New XC contract - news & updates (not speculation)

[KashmireHawker]

From Arriva’s Press Release on CrossCountry:

Under the new contract, CrossCountry is also planning enhancements to its timetable, including a new daily direct service between Cardiff and Edinburgh. The company will also explore the reintroduction of services between Cambridge and Stansted Airport, strengthening connections across Great Britain.

Arriva Group awarded new national rail contract for CrossCountry

New contract starts from October 15 for a core term of four years. Timetable enhancements are expected and enhanced connectivity, including a new daily direct service between Cardiff and Edinburgh. The new contract will see CrossCountry undertake a full fleet refurbishment.

news.arriva.co.uk

 

[jw]

Glad to finally see a full fleet refurbishment for CrossCountry, very overdue.

 

[JonathanH]

From Arriva’s Press Release on CrossCountry:

Nothing about additional rolling stock in that, and two somewhat weak timetable 'improvements'.

19 Sep 2023

Arriva Group awarded new national rail contract for CrossCountry

* New contract starts from October 15 for a core term of four years.

* Timetable enhancements are expected and enhanced connectivity, including a new daily direct service between Cardiff and Edinburgh.

* The new contract will see CrossCountry undertake a full fleet refurbishment.

London, September 19, 2023: Arriva Group’s CrossCountry train operating company has today been awarded a new contract by the Department for Transport (DfT) to continue operating services across the length and breadth of Great Britain, building on its 16-year reputation as a leading national operator.

The new contract starts Sunday October 15, with a guaranteed core term of four years. The news re-confirms Arriva’s position as a leading player in the UK rail market and will see CrossCountry introducing a range of customer improvements including a full fleet refurbishment of both the Voyager and Turbostar fleet – the first major refurbishment in 20 years. This will include fitting CCTV, Automatic Passenger Counting equipment on board, new carpets and LED lighting, all designed to provide a more comfortable experience for customers.

Under the new contract, CrossCountry is also planning enhancements to its timetable, including a new daily direct service between Cardiff and Edinburgh. The company will also explore the reintroduction of services between Cambridge and Stansted Airport, strengthening connections across Great Britain.

David Brown, Arriva Group’s Managing Director of its UK Trains division commented: “This is great news for Arriva Group, our colleagues at CrossCountry and for customers of the railways. I’m proud of our long-standing reputation in the UK rail industry and our track record of successfully managing and delivering train services across the country. The Government’s confidence in Arriva will ensure we can deliver connectivity and more comfortable services, helping to ensure Britain’s rail system can grow and thrive long into the future”.

Cross Country offers services from Cornwall, the South Coast, the Midlands and South Wales to the north of England and central and north-east Scotland. It connects seven out of 10 of the major cities in the UK and serves several university towns and regional airports. The announcement today will ensure continuity for the 85,000 daily customers who have come to rely on the connections provided by CrossCountry.

The news also builds on Arriva’s strong reputation in UK rail and closely follows a two-year contract extension for Arriva Rail London to operate the London Overground concession on behalf of Transport for London.

Arriva Group has extensive operating experience across long-distance, commuter, urban, inter-urban and regional train services, through its UK Trains division which includes Chiltern Railways, CrossCountry, Grand Central and Arriva Rail London. It is the only owning group to have experience with all contract types currently in use on Britain’s railway, including national rail contracts, a concessionary contract, an Open Access company under the Grand Central brand, and a rail maintenance business, Arriva Traincare.

Notes to editors:

The new contract will run for a minimum term of four years with a further four-year period, which could be reduced at the discretion of the Secretary of State.
About Arriva Group:

Arriva is a leading provider of passenger transport across Europe, employing around 35,500 people and delivering around 1.5 billion passenger journeys across 10 European countries. We are part of Deutsche Bahn (DB), one of the world’s leading passenger and logistics companies. With buses, trains, coaches, trams, waterbuses, bike-sharing systems, and on-demand transport solutions, Arriva proudly connects people and communities safely, reliably and sustainably, delivering these services in a better way, every day. The activities of Arriva are divided into four lines of business: UK Bus, UK Trains, The Netherlands and Mainland Europe. Arriva has operations in the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and the United Kingdom.

 

[Iskra]

Still no meaningful improvement for XC then, just tinkering at the edges.

Good to see that the Voyagers are getting a refurb.

