Arriva Group welcomes new contract for CrossCountry Trains

David Brown, Managing Director for UK Trains, said:

“Today’s announcement is welcome news and brings much needed continuity for the communities and regions we serve and to our employees at a time of great uncertainty for the country.  Now that we have secured continuity, we must work on the future direction of rail reform to serve the changing travel patterns of our customers.

“The new contract is positive recognition of CrossCountry’s stewardship since 2007.  We will build on our record of innovation and investment and progress plans to introduce a range of improvements, including additional capacity for our customers.

“The critical question now is how we look to ‘build back better’ through an improved operating model with flexible ticketing solutions and a far simpler fares ​structure.  Our ability to connect towns and cities, people and communities will be essential as we rebuild our economies. 

“Arriva will play an active role, alongside Government, in the reform of our railways to create a more customer-focussed model which empowers train ​operators to be agile and continue to innovate. ​ A new public-private partnership is key to achieving this.”

Notes to editors:

• CrossCountry Trains is wholly owned by Arriva Group and its network is the most geographically-extensive passenger rail service in Britain. Stretching from Aberdeen to Penzance and from Stansted to Cardiff, it calls at over 100 stations. Based in Birmingham, CrossCountry connects seven of the Britain’s 10 largest cities and delivers 298 services every weekday, equating to some 40 million passenger journeys a year.
• Transport Focus highlighted the types of reform that are needed in this paper published in August 2020: Fairer fares: The future of Rail commuting August 2020