During Your Journey

Yes, all our train services can carry manual or powered wheelchairs, and mobility scooters, if they aren't bigger than:

Width 700 millimeters, length (including footplates) 1200 millimetres, weight (Including passenger) 300 Kilograms.

Please note: when travelling with a mobility scooter, this must be folded and stowed in the luggage compartment.

Passengers may take with them, free of charge and subject to conditions below:

Dogs, cats and other small animals (maximum two per passenger) provided they do not endanger or inconvenience passengers or staff.

Dogs must be kept on a lead at all times unless contained in a basket. Dogs without leads, cats, birds and small animals must be carried in an enclosed basket, cage or pet carrier. It must be rigid and not open (to prevent escape) and the animal able to stand and lie down in comfort. Animals and containers must not occupy seats, otherwise a charge will be made.

Yes, First Class train travel is available on all our services. Customers can enjoy comfy, larger reclining spacious seats and quieter carriages.

In addition, We offer complimentary Wifi to enable you to keep up to date on your journey. A table at every seat means you have room to work, or dine comfortably with our complimentary snacks and drinks. Please click here for further information.

Yes - CrossCountry know how important it is for our customers to stay in touch whilst on the move. Following on from customer feedback, we are offering free WiFi to our passengers in both standard and First Class. This is subject to availability.

To make the most of your CrossCountry journey you can enjoy a wide variety of food and drink on board. Food and Drink is available on most of our services.

We offer a range of hot and cold drinks, sandwiches and snacks, we've got some great healthier options too - all delivered by our at seat service. For further information about our catering facilities, please click here.

We have a very limited amount of space on our trains to store luggage, here is some advice on how to make your journey with us as smooth as possible. Remember, you need to be able to carry your luggage and lift it on and off the train.

What can I bring on board?

We strongly recommend that you bring one item of luggage, which measures a maximum of 90cm by 70cm by 30cm, because of the limited amount of storage space on board our trains. A handbag, small rucksack or satchel bag can be stored under the seat in front of you or on your lap. Soft bags and small cases are easier to stow and will be more secure in the overhead racks.

Any luggage in excess of this may be subject to an additional charge on-board our services, in line with the National Rail Conditions of Travel.

The National Rail Conditions of Carriage (the contract between us and you) sets out what you can and cannot take on to any UK train.

Read the National Rail Conditions of travel.

There are three different types of trains that we use at Crosscountry. Which train you will be on depends on your journey.

Turbostar - if you are travelling between Cardiff and Nottingham, or Birmingham and Stansted or Leicester; you will probably be on a Turbostar service.

Voyager - if you are travelling long distance, you will probably be on a Voyager service.

High Speed Train - if you are on selected services on the South West to North East and Scotland routes; you may be on a High Speed Train.

To view all seating maps for CrossCountry Trains, click here.

We run as many trains as we can on the railway infrastructure. We adjust our timetables and the number of carriages where we can to reduce overcrowding, and we are continuing to develop and improve both our train fleet and our network to improve things further. 

Trains can be busier than usual for a number of reasons. An earlier cancellation, for instance, will mean the next service will have more passengers than usual. Sometimes, trains have fewer carriages than usual because we have had to temporarily withdraw a set for emergency repairs.

All CrossCountry trains can be used by people with disabilities. We offer an assisted travel service if you need help at our stations to get the train - for example, a wheelchair ramp. However, the level of assistance will vary for other train companies, therefore please visit the National Rail website on further assistance available.

You can select and book assistance for your CrossCountry journey when you buy your tickets - our website lets you choose exactly what help you need from a number of options. Simply fill in the answers online and once you have placed your booking one of our customer service staff will be in contact to confirm your requirements. More details can be found on our Travel assistance page.

Alternatively, please call us on 0800 030 9224 to check that the stations and services you are using are obstruction-free.

Because we cannot guarantee a seat on the day, we provide the facility to reserve seats up to ten minutes before departure on selected routes. And, even if you buy your ticket through another operator, you can ask them to reserve you a seat free of charge when travelling with us.