I did chuckle at automatic passenger counting- we can all see these train are full and too short without a system that probably underestimates because it can't account for standees.

 

[CptCharlee]

No mention of seats being replaced just new LED lightning, CCTV, passenger counting equipment and new carpets.

Also seems the Cardiff to Edinburgh is one daily service. So something of nothing really.

 

[danbarjon]

7 Voyagers from AWC apparently.
https://www.modernrailways.com/article/extra-voyagers-new-crosscountry-contract

Following the withdrawal of its HSTs, CrossCountry is to take on seven additional Class 221s released by Avanti West Coast following the arrival of new Hitachi trains there, adding to the 58-strong fleet of Class 220s and Class 221s CrossCountry already operates

 

[londonmidland]

Still no charging facilities proposed for the Class 170s. Unacceptable for the long distances they cover such as Cardiff - Nottingham and Birmingham - Cambridge/Stansted Airport.

 

[Snow1964]

Seems very odd that DfT issued press release for the West Coast, but nothing for new XC contract.

XC seems an afterthought in the wording of Ministers speech. I am wondering if it was late decision to also announce it on same day

 

[Master29]

News but hardly much improvements on already awful and often painfully expensive services.

 

[Royston Vasey]

Given the alternative (them getting nothing extra, which seemed a real possibility) I would say this is excellent news and an unexpected outbreak of common sense.

 

[Iskra]

Extra Voyagers in new CrossCountry contract

Full fleet refurbishment and direct Cardiff to Edinburgh service also planned

www.modernrailways.com

According to this, 7 voyagers from Avanti will be coming over when released

Why 7? That's going to leave a tiny microfleet, unless the remaining ones are going to cover for refurbs?

Given the alternative (them getting nothing extra, which seemed a real possibility) I would say this is excellent news and an unexpected outbreak of common sense.

Yes, that is very true. It is better than nothing, which is what most of us had started to expect. Plus, it’s 7 more reliable, more compatible trains, which could be deployed more easily, flexibly and cost effectively to cater to demand.

 

[Snow1964]

Oh that's really poor. I was hoping we'd get an good enhancement, instead seems just a replacement of the HSTs capacity so the severe overcrowding of the past 20 years will continue. What a disappointing contract.

7 voyagers (presumably 5car) is not really a big improvement. Admittedly in latter years were 5 HSTs but in blunt terms replacing 35 passenger vehicles (5 x 7car HST trailers) with 35 voyager. More one-for-one than improving.

Actually could argue less vehicle length as all the HSTs trailer cars were usable, but will now have 14 cabs within the vehicles that were previously on separate vehicles.

More disappointing is it appears won't really be any serious improvement in next 4-8 years

 

[swt_passenger]

Why 7? That's going to leave a tiny microfleet, unless the remaining ones are going to cover for refurbs?

Or to another operator? But we’ve a number of existing threads covering that possibility.

 

[sprinterguy]

7 voyagers (presumably 5car) is not really a big improvement. Admittedly in latter years were 5 HSTs but in blunt terms replacing 35 passenger vehicles (5 x 7car HST trailers) with 35 voyager. More one-for-one than improving.

Actually could argue less vehicle length as all the HSTs trailer cars were usable, but will now have 14 cabs within the vehicles that were previously on separate vehicles.

More disappointing is it appears won't really be any serious improvement in next 4-8 years

The HSTs only covered two daily diagrams. Seven additional 5-car Voyagers could, if 6 were in daily service as part of a common fleet, result in twelve diagrams strengthened from 4-car to 5-car and a further six strengthened from 5-car to 8-car.

Though initially I'd expect that they'll largely cover for units being refurbished.

 

[Peterthegreat]

The HSTs only covered two daily diagrams. Seven additional 5-car Voyagers could, if 6 were in daily service as part of a common fleet, result in twelve diagrams strengthened from 4-car to 5-car and a further six strengthened from 5-car to 8-car.

Though initially I'd expect that they'll largely cover for units being refurbished.

I agree with your analysis. Whilst the HSTs did add extra capacity it was not needed for the full route. Having 5 or 6 extra Voyager diagrams gives a lot more flexibility.

 

[HamworthyGoods]

Why 7? That's going to leave a tiny microfleet, unless the remaining ones are going to cover for refurbs?

Why is leaving a tiny sub fleet the DfTs problem? They didn’t buy them or own them, that’s the ROSCO’s problem.

