I have had the misfortune of having to use/rely on CrossCountry trains 5 times in the last month.

I managed to secure my pre-booked seat on just one of those trains.
Every single train was late departing - from as little as 15 minutes to 50 minutes.
Every single train was ‘full and standing’ - actually overflowing with people standing in the toilets on one mid-morning Reading to Birmingham New Street service (we actually bailed at Birmingham International as we worked out out TfW connection commenced there - and we just wanted off the Class 221 tubular hell hole.

Given passenger levels the need from some kind of non-London routing to get around the country is definitely needed and desired. But - given recent experiences (and previous) I wonder how GBR should look at revisit the whole cross country design.

Better trains (and longer) trains - 4 or 5 car 221s just don’t seem to cut it ?
Faster trains, better acceleration )- less station stops, moving to a major centre to centre service ?
Consider an alternative hub than Birmingham New Street (trains just seem routinely to sit for 5 mins outside waiting for a platform - and a discussion on Wolverhampton station with a staff member indicated the development of the West Midlands Metro is only going to make things worse) ?
Mandate pre-booking only - no turn up and go tickets for sale (radical I know) ?

What ideas have YOU had to solve the Cross Country issue(s)?

I fully admit that my experience has been limited to the south and west routes of CC - is it equally as bad elsewhere on their network ?

 
10 car 800 series trains, as most of cross country is under the wires anyway, capacity, toilets in one go...

 
I think it probably depends which part of their network you use. I find the service that covers Reading to Bournemouth is generally acceptable. One improvement could be if the looked at the number of cruise ships/passengers scheduled at Southampton. It is published a year in advance I believe, putting a 4-car train on when there five cruise ships scheduled is a likely recipe for disgruntlement.

 

That'd be the end of Coventry - Bournemouth then. And University - South West.

No, longer trains, more limited stop, I reckon. Run the 221s as doubles & get 8xx stock for one side of the 'X' or the other as a step-change replacement. But the local stops need service spec in place of the removed stops.

 

The cruise ship issue is a significant and awkward one. AI result from Google:


and it's notable that 8 out of 10 of those by train from Southampton are naturally Cross Country journeys.

Lisa and I have been cruisers from Southampton for a number of years, and taking with other guests on the ships we have chosen I believe there's a bias (when population density considered) towards passengers on them from the north and the Scottish lowlands. 

At Southampton Central Station, there are distinct crowds of people arriving / departing by rail and that's in spite of the cruise companies offering coach transfer and parking deals, and in spite of it needing taxis to and from the station.  We use bus -> Bath from outside our home. Across the road (normally) in Bath for the direct train to Southampton, and coming from Bristol that can be pretty busy too.  There's a strong South Wales cruising contingent too, on the same train.

If the cruise companies / industry were to promote rail far more than they do, they could make for a real change - but not sure that XC would cope, nor that they would want the very peaky loads that could be generated.

Under GBR, there is a case for their being a nationwide TOC pool of go-anywhere longer distance trains to meet major peaks such as cruise high days, Cheltenham Gold Cup, Glastonbury, FA Cup final, bog snorkelling at Llanwrtwd, Great North Run, etc.   ... geography might suggest that Reading work be a logical base.

 
I’ve used cross country a few times in the last month.
Each time I’ve had a refurbished train. I think the refurbished trains are pleasant enough.
The train managers have been very friendly.
No issue finding a seat.

But, and a big but, on each occasion it’s been a Sunday. They’ve terminated at Plymouth instead of continuing on to Penzance

 
The first thing I would do is run a comprehensive analysis of the ticketing data to establish how much of the loading of each service is split between shorter (e.g. Plymouth > Totnes or Newton Abbot) and longer (e.g. South West > Birmingham) journeys.
On the basis of the results I would then make sectors with a preponderance of longer journeys reservation only, preferably aided by a new 'smart' reservation app which, once the origin station has been specified, only displays selected destinations so that the 'swamping' of services by short distance travellers is significantly reduced.

Where such restrictions were implemented I would amend the timetable(s), if necessary, to ensure that an appropriate 'local' service was available to short distance passengers.

The aforementioned ticketing data could also be used to determine, on a 'train-by-train' basis, the number of carriages required for each service; present experience quite clearly shows that 4 or 5 coach trains frequently don't cut the mustard.

The new LNER timetable might show a different way forward; using their Azumas there are now only four 10-car trains each weekday with a corresponding increase in a half-hourly 5-car train service.

 
I despise the Voyager train, there is something about the interior feeling cramped and chaos at every station that I avoid at all costs

Ironically I just had a weekend in Teignmouth and the cheapest trains by a long shot were using Cross Country.
I was due to travel with a friend, but she was unwell and pushed me to go on my own.

I got on the train at Weston to find people in my reserved seat - first two on the right in the carriage.
The quickly moved on request, but then an elderly lady sat in one of my reserved seats saying it was hers.
Her husband was sat in front of her, and had to move a lady into another seat.

Once I realised they were travelling together I explained they were both my seats and that they could sit there so they could travel together, so I sat in the seat in front.
As soon as I got comfortable a lady in the window seat said her sister had been sat there and was now on the left side, so I offered her sister my seat and sat in my third seat, even before the train had got to the main line

The thing about this, it wasn't just where I was sat there were people moving people from reserved seats all through the carriage and was absolute chaos.

I don't understand why people find the reservation system so difficult to read or take notice of.
The other problem, is why they are only ever 4 car sets, with one being an underused first class.

How 3 carriages has ever been deemed suitable for long distance is incredible.

The ironic end to this, I actually travelled back on Saturday night
The train I was booked on ended up being cancelled

 
Are there any ex-Avanti 221s still in storage?

 
The primary gripes of most users are smelly trains, unusable wi-fi/blocked mobile signal, overcrowding and high fares.

Most of that could be fixed by replacing existing stock with well-furnished 10-car and 5-car variants of 80x stock. This could bring the offering closer to a TGV/AVE/ICE-standard whilst with more capacity, tickets could be reduced so the per-mile price is closer to the network average.

As mentioned previously, much the core network is now electrified (with more in prospect), and at the very least a bi-mode fleet would offer better performance under the wires and the ability to catch up schedules, but also improve the business case for gaps like Derby to Birmingham and Bromsgrove to Bristol to be filled. Reliability is inevitably going to be difficult on complex and long routes, but I don't think it's the main gripe for most people.

An additional problem is that long-distance "Intercity" passengers doing multi-hour journeys are are mixed with those doing short commuter hops of as little as 10 minutes (e.g. Bristol TM to Bristol Parkway). This is to a certain extent being mitigated by new commuter services like TfWM's planned Birmingham to Bristol/Cardiff, but XC could also bring in "reservation only" carriages. 

 

In theory, yes.

In practice the Voyager fleet has around 10-15 years of life left in them and it would be very hard to make the sums work for a £1bn+ full replacement of them for a few years yet, as it would be difficult to find a home for them.

A small additional fleet of new trains to bolster the current fleet?  Maybe.

 

Yes, currently sets 101-106

Grand Central still has a pair too (units 142, 143), but has nine 5car tri-mode (class 820 ?) IETs on order, so shouldn't need them once these new trains arrive, as won't need so many spares.

Really it would be economically wasteful to scrap all the voyagers (likely to be in service about another 13-16 years), but there is a strong case for using just the intermediate cars and lengthening sets to 6cars.   Fewer vehicles to refurbish, and get a pool of spare parts, engines, bogies, seats, cab fittings etc.

I am not sure if having 4 or 5 or 6 car sets is best.   
4car on their own are too short and crowded (except at fringes of route).  5car sets get far too crowded in the Midlands and less than ideal too.  6car would be better and less of a problem when run on their own.
But if start having doubled up sets of 10, 11, 12 cars do they become overkill, or cause problems at stations where platforms are under 285m (935 feet) long.  An 11car voyager is similar length to 2x5car IETs

 
Start the process of ordering a new fleet of 9 car bi-mode trains now for delivery at the slowest possible viable rate. As they slowly enter service use any displaced Voyagers to double up other services. Given the usual delays new trains gave in entering service, by the time you’ve doubled up everything (and coped with the growth arising from the journey experience becoming something to enjoy rather than endure), those 15 years will be nearly up.

 

I seem to recall XC have expressed an interest in those six sets, but it’s sitting with the DfT?

Get those on XC routes ASAP, then the two Grand Central ones in 2028 (and also the boost of however many sets are currently undergoing refurbishment at a time) and you’ll have enough to make a very noticeable impact and perhaps get you through to a replacement order for the Voyagers (and the XC 170 fleet) in the late 2030s.

An option that just might get the ok from the treasury?

 

    How would YOU solve CrossCountry ?

I'd renationalise it.



Oh ... hold on a minute.

 
London Buses had this problem 40 years ago of late running and traffic congestion. Their solution was to shorten the routes. Not liked but inevitable.

GWR have done it with the the Cardiff-Penzance services; although with the 175s I thought they might come back but the train is so unreliable and the stock has had no effect on increasing capacity in Devon and Cornwall or elsewhere by releasing the 158s to Bristol.

 
Buy or lease a limited number of FULL  LENGTH trains, fixed formation 9 or 10 vehicles. Use these on the most popular services, thereby freeing up existing short units to double up and relieve overcrowding.

Avoid "flexible train length" as flexible means shorter.
Include ample luggage space, with provision for cycles and surfboards.
A full buffet.
Selective door opening.
Avoid anything made by Hitachi, as that has become a toxic brand.

 
In the absence of a replacement for the Voyagers, I'd increase regional services on the CrossCountry routes where there's overcrowding.

So more GWR services on Oxford–Banbury. More Chiltern services on Banbury–Birmingham (and that's happening!). More regional services on Cheltenham–Birmingham – perhaps by extending the TfW service from Cardiff. An EMU shuttle from Birmingham to Manchester using the spare 350s.

I know each of these have their own challenges. But generally I think expecting long-distance CrossCountry services to be the main provider for local journeys is a fool's errand.

 

I’d tend to agree…. but with nationalisation round the corner it would make more sense to go with Hitachi IETs.  Current GWR crews could then easily cover current XC work.

 
Can’t really see nationalisation causing the Voyagers to be replaced 10-15 years before their due date, as has already been said.