CrossCountry Trains Reviews 

Appalling journey from Macclesfield to Birmingham yesterday. My first trip using cross country rail for many years and never again!! No seats available for 75% of the journey, disgusting smell from the toilet and no air conditioning. Horrible experience, please look for alternative travel arrangements is my advice.

Awful service. Decided to treat myself to a first class return trip from Torquay to Manchester Well, no first class service and to walk the length of the train to be told I could only have one coffee and no snacks. The was a member of staff in the first class carriage but he was too busy with his card collection to do anything. Then the train broke down at Wolverhampton and we had to cram onto an already busy train. First class service was withdrawn terrible experience and they couldn't even be bothered to reply to my complaint

The service so far below the standard passengers should reasonably expect, not sure why public accept.

Travelling from Birmingham New Street to Gloucester during one of the busiest times of the day, yet the train is completely full with no seats available. Many passengers, including myself, are facing a journey of over an hour standing.

Running a service with only three carriages at peak time on such a busy route is simply inadequate. The overcrowding was entirely predictable and reflects poor planning and capacity management.

I previously travelled regularly between Malvern and Birmingham New Street with GWR and found that service to be significantly better in terms of capacity and passenger comfort. In comparison, your service falls well below expectations.

What makes this even more frustrating is that passengers are paying intercity fares for what is effectively a standing-room-only service. If CrossCountry is charging premium prices, passengers should reasonably expect sufficient capacity and a realistic chance of getting a seat.

Why sufficient capacity was not provided for this service, and why it is accepted (like a 3rd rate experience)

Upgraded to 1st class. Absolutely disgusting filthy. I wish I had a choice for a different provider. Why can’t you even clean your old manky trains?

I regularly travel between Cheltenham, Birmingham and Newcastle. The CC trains are always without fail—hot to the point I’ve had asthma brought on, overcrowded, problems with the reservation systems that cause chaos and confusion, no catering at all or at least some problems like no hot water. The trains are uncomfortable - the seats have no padding so cut off your circulation. There are no staff. And when there are they are unhelpful and rude. They must have such low morale. After being on the train now for 4 hours I’ve finally had my ticket checked by a sloppy bloke with a dirty untucked shirt. There is rubbish everywhere. I feel like it’s some train to hell. I need to pee but there is no way I’m risking E. coli in the toilet. And don’t get me started on the internet. I feel like Britain isn’t a bad country most of the time but then take a CC train and am reminded of the broken infrastructure. No way any of our overpaid politicians are taking one of these trains.

I'm a wheelchair user who'd had a bad experience traveling from Leeds to Taunton.
My complaint was taken seriously and resolved to a satisfactory conclusion
I hope my next trip is a better one 🙏

I will never travel with XC again I’ve had enough ! How do they get away with this ? Aberdeen to Plymouth and 4 coaches. I got on at Ladybank yet again train full hardly any room to even stand.passengers sitting with their cases in the isles next to them because nowhere to put them.
The trains are old, dirty and uncomfortable it’s an absolute disgrace of a company. The seats seemed to be doubled booked ? People arguing about seats and just left to it, where are the staff ? It’s totally unacceptable. Everytime I travel with them there’s some delay or cancellation or problem.
Your service is abysmal !

The train was severely overcrowded, with no seats and passengers standing shoulder to shoulder in aisles and near doors. With no air conditioning, conditions were extremely uncomfortable.

More importantly, this raised real safety concerns—there was little space to move, and in an emergency it’s hard to see how passengers could exit safely.

I was also told to stand in First Class only if I paid extra, despite no guarantee of a seat, which felt unreasonable given the situation.

Overall, an unacceptable experience. Of an 11-hour journey, these two hours were by far the worst.

Train cancelled due to driver shortage and was not informed. Information on alternative travel plans was nonexistent. Bizarrely their only resource to rebook a seat on a different service requires login to a totally different operator, Grand Central. This doesn't work if you've booked through another platform or operator. Customer service has taken an hour and counting to respond, compared to their advertised 10 minute average. Abysmal communication from Cross country has really exacerbated a stressful situation. Having helpful information available online to answer common queries should be the bare minimum. Avoid.

Massively overcrowded train with just 4 cars instead of 8. A huge number of passengers had lots of big luggage, and the train stop at Southampton Airport Parkway increased this enormously. No one could move, and people were struggling to get off at their stop. Ghastly journey..

Appalling service. Always late by 20 mins. First Class is a joke. Non existing First Class service or complementary food offered. When it is offered its sandwiches, a tired biscuit & disgusting tea/coffee.
How is this the only operator providing the Northernmost East line and getting away with such an abysmally poor travel experience?

The staff are really rude. I boarded a train one hour earlier than my original ticket. And I had to pay a large fine. My card couldn’t get through and he kept saying it’s my problem. My friend tried with a card from a different company and it as well said it was unsuccessful. Even then he kept saying that’s it’s our fault and was being really passive aggressive towards us. Worst conductor I’ve ever met in my life.

Massively overcrowded service from Leeds to Bristol, people packed in like sardines. Return journey less crowded but delayed with poor communication and a *very* abrasive train manager who had no interest in providing any kind of customer service. No refreshment provided in either direction on such a long journey. All in all a thoroughly unpleasant experience, which cost me a fortune.

If I ever have to plan a train journey again, I will do whatever it takes to avoid using 'Cross Country' for any part of the journey. I am currently sat on a freezing train, ridiculously overcrowded, noisy and unpleasant. The monotony only broken by the train manager offering upgrades to first class, where there are apparently six seats. Avoid if there are ANY alternatives.

On bham to York train and it’s the worst train journey I’ve ever experienced, just 4 carriages with people rammed in like sardines god help us if we needed to exit in any sort of emergency as can’t even get to the toilet for people who are having to stand in the aisles, worst thing is I have a return on Monday

Dirty old and frequently delayed trains. Check your tickets when buying from other providers to ensure they don't use cross-country.

Delay repay usually gets denied for valid claims in my experience

What an absolute shambles this company is constantly over crowded trains from Plymouth to Scotland whatever time of the day whatever station you get on. Never enough coaches either 4 or 5 at best while 2 trains joined together from Bournemouth to Manchester always half empty

What muppet runs this company who does the planning why are the never 2 trains together on such a long and busy route.

And to top it all today I had a first class ticket and have had to stand from Sheffield to Bristol

Crap company crap customer service crap planning but charge you a fortune to travel in clapped out 25 year old crap trains so much for investment there is none as the trains are crap as well

It was not like this when it was Virgin Trains why they took the running of these routes off Richard Branson and gave it to this 2 bit operation is beyond all of us

Genuinely such a bad rail operator. I can't remember the last time I got on a XC train that wasn't delayed, cramped and overcrowded. An embarrassment to British rail travel, especially when other operators (e.g. LNER) do such a better job.

Absolutely the most god awful train company ever in existence. I’ve been commuting everyday for the last year and a half, unfortunately cross country is the only train that (eventually) gets me to where I need to be. When I tell you that I book my trains an hour before I need to catch them because I KNOW they will be delayed or cancelled & even STILL, my train will be late. I cannot fathom how they haven’t been sued for fraud or financial loss and better yet, how they are still in existence. When I pray at night, I make sure to include the closure of this god awful company.

Not only can CrossCountry Trains not run a rail service, they can't even manage a delay repay service! It is clearly so difficult that they hope that people will give up. Their score on here is 1.4 - I can't imagine how they managed the 0.4