CrossCountry Trains Reviews 

Travelled on Cross Country Train From York to Exeter St Davids, It was the Worst Journey I had.. Continued Delays after dalays..It was 37c on this Train, Which was bad enough but with Buffet service, I Needed Refreshments, And Then we had to leave the Train at Bristol, Apparently There was a Fault on line, No Assistance for me I'm Disabled..No Buffet Service And No Ticket Inspection...Will Never Travel on this God Forsaken Train Again, I'm Elderly..Was a Nighmare from Start to Finish..

An absolute shambles. With prior knowledge of crowded trains, they put on 4 carriages for a busy route from Manchester to Bournemouth. Standing room only. An utter disgrace.

The poorest I have seen in my 8 years of train travel in the UK.

First class for £180, no hot meals, no drinks - just tea and biscuits.

But that’s fine, I say I’ll purchase from the pantry. But there’s none.

Now, to use the loo is quite the ask as well. Right outside the first class coach there is a loo. But getting there is quite tricky as the train is overloaded, and people are standing right up to the door of the carriage. Once you get in, you find that the water and flush is hard to work.

Considering this is the daily service from Aberdeen to Plymouth, and we are not even at the half way point, I dread as I write this whilst sat in the train.

Too few coaches on major cross country route to Edinburgh from the south west on a busy Saturday service

Train from Oxford to Birmingham. Overcrowded as always, people standing all the way down the aisle and sitting on the floor in between carriages. It was running approximately 45 minutes late the entire journey. Very overpriced and honestly feels exploitative at this point.

I have made this journey consistently since moving to Oxford 4 years ago and nothing has improved. Cross country do not care about the product they provide, only their profit margins. I wish I could avoid but it is the only provider running this journey - this is where I miss competitive markets for the consumer!

Horrendous service. No seats people stood in every aisle and vestibule. No refreshments can get round the train. I’ve been on 5 hours and am trapped in my seat no way to get to the toilet so expect I’ll have to try and not pee for an 8 hour journey.£300!!! Bargain
I would like to say this is a one off but is always the same in cross country.

The trains do not work. Both trains that are hours apart have had to have engineers out as they are not working

Massive overcrowding, thank God we had allocated seats. No room for everyones luggage and some people had to stand for 4 hours. Do not book with this company - they are the worst