CrossCountry Trains Reviews 

Consistently unreliable. understaffed, terrible outdated rolling stock. They lucked out by having a monopoly on the Bristol to Birmingham line, but even when train operators are all frequently offering overpriced and lackluster services Cross Country manage to lower the bar.

Terrible, terrible, terrible company. Pathetic service.

The actually staff are usually okay but they're all overworked and doing the best with poor management and resources.

My train from York to Bristol was cancelled the day before travel. I travelled on an earlier train that was still running. At Birmingham they took half of the train out of service to send it back to Newcastle. So a packed train of nine carriages had to squeeze into the remaining five. I didn’t get a seat and had to stand for the remainder of the journey. I’m a pensioner and it was very uncomfortable but I don’t think it was safe either. If there had been an accident no one could have got out safely. The Department of Transport need to get to grips with this consistently failing train operator.

Completely incompetent rail service. Remove all of their mandates and sell to a train provider who doesn't treat customers like caged farm animals or cancel trains to maximise revenue at the expense of customer experience. Trains also all hopelessly small and run down. Worst train service in Europe.

The worst train service I’ve ever been on, not just in the UK but the world. Disgracefully filthy, overcrowded, smelly, everyone standing. Shameful. The CEO should resign with immediate effect.

Worst franchise on the network, fail to deliver the service promised and make it impossible to o claim back the money legally owed back to the consumer.

Overbooked, late, cancelled would be better off riding a push bike.

Used this horrible train to get home after been on a proper clean train with LNER. 22 mins luckily on an absolute dirty jammed as usual cross-country train . Why the hell do these criminals running this get there licence took off them? Not 1 person has anything good to say about this awful company, when is the gov going to act? Strip the owners of assets and jail them .

Train late. Absolutely packed.
Unable to access reserved seats. Had to stand from Taunton to Birmingham.
First time on a train in years and won't be doing it again. Simply unacceptable.
I recommend driving in future.

First train we travelled out on had 2 carriages on between Tamworth and Nottingham. There must have been 6 major football teams using same route that day so standing room only again. Return journey first train cancelled next train got to Derby and every train cancelled with no bus replacement service on. Luckily a kind soul collected us. My delay repay was refused somehow. I have appealed it but they are so overwhelmed they are still looking at it. Think this is the worst train operator in the UK at present.

I have tried to book tickets via the Cross Country web-site where I have an account on 4no occasions now on every occasion I have gone to my bank and verified the payment and gone back to their website only to be asked to be pay again.
On these occasions my payment has not been acknowledged by my bank.
However, on the last payment, I received the acknowledgement from my bank confirming that the monies had been paid, but the Cross Country website never confirmed this or updated remaining stuck on "Review and Pay" and not proceeding and sending tickets etc.
Absolute waste of my time and effort, and I am still now on the phone to their staff (waiting for 15 minutes to date and still position 12 in the queue).
Obviously the website is not fit for purpose, as it cannot process the required information within the required time.
I cannot recommend using the Cross Country Website for this reason and would strongly recommend that any tickets that you want to book, that you either go to your nearest railway station to get them, or use a company such as trainline, whose website works very well.
Perhaps the management of Cross Country Trains should be looking to update their online booking system to a similar one to Trainline ???
Now been waiting 25 mins and still only at position 11 on their telephone line.
Obviously need more staff to deal with their inadequate equipment.

After my train was terminated at Macclesfield, the next available service to Manchester Piccadilly was completely overcrowded with no space left to board. Station staff explicitly advised me to wait for the following train. As a result, I did not reach Manchester Piccadilly until 18:13, resulting in a total journey delay of 2 hours and 44 minutes.

Despite submitting an appeal with these details, CrossCountry keeps denying my Delay Repay claim. Their system completely fails to account for real-world disruptions, staff instructions, or severely overcrowded services that passengers physically cannot board.

Refusing fair compensation when passengers are delayed by nearly three hours due to service failures is unacceptable. CrossCountry needs to fix their appeal review process and take responsibility for their service failures.

Thursday 27.08.26 10.45 Bournemouth to Manchester Piccadilly direct. Train arrived 15 minutes late into Bournemouth. Then for no apparent reason the train was terminated from Reading onward. Which left me with a huge case and a 6 year old trying to get seats on the next train which was already over crowded. We ended up having to sit apart until we got to Birmingham New Street.I only gave 1 star because zero stars is not an option. Once again XCountry failed to honour their end of the bargain. Getting monetary compensation does not help with the stress and distress the journey caused.

