Cross Country announces 'last resort' cut to Manchester to Birmingham timetable due to driver shortage

CrossCountry’s timetable reductions will run from August 10 until November 9 in a bid to “to address performance and reliability issues that have inconvenienced passengers with on-the-day cancellations”.

There will be alterations to services from Manchester Piccadilly towards Birmingham New Street, with some services terminating at different stations beyond Birmingham while the temporary timetable is in operation. Additional trains will call at Wilnecote and Willington to balance the impact of the temporary timetable on customers using these stations.

CrossCountry say the 13-week change will allow them to train up more drivers and reduce the backlog built up during the Covid pandemic and further impacted by ‘prolonged industrial action across the rail industry’.  They say a similar timetable ploy was used over Easter leading to a ‘94% decrease in on-the-day cancellations.’

Georgia Ehrmann, CrossCountry’s Regional Director for the West Midlands and North West, said: “Removing services from our timetable is always a last resort. I’m sorry for the inconvenience this will cause for our customers and I want to thank them for their patience while these changes are in place. This is a difficult decision, but by taking proactive action now we are investing in building a more resilient and dependable service for CrossCountry customers for the future.”

Customers who have tickets for travel on impacted services can travel on an alternative service or request a full refund with more information on the CrossCountry website.