Alstom and CrossCountry have signed an eight year extension to its Train Services Agreement.
The contract extension is valued at £825 million and will see Alstom continue to maintain, overhaul, service and clean 252 vehicles in CrossCountry's fleet (34 Class 220 and 24 Class 221 Voyagers) at XC's Central Rivers Depot in Burton upon Trent.
Additionally, Alstom says seven Voyagers are set to move to CrossCountry from Avanti West Coast and will bolster the fleet and enable service uplifts.
Alstoms Voyager trains have clocked up 414 million miles in service.
Alstom, global leader in smart and sustainable mobility, has signed an eight-year extension to its Train Services Agreement (TSA) with CrossCountry in the UK. The contract extension, valued at around £825 (€950) million, further secures this long-term partnership and is evidence of the trust placed by the customer.
“We are delighted to extend our Voyager Maintenance Contract with CrossCountry for another eight years. We have worked in close partnership since 2007, providing reliable, well-presented, and safe trains for all CrossCountry's customers. We look forward to working with our colleagues at CrossCountry to help them deliver a high-quality train service for the next eight years,” says Nick Crossfield, Alstom Managing Director, UK & Ireland.
“We're delighted to continue our relationship with Alstom as we embark on our National Rail Contract. Improving the onboard experience is critical to ensuring our customers view us as a long-distance operator of choice and we look forward to working closely with Alstom in the years ahead to deliver these improvements”, says Tom Joyner, Managing Director, CrossCountry.
The Government franchise agreement should specify minimum number seating, for a long distance operator the amount of seating Cross Country provide is absolutely abysmal, especially since they phased out the HST’s – for instance this morning 8.28 Bristol to Edinburgh 4 car !! equates to 3 standing class, even a 5 car voyager would be terrible for this length of journey.
Worst long distance train ever to operate. Crammed, filthy, smelly, poor catering. They should blow their own trumpets when they scrap the vile units and their East Midlands counterparts are no better but at least they are on the way out.
Big mistake by XC getting rid of the HST’S with plenty of comfortable seating. Voyagers do a good job but as others have said vastly overcrowded and not really comfortable at all. More new trains would certainly help, but with the HST’S gone and nothing to replace them just makes a bad situation worse. Poor management, perhaps the government should take over the franchise.
Friday 27th October, traveled from Southampton to Sheffield, change at Birmingham. Southampton to Birmingham, 4 car set, absolutely crammed, and late. Missed our connection at Birmingham, couldn’t get on the next train, again absolutely crammed, which was another 4 car set, managed to get on the next train, which was 2 sets , 8 cars. Yes they’re taking the fares, but not providing a good service.
Bring back the HST’s.
Blimey, are they really boasting about their high standards since 2007? Have they gone blind in the last several years?! Those Voyagers are so incredibly outdated inside, still baring the previous franchises interior, and completely worn out and dilapidated, I’d be embarrassed to put out a statement like that! Arriva need to pull their fingers out and start actually giving what the customer want, cleaner and more accessible trains, more carriages, and more appeal! They really have took what Virgin Trains started, and completely destroyed it, and haven’t bothered to upgrade it since!
Having recently travelled 1st class in one of these abominations, which was absolutely crowded to the doors with standing passengers, I’m afraid my reaction to this company and its stock is one of disbelief mixed with disgust. Simply unfit for purpose.
Agreed, an abomination. Virgin lost the franchise because of poor service and overcrowding. That was about 20 years ago. But Cross Country simply took over the trains and nothing has improved. The only ray of sunshine is when one of their HSTs arrives but they are apparently phasing them out. I’ll do anything to avoid a journey in a Voyager. But from Birmingham to Bristol there is no alternative.
The Alstrom trains are not very comfortable on long journeys
First class is better
PB
They’re Bombardier trains (with Alstom electric transmission equipment), but Alstom bought Bombardier Transportation in 2021, so Alstom is now the maintenance provider.