If you run a business and want to lease 4 vans from a van hire company you don’t ask them how many they have left over and the decide you are going to lease 5 because you don’t want the van hire company to be left with just one!

DfT and XC have obviously done their calculations and worked out 7 is what is affordable at this time and it’s 7 more than many of us have expected, you can’t take on more trains than the money available to pay the lease.

 

[KashmireHawker]

Still no meaningful improvement for XC then, just tinkering at the edges.

Good to see that the Voyagers are getting a refurb.

I did chuckle at automatic passenger counting- we can all see these train are full and too short without a system that probably underestimates because it can't account for standees.

How are they even going to get the full accuracy in the process? These systems never get things 100% correct and never will!

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

If you run a business and want to lease 4 vans from a van hire company you don’t ask them how many they have left over and the decide you are going to lease 5 because you don’t want the van hire company to be left with just one!

This is actually a really good analogy tbh

 

[DelW]

I note that:

The news also builds on Arriva’s strong reputation in UK rail

I also note that in English, "strong" and "good" are different words with very different meanings.

 

[KashmireHawker]

From Arriva’s Press Release on CrossCountry:

In seeing the full press release, I am very glad to see a full refurbishment programme of the fleet.

It’s been a very long time coming and long overdue.

 

[HamworthyGoods]

This is actually a really good analogy tbh

Thank you! I was trying to think of a decent analogy.

Many people forget the railway is run as a business these days so you only lease what you need. It’s not like days of old when you own rolling stock so you try and make best use of what you’ve got.

You would catch Ryanair taking on an extra couple of 737s just so there wasn’t a couple of oddballs left in the plane yard.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Thank you! I was trying to think of a decent analogy.

Many people forget the railway is run as a business these days so you only lease what you need. It’s not like days of old when you own rolling stock so you try and make best use of what you’ve got.

You would catch Ryanair taking on an extra couple of 737s just so there wasn’t a couple of oddballs left in the plane yard.

I’m sure Michael O’Leary would find some way to squeeze a dirt cheap lease price

What happened to the rumours - I can’t remember where from - about a complete rebrand Arriva were planning, apparently with a dark green and grey scheme? Was that just nonsense in the end?

 

[Trainbike46]

Similarly though, the leasing company may offer a better deal for someone taking all of them rather than leaving a small number.

Though 13 out of 20 isn't a particularly small number, and very well could be exactly right for certain open access operators

I’m sure Michael O’Leary would find some way to squeeze a dirt cheap lease price

Exactly this

 

[HamworthyGoods]

Similarly though, the leasing company may offer a better deal for someone taking all of them rather than leaving a small number.

Though 13 out of 20 isn't a particularly small number, and very well could be exactly right for certain open access operators


Exactly this

Indeed though usually you have to take most to get a deal on the rest.

If it had been say 17 they might have done a deal to take the last 3. With only 7 out of 20 they would have struggled.

I’m sure Michael O’Leary would find some way to squeeze a dirt cheap lease price

What happened to the rumours - I can’t remember where from - about a complete rebrand Arriva were planning, apparently with a dark green and grey scheme? Was that just nonsense in the end?

I guess we’ll have to wait and see the spec for the refresh.

 

[brad465]

Presumably the additional 221s will have their tilt functions disabled/removed, in line with the existing 221s at XC.

 

[a_c_skinner]

7 Voyagers from AWC apparently.

Fewer than half of the AWC 221s, I think. Another apparently irrational decision driven by the current accounting systems.

 

[Master29]

Fewer than half of the AWC 221s, I think. Another apparently irrational decision driven by the current accounting systems.

Why? I think it makes good sense. would you rather they sat empty in sidings?

 

[HamworthyGoods]

Why? I think it makes good sense. would you rather they sat empty in sidings?

Indeed it’s great to see XC getting some vehicles to properly replace the HSTs as opposed to internal shuffling of fleet to spread more thinly.

 

[43102EMR]

Why? I think it makes good sense. would you rather they sat empty in sidings?

I think they were more referring to the fact that only 7 are coming over, when XC really could use most, if not all, of the ex-Avanti 221s to combat their capacity issues (GC transfers aside)

 

[Master29]

I think they were more referring to the fact that only 7 are coming over, when XC really could use most, if not all, of the ex-Avanti 221s to combat their capacity issues (GC transfers aside)

That makes sense.