If for some reason we cannot honour your reservation and you are still without a seat after 20 minutes we will give you National Rail Vouchers to the value of at least 5% of the price for that journey in recognition of our inability to honour your seat reservation.

We cannot offer any vouchers if a seat has not been reserved beforehand.

An explanation can be found below of each of the messages you might see on CrossCountry on-board seat reservation displays:

• Seats which are available and cannot be booked into during the train's journey will show as 'Available' within the seat reservation displays. Unless the train is fully reserved before the day of departure, there will always be a section of the train which is unreservable and available for customers without a seat reservation.
• Seats which can be reserved during the train's journey will display the message 'Available, but reservable en-route (origin) to (destination), e.g. 'Available, but reservable en-route Bournemouth to Manchester'. This means that the seat is currently available but may be reserved by other customers during the train's journey. 
• Reserved seats will display the journey information for the reservation, for example 'Cheltenham to Wolverhampton' or 'Reserved from Stafford'.

If you have booked more than one ticket our system will always try and group seats together. If your seats are not grouped together then either:

• the train is full, only limited availability left
• the ticket types you have booked don't match
• 2 separate bookings were made independently of each other

You can contact our Social Media Team or customer relations on 03447 369 123 (Option 3) and they will try to reserve seats together. 

On many long distance routes there are usually non-reservable carriages so you may be able to find seats together on the day of travel.

Whether you are permitted to break your journey depends on the ticket type. In general more flexible tickets such as an 'Anytime' ticket will allow a break of journey, whereas the less flexible tickets will not.

The Terms and Conditions of each ticket type can be viewed when making a booking.

We only display tickets with estimated transfer times already taken into consideration. The times we use are based on recommendations by the rail industry and are individually calculated for each station.

If you feel a longer transfer time is required then you might want to consider a different departure time or booking each stage of the journey individually.

When required, you can either show the PDF tickets on your phone or show a printed copy (or both if you prefer). If you are an iOS or Android user, we would recommend that you use our app as a ticket wallet for your e-tickets - this will keep them safe and easily accessible when you need them.

Please note that train companies do not accept responsibility for lost or mislaid tickets. The National Rail Conditions of Travel states that lost or mislaid tickets will not be replaced nor will refunds be made in respect of them.

You will need to book new tickets if unable to find the old ones.

If you have purchased a season ticket via our website, Complete the Apply for a Duplicate Ticket application form in the My account section of the website with as many details as possible, including credit or debit card details to cover the £10.00 administration fee.

Purchase a weekly 'paper' ticket by credit or debit card which will be refunded if your ticket has been stolen. A refund form can be obtained from the My account section of the website.

Please note the crime reference number and Police station that the crime was reported to on the form. If your photocard was lost or stolen with the ticket please take a passport sized photograph to any station and a new photocard will be issued free of charge. Please enter your new photocard number on to the form. Your application will be delayed if we do not receive a new photocard number or payment details.

Although Off-Peak and Super Off-Peak times will vary by both the train operator and route, the times generally fit within the timelines listed below:

Off-peak
Not valid on weekdays before 09.30
Not valid early evening (between 16.00 to 18.00) from major cities
Valid on all trains at weekends and on public holidays

Super Off-peak
Not valid on weekdays before 10.00
Not valid early evening (between 15.30 to 19.15) from major cities

To find out if Off-Peak tickets are valid on a particular route, complete a journey search online. If these tickets are valid on the specified journey then they will be listed in the search results.

Your mobile phone must be able to display the ticket on your phone screen. If your phone battery has died, you will be unable to retrieve your mobile ticket. Therefore, you will have to purchase a new ticket for the journey you wish to make.

Maps showing all the Rail Stations and Routes across the country are available on the National Rail website. 

These maps require the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software to view.

If you tap your purse or wallet containing more than one contactless card on a reader, the reader will not know which card to read, and if you are inside London, it could also take payment from a card you did not intend to pay with. This is called card clash. To avoid card clash, only tap the card you want to use for your journey on the card reader.

