Over a Hundred Years Ago
The core cross country route developed from the Midland Railway's Bristol to Leeds line via
Birmingham, Derby and Sheffield. The summer 1903 timetable shows through carriages to
Sheffield (7 times daily), Leeds (6 times daily), York (3 times daily) and Newcastle
(2 times daily). Manchester was linked 4 times each day and Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee
and Aberdeen by one day time (09:45) and one over night service (19:55). The Bristol to Glasgow
journey took 10 hours 40 minutes by the day train via Leeds, Settle, Carlisle and Dumfries. The night train took 11 hours 10 minutes. Southbound three trains carried through carriages from Glasgow to Bristol.
Fewer trains ran through from Devon, but the 08:45 from Plymouth had through carriages to
Birmingham, Derby and York. There were through carriages from York to Kingswear via
Weston-Super-Mare and Torquay.
Forty Years Ago
Forty years ago the 1967 timetable shows 11 Bristol to Birmingham trains, but only three
started south of Bristol. One from Penzance, one from Plymouth and one from Paignton.
Three trains continued north of Birmingham to Leeds and on to Bradford, 3 to York and
Newcastle (one as a sleeping car service), 1 to York, 3 to Sheffield and 1 to Derby.
Fifteen Years Ago
In 1992 British Rail ran 18 trains from the south-west to Birmingham and beyond and of these
6 ran on to the West Coast main line. These were the 06:06 Bristol to Liverpool, 7:25 Plymouth
to Edinburgh, 8:44 Plymouth to Liverpool, 7:52 Penzance to Edinburgh via Glasgow, 12:08 Plymouth
to Manchester and the night sleeper from Plymouth to Scotland.
Sleeper Service Scrapped
The sleeper service ran from Plymouth to Glasgow and Edinburgh via the West Coast main line.
In the 1980s the train was divided at Carstairs, so as to provide a direct service to both
Scottish cities. From 1990 the train was no longer split at Carstairs, but instead ran
first to Glasgow and then to Edinburgh. From summer 1991 Edinburgh was served first at
06:35 and Glasgow at 08:15.
From summer 1992 the ordinary seating was withdrawn and from that winter it was called
the Night Scot northbound and Night West Countryman southbound.
In 1995 concerns were raised in parliament about plans to withdraw the service. Hansard
22 May 1995 records Mr. Tyler asking the Secretary of State for Transport about passenger
loadings. A figure of 32,000 for 1993-4 was given for the sleeper service.
The sleeper service was not included in the new franchise specification for Cross Country.
It is thought that the Government considered that the large number of direct day time
services between the South West and Scotland provided an adequate alternative. Now the
government is withdrawing these services as well from the direct West Coast main line.
Four trains also ran from Plymouth (2 starting at Penzance) to Crewe via Bristol and
Hereford. Two continued to Liverpool and 2 to Manchester with one as a sleeping car service
from Plymouth to Manchester. No trains ran through to Scotland by either the Birmingham
or Hereford routes.
The Virgin Franchise
Virgin took over the new CrossCountry franchise on 5th January 1997. The new Class 220
Voyager and Class 221 Super Voyager trains came into service from 2001 onwards.This period
saw the expansion of CrossCountry services using the West Coast main line.
The 2003 Cut Backs
Huge cuts in the CrossCountry rail services took place from May 2003. These had already
been announced on January 16th by Richard Bowker, chairman of the Strategic Rail Authority.
Services were reduced at Cardiff, Wolverhampton, Stafford, Lancaster, Bolton, Oxenholme
and Penrith. Swansea and Blackpool lost all their Cross Country train services.
So did Poole and Portsmouth, which are used for ferry connections to the Isle of Wight
and for Brittany Ferries to Cherbourg and Caen (Ouistreham).
The SRA claimed there would also be some "pretty big wins" in improving the reliability
of remaining trains. Caroline Jones of the Rail Passengers' Council described the cutbacks
as "fairly drastic".