Oh CrossCountry... Have to roll eyes at reviews on here saying "I hope CrossCountry takes note!"... Lol they won't. Nothing is going to change until renationalization in Oct 2027 now. Xc will keep providing a rubbish, crowded, filthy, ripoff service to its long suffering passengers (including alas me). They literally do not care, as proven by their total lack of replies here to the 100s of terrible reviews. Government is not going to renationalize early as it would be a $$$ legal fight for the sake of shaving off 14 months, not worth it. Hate to break it to you but we are stuck with the current misery for the next year. Only point of leaving reviews is to warn other passengers.

Currently on a Cross Country train. It is running 33 minutes late, however it was held up outside Darlington due to track being inspected for safety reasons. My main gripe however is having chosen to treat ourselves and went 1st class only to find that catering was virtually nil, even having to ask for it. We did get a half cup of coffee and a biscuit, the stewardess flask was running out of water, on entering the train and then nothing, till we asked! Compared with LNER, very poor.

We were travelling "1st" class, if you could call it that!. We think you'd have more room in a cattle truck. We were travelling from Truro to Birmingham New Street on the 17th of August, there were definitely too many passengers for the size of the train, had trouble trying to find room for our cases. No one checked our tickets, there were some people standing. Further down the line they did attach more cars. After a long wait we did get a drink, but they had run out of sandwiches, so we only had a packet of crisps, there wasn't anymore refreshments after that, we were on there a number of hours, it was hot with no air conditioning. There's no room to stretch out your legs either. Would not travel with this company again. After this awful experience we caught an Avanti train, you couldn't get more different, comfy seats, straight away asked if we wanted tea or coffee, also alcoholic drink and also a hot meal! And had air conditioning and really attentive staff. We couldn't believe how much difference there is in 1st from one company to another. Take note cross country!

Cheltenham to Slough - train cancelled on Sunday but received texts all morning reminding me of departure. Suggested another route with 4 changes going into London and back out!
I bought a railcard for this trip, which I didn’t use and paid £9 to get a taxi home to get my car and drive!
Stressful, expensive and unreliable.

Plus point, staff at Cheltenham station were very empathic and helpful🙏

When travelling from Edinburgh to Derby on 21st August smoke started appearing on both sides of the carriage. The train was cancelled and it seems impossible to get a refund. On return journey on 23rd August there was massive issues across their network and all Cross Country trains were cancelled- again out of pocket as needed to buy LNER return. Wish I had read reviews before buying as will NEVER travel with them again. They should lose their franchise and would have awarded zero stars if available.

I will not be silenced by the Orwellian control that trustpilot has over my apparently "offensive" reviews. Which is ironic, since it seems like the trains ran better in 1984 than they do now...
Some of the crosscountry trains I have been on have been worse than the 9nth circle of hell. Which is, if anyone knew anything, is where all of the evil politicians, kings, and CEOs go... Well, this review is specifically aimed at the CEO of Crosscountry, like my others. I know that you are hiding yourself from the embarrassment of running the UK's best humiliation ritual, but I think it would be really funny if you revealed yourself. You obviously have some sociopathic tendencies, so what would it be to you to take responsibility?
I will be honest, these new trains you are introducing are quite nice. But I think you have only introduced them to erase the manifestations of pain and suffering that lie in your older trains. I can hear the screams and whispers coming from the seats; "we are sorry to announce that the 15:39 crosscountry service to Manchester Piccadilly is delayed by approximately 27 minutes..."

What I am saying is that even I would be a bit proud of running Britain's worst embarrassment, so maybe you should take responsibility for all of the deaths that happen on your railway.

if i could give it a minus i would 6 journeys over last month or so all delayed or cancelled dire dross would rather walk barefoot on broken glass and hot coals would be easier and better than travelling with this dross company and service hence overall dire reviews...

Why do tax payers subsidise these useless set of clowns. Horrendous journey last week. Stop all taxpayer money going to rail, including stopping HS2. It's already over budget and no-one alive today will ever use it. Use your car, it far better.

Old outdated trains. Overpriced. Better to have your own vehicle.