If you leave your Smartcard at home, please call our Smartcard Support Team as soon as possible, on 0371 244 2389.

We always welcome your comments and suggestions about our services. We will also try to resolve any complaints you may have.

Call our Customer Relations Team on 03447 369 123 (Option 3).

Please be aware that from 21 September 2020, Customer Relations will be changing the hours of operation to ensure we continue to be available for our customers.
Our new hours will be as follows:

Opening hours: 8am until 4pm, 7 days a week.

Complete our online enquiry form

Write to us at:

Customer Relations
Freepost: RRXU-HUEC-GLLY
5th Floor Cannon House
18 The Priory Queensway
Birmingham
B4 6BS

Email Us at:
customer.relations@crosscountrytrains.co.uk

We aim to respond to all letters, emails and contact us forms within five working days of receiving them. It may take us longer than five days to investigate your complaint fully and to make the necessary enquiries. If this is the case, we'll:
confirm we are looking into your issue within five working days
send you a full reply within 10 working days, or in very complicated cases, 20 working days

We log every complaint received at our Customer Relations department on a database with a unique reference number. This enables us to track the status of your complaint and to monitor that we have responded within the timescales set out in our complaints procedure. 

Please give us the opportunity to try to resolve your complaint. If you're unhappy with the response you receive, you have the right to appeal to the Rail Ombudsman.  The Rail Ombudsman is there to help resolve on going complaints between us and our customers. It's free to use their services and they are independent of the rail industry. They don't take sides, but just look at the evidence available. They will help us both to try to reach an agreement, but if this doesn't happen, they will make a decision based on the evidence they've received. If you agree with their decision, then we have to act on what they say.

You can appeal to the Rail Ombudsman if:

• you're unhappy with our final response to your complaint which will be contained in a letter or email (sometimes called a deadlock letter); or
• we haven't resolved your complaint within 40 working days of receiving it; and
• no more than 12 months have passed since we sent you our final response.

There are some complaints that the Rail Ombudsman won't be able to look into, for example if it's about the way one of our services has been designed, industry policy, or if your complaint relates to an event which took place before the Rail Ombudsman service was established. If that's the case, then they'll contact you to let you know. If possible, they will transfer your complaint to another organisation that may be able to help you further, such as Transport Focus the independent consumer watchdog for the rail industry. They will independently review your complaint and where appropriate, follow things up on your behalf.

Website: (including online chat): www.railombudsman.org

Telephone: 0330 094 0362

Textphone: 0330 094 0363

Email: info@railombudsman.org

Twitter: @RailOmbudsman

Post: FREEPOST RAIL OMBUDSMAN

Existing bookings:
For help with a booking you have already made, please contact:
Call Web Support on 0371 244 2389 (Option 3).
Text phone booking support on 0844 811 0126

Booking a new journey:
For help making a new booking:
Call booking support on 0844 811 0124
(Calls to this number are charged at 7p per minute, phone networks may charge an additional fee)
Text phone booking support on 0844 811 0126

E-mail us:
If you would like to email us, please complete our general enquiries form. We aim to respond within 10 working days.

Social Media:
You can contact for a quicker response on Facebook and Twitter 7 days a week, 24 hours per day (except Christmas Day and Boxing Day when we are closed).
www.facebook.com/Crosscountrytrains
@CrossCountryUK
@XCUpdate

By Phone:
You can contact our Customer Relations Team on 03447 369 123 (Option 3).

Please be aware that from 21 September 2020, Customer Relations will be changing the hours of operation to ensure we continue to be available for our customers.
Our new hours will be as follows:

Opening hours: 8am until 4pm, 7 days a week.

Travel Assistance with JourneyCare:
We're here if you need extra help when making your journey. You can find information about JourneyCare on the Travel Assistance page.
To book travel assistance, please contact the JourneyCare team.
Call JourneyCare on 0344 811 0125
If you use a textphone, you can contact us on 0344 811 0126

The National Rail Conditions of Travel are the contract between us and you that's created when you buy a ticket.