast Main Line. Places served along the route include:
Milepost zero for Derby to Bristol is at Derby, hence a northbound train, for instance, will start out going "up" then change to "down". The
Birmingham to
Derby section of the route has a line speed of, however
Birmingham to
Bristol is restricted to due to a number of half barrier
level crossings.
Services
The main traffic on the route are services operated by
Arriva under the
CrossCountry brand, with local services provided by
London Midland and
First Great Western.
The XC Network is now served by
Class 220/
221 Voyager Trains. These trains are capable of achieving, compared to the previous Class 47s and
Mk 2 coaching stock, which had a top speed of, and
Class 43 HSTs, which had a top speed of . Since the Voyager trains arrived the XC network has stopped serving
Inverness,
Blackpool,
Portsmouth,
London Paddington and
Liverpool. The Class 221 can tilt on some areas of the
West Coast Main Line leading to a faster, more comfortable journey. Arriva have announced that it'll be reinstating
InterCity 125 HSTs for certain services on the CrossCountry route as part of its takeover of the franchise in response to criticisms of lack of seating capacity provided by the Voyager DEMUs.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Cross Country Route'.
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