Interview: Rethinking ‘Unusual And Special’ CrossCountry
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Railway Gazette.
This is the sub-heading.
CrossCountry’s National Rail Contract came into force on October 15, giving the business some medium-term certainty and Managing Director Tom Joyner a chance to reflect with Rail Business UK on its evolving role as a truly national train operator.
These are thoughts based on what is said in the article.
Unusual And Special
This paragraph is Tom Joyner’s explanation of what he meant.
‘CrossCountry is unusual and special. The fact that we’re a long-distance operator that connects so many places means we can be there for something different’, believes Managing Director Tom Joyner as he reflects on the operator’s short and medium-term future following the award on September 20 of its National Rail Contract.
I have found CrossCountry useful in the past to efficiently visit some towns and cities in the past, when Ipswich Town are playing away.
Arriva UK’s Contract To Run CrossCountry
This paragraph details the operating contract.
Under the NRC, incumbent Arriva UK Trains will continue to run the non-London inter-city passenger business as it has since November 2007. Commencing on October 15, the contract has a guaranteed core term of four years and an option for this to be extended to eight. The government will take the revenue risk, as it has done since the pandemic, with Arriva receiving a fixed fee to operate the business, with limited bonuses on offer if certain performance targets are met.
As a resident of London, I rarely use CrossCountry. But my only obvious improvement would be that CrossCountry ran trains with a smaller carbon footprint.
Post Pandemic Purpose
This paragraph details their post-pandemic purpose.
‘CrossCountry hasn’t benefitted from re-franchising in the last 10 years and this has presented challenges, particularly from a rolling stock perspective. We’ve been working closely with DfT to agree the post-pandemic purpose and vision for CrossCountry and how these fit into our railway network’, Joyner reports.
Most rail operators in the UK are London-centric or regional. Perhaps CrossCountry should become more ‘Unusual And Special’ to serve the important places, that other rail operators cannot reach.
One place would be the National Memorial Arboretum, which I wrote about in New Station Proposed For National Arboretum.
There must be lots of other places.
It could surely be the transport network for those who wanted to roam the UK on a holiday.
Could it be at the heart of levelling up the regions of the UK?
Fleet Under Pressure
This paragraph describes the current fleet and its condition.
Perhaps most reassuring for regular users of CrossCountry is news that the NRC will allow the operator to deliver some improvements to its train fleet, the backbone of which are the Class 220 and 221 DEMUs Arriva inherited from Virgin Trains in 2007. Other than some minor cosmetic work, these have not been refurbished since they were introduced in 2001. These 200 km/h Voyager trainsets are augmented by a fleet of Class 170 Turbostar DMUs for 160 km/h operation on regional routes to Cardiff and Stansted Airport; CrossCountry withdrew its last ex-British Rail IC125 High Speed Trains on September 18.
I do think, that some way must be found to reduce the operators large carbon footprint.
Are Battery Trains The Answer?
This paragraph gives Tom Joyner’s view on battery trains.
He is equally sceptical about the prospects for alternative traction technology to replace diesel. ‘I keep hearing views from industry colleagues who say, “electrification isn’t the answer, battery is the answer”. But you can’t get a battery that’s got the range that we need, even on the regional services currently worked by Class 170s.’
Birmingham New Street and Leicester is only 39.8 miles, so this route for a Class 170 train, might be possible for battery-electric trains, when there is electrification or charging at Leicester.
Perhaps the plan would be to run battery-electric trains between Birmingham and Leicester and see how the passengers react and how this will change the economics of the other Class 170 services?
A Lot More Food For Thought
There are some more sections in the article, that are worth a read.
- Sustainability Challenge
- Service Offering
- Commuters’ ‘Coventry Conundrum’
- Doing Something Different
This paragraph towards the end of the article makes the levelling up case, that CrossCountry can fulfil.
He suggests that the operator may not need as structured a timetable, and that its operating model could involve serving more destinations rather than the current largely fixed hourly axes crossing in Birmingham. ‘We serve regional Britain and when we talk about levelling up, the railway company best placed to level up in terms of connecting the whole of Britain is us’, he insists. This ethos is reflected in the daily Cardiff – Edinburgh service, with Joyner noting that this will not be a repeating service through the day.
Read the whole article.
I wish Tom Joyner the best of luck!
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