Cross Country Franchise
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The Cross-Country Franchise is a new National Rail franchise formed by the Department for Transport to operate passenger rail services on the Cross-Country Route. The franchise will be formed through the amalgamation of the current Virgin Cross Country (VXC) franchise, which operates inter-city services that do not terminate in London, with elements of Central Trains. The franchise is due to begin operating in November 2007.
[edit] Routes
The new franchise will be responsible for the existing VXC services, most of which utilise Birmingham New Street as their hub. These services include:
- Birmingham - Reading / The South
- Birmingham - Bristol - South West
- Birmingham - North East - Scotland
- Birmingham - North West - Scotland
- Birmingham - Manchester
The franchise will also have responsibility for the following services currently run by Central Trains:
- Cardiff - Nottingham
- Hereford - Nottingham
- Birmingham - Stansted
VXC's current services between Manchester and Glasgow/Edinburgh will be transferred to TransPennine Express from December 2007, subject to contracts being agreed [1].
[edit] Bids
The Department for Transport announced on 19 September 2006 that four parties had pre-qualified for new franchise[2]:
- Arriva Trains Cross Country Limited (Arriva Group)
- First Cross Country Limited (First Group)
- NXC Trains Limited (National Express Group)
- Virgin Voyager Trains Ltd (Virgin Rail Group)
[edit] External links
| Domestic: | Arriva Trains Wales - c2c - Central Trains - Chiltern Railways - First Capital Connect First Great Western - First ScotRail - Grand Central1 - GNER - Heathrow Connect Hull Trains - Island Line2 - Merseyrail - Midland Mainline - Northern Rail Northern Ireland Railways3 - 'one' - Silverlink - Southeastern - Southern South West Trains2 - TransPennine Express - Virgin Trains |
|---|---|
| International: | Enterprise3 - Eurostar |
| Airport Link: | Gatwick Express - Heathrow Express - Stansted Express4 |
| Sleeper: | Caledonian Sleeper5 - Night Riviera6 |
| 1 Starts 20 May 2007 - 2 To be replaced by the South Western franchise in February 2007 3 Operated on the Irish railway network - 4 Operated by 'one' - 5 Operated by First ScotRail 6 Operated by First Great Western | |
| Future passenger train operators in Great Britain | |
|---|---|
| New Franchises: | Cross Country1 - East Midlands1 - London Overground1 - South Western2 West Midlands1 |
| Proposed open-access operators: | Grand Union3 - Wrexham & Shropshire4 |
| 1 Starts November 2007 - 2 Starts February 2007 - 3 Proposed - 4 Awaiting Approval | |
