Cross Country Route

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v • d • e Cross Country Route
Legend York Leeds Wakefield Westgate Sheffield Dronfield Chesterfield Derby Willington Burton upon Trent Tamworth Wilnecote Water Orton Birmingham New Street Bromsgrove Droitwich Spa Worcester Shrub Hill Ashchurch for Tewkesbury Cheltenham Spa Gloucester Bristol Parkway Bristol Temple Meads

The North-East/South-West route (sometimes simply The Cross-Country Route) is the major British rail route running from South West England via Bristol, Birmingham, Sheffield and Leeds to North-East England. It facilitates some of the longest inter-city rail journeys in the UK, eg Penzance to Aberdeen. It was also a major freight route, although in this role it has now largely been usurped by the M5, M6 and M1 motorways.

[edit] History

The Birmingham to Bristol section was originally built as the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway and the Bristol and Gloucester Railway, which then briefly amalgamated as the Birmingham and Bristol Railway before joining the Midland Railway. From Birmingham northwards, the line originated as the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway to Derby, then the North Midland Railway to Leeds, then the York and North Midland Railway.

It ran through several regions of British Rail and had timetabling priority in none of them, and as a result the services were poorly promoted and thus not always well-patronised. This was offset somewhat on privatisation when the route was awarded as a single franchise to Virgin Trains. (The route corresponds broadly to Virgin VT3.)

In the 1960s the route was understood to be pencilled in for electrification — this would have been particularly beneficial for climbing the Lickey Incline into Birmingham from Cheltenham, as many of the early diesels were underpowered. However, this improvement did not take place, and modern, more powerful multiple-units such as the new Turbostars and Voyagers have made this unnecessary.

During the 1990s and early 2000s, the network was served by High Speed Trains, and Class 47s, which hauled various types of coaching stock.

A new station, Worcester Parkway has been proposed on the outskirts of Worcester (but only if Shrub Hill station closed). ^[1]

[edit] Route

Trains pass at Bristol Parkway station

The route is well-connected, meeting amongst others the Great Western Main Line, West Coast Main Line, Midland Main Line, Sheffield to Hull Line, and the East Coast Main Line. Places served along the route include:

• Bristol Temple Meads
• Filton Abbey Wood
• Bristol Parkway
• Yate
• Cam and Dursley
• Gloucester
• Cheltenham Spa
• Ashchurch for Tewkesbury
  • A loop from the main route serves
  • Worcester Shrub Hill
  • Droitwich
• Worcester Parkway (proposed)
• Bromsgrove
  • the Lickey Incline out of Bromsgrove
• Barnt Green
• Birmingham New Street (via the Cross-City Line)
• Water Orton
• Wilnecote
• Tamworth
• Burton upon Trent
• Willington
• Peartree
• Derby
• Leeds
• York

Milepost zero for Derby to Bristol is at Derby, hence a northbound train, for instance, will start out going "up" then change to "down". The Birmingham to Derby section of the route has a line speed of 125 mph (200 km/h), however Birmingham to Bristol is restricted to 100 mph (160 km/h) due to a number of half barrier level crossings.

[edit] Services

Virgin Trains Voyager Class 221 at Bristol Temple Meads station.

The main traffic on the route are services operated by Arriva under the CrossCountry brand, with local services provided by London Midland and First Great Western.

The XC Network is now served by Class 220/221 Voyager Trains. These trains are capable of achieving 125 mph (200 km/h), compared to the previous Class 47s and Mk 2 coaching stock, which had a top speed of 95 mph (150 km/h), and Class 43 HSTs, which had a top speed of 125 mph (200 km/h). Since the Voyager trains arrived the XC network has stopped serving Inverness, Blackpool, Portsmouth, London Paddington and Liverpool. The Class 221 can tilt on some areas of the West Coast Main Line leading to slightly faster journeys. Arriva has announced that it will be reinstating InterCity 125 HSTs for certain services on the CrossCountry route as part of its takeover of the franchise in response to criticisms of lack of seating capacity provided by the Voyager DEMUs.

[edit] See also

• Rail services in Bristol
• Transport in Wales
• Virgin CrossCountry
• CrossCountry

[edit] References

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