On the 17th May, CrossCountry will be updating its timetable, which will see service alterations to meet customer demand.
The changes are part of the industry’s bi-annual timetable change, and for CrossCountry customers, it means more services.
Additional services will run between Reading and Newcastle via Birmingham, with options for direct connections and express journeys. Example journeys include the 07:32 and 10:33 Birmingham – Reading service and the 09:43 Reading – York.
Along with more services, additional carriages will be added to busy Friday services to Torquay and Paignton ahead of the busier summer period. More seats will be available on the 08:03 Manchester – Paignton and 14:38 Paignton – Manchester.
The aim of these services is to improve connectivity between Reading and the West Midlands with fewer stops and avoiding the need to travel via London.
Passengers are advised to check before they travel from the 17th to ensure journeys can be made.
“Our May 2026 timetable lets us better match supply with demand, provide more services on our key long‑distance corridors and restore much‑valued regional between the North East, the Midlands and the South West.
We’ve made these changes based on clear customer needs and strong stakeholder feedback from across the country. We will continue to review our services to provide reliable journeys for the communities we serve.”
Shiona Rolfe, CrossCountry’s Managing Director
Responses
Any chance that we can have a printed National Railway Timetable to purchase, or printed pocket timetables made available to reflect these changes and all the other train services on the British mainline railway system? Printed Route maps with descriptions of various lines would be nice too!
Presumably the expense of printing a full GBTT (as I used to call it) twice yearly, was eventually thought pointless. After all, they always (by definition) excluded any short term planning changes for engineering etc. meaning that you needed extra, alternative sources of information anyway.
Far better to make the up-to-date stuff available online or in an app. Yes, there will be people with no online or app access, but I suspect that such people are also unlikely to have access to the full brick of a GBTT