Franchise(s):	Cross Country 1997 – 2007 (originally 2012)
Main route(s):	South and South West England - Midlands - Northern England and Scotland
Fleet size:	34 Voyager and 44 Super Voyager sets
Stations called at:	Unknown
Parent company:	Virgin Trains

For the new franchise holder of the Cross Country Route, see CrossCountry.

Virgin CrossCountry was a train operating company in Great Britain, part of Virgin Trains, from January 1997 until 11 November 2007. The company's operations were former InterCity services centred on Birmingham New Street, operating across the country (but usually avoiding London).

History

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2008)

The franchise was the first of two awarded to Richard Branson's Virgin Group in 1997; the group later sold a 49% stake to the Stagecoach Group. The company inherited a fleet from British Rail which dated largely from the 1960s and 1970s. An important franchise commitment was the replacement of these trains, which happened in 2001 when the new Voyager and Super Voyager trains entered service.^{citation needed} However, by this stage, the company had acquired a poor reputation for reliability with passengers^{citation needed}.

In September 2002, Virgin launched Operation Princess, a new timetable launched to coincide with its new trains, which were meant to solve the reliability problems blamed on the elderly rolling stock. However, the new trains suffered problems of their own^[1], including technical problems, as well as being much smaller than their predecessors, which led to overcrowding. The new timetable proved difficult to operate^{citation needed} and cutbacks to services were ordered by the government's Strategic Rail Authority^{citation needed}. Some destinations, such as Liverpool Lime Street, Blackpool, Portsmouth and London Paddington, were eliminated from the Cross Country network altogether, while others (such as Gatwick Airport and Brighton)) saw considerable reductions in services. Many of these changes reversed some of Virgin's earlier expansions.^{citation needed}

Fate

The Virgin Cross Country franchise finished on 11 November 2007 as part of reshuffle of franchises which primarily affected the Midlands.^[2] A new CrossCountry franchise was created, incorporating the majority of Virgin's Cross Country services, along with some former Central Trains "Citylink"services. However, services between Birmingham New Street, Glasgow Central and Edinburgh via the West Coast Main Line were transferred to the West Coast franchise, and thus continue to be operated by Virgin, while services between Manchester Piccadilly, Glasgow and Edinburgh will be transferred to First TransPennine Express from December 2007.

The Department for Transport (DfT) announced on 19 September 2006 that four parties had pre-qualified for the new franchise, including Virgin^[3]. On 10 July 2007, it was announced that Arriva had been awarded the Cross-Country franchise, from 11 November 2007 until April 2016^[4]. Virgin sought an "early meeting with the DfT" in order to obtain an explanation for their bid being unsuccessful^[5].

Final network

Fleet

Virgin Trains, Class 221 SuperVoyager, 221109 "Marco Polo" at Chester Station

Latterly, the Virgin CrossCountry routes were operated by Class 220 Voyagers and Class 221 Super Voyagers. These were introduced in 2001 to replace the High Speed Train fleet that had been so successful at building passenger traffic on these routes, but was over 20 years old. They also replaced the elderly Class 47s and Class 86s. The principal differences between the Voyager and Super Voyager fleet are that the Super Voyager usually consists of five carriages rather than the Voyager's four, and like the Class 390 Pendolino can tilt when going around curves in order to allow higher speeds. This means that Super Voyager units have significantly more sophisticated bogies than Voyagers.

Original Fleet

Class	Image	Type	Built	Withdrawn
Class 43 High Speed Train		diesel locomotive	1976 - 1982	2004
Class 47		diesel locomotive	1962 - 1968	2003
Class 86		electric locomotive	1965 - 1966	2003
Class 158 Express Sprinter		diesel multiple unit	1989 - 1992	2001
Mark 2 Coach		Passenger Rolling stock	1964 - 1975	2003
Mark 3 Coach		Passenger Rolling stock	1975 - 1988	2004

Final Fleet

Class	Image	Type	Built	Number
Class 220 Voyager		Diesel-Electric Multiple Unit	2001	34
Class 221 Super Voyager		Diesel-Electric Multiple Unit	2001	44

See also

UK Railways portal

• Cross Country Route

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Virgin Cross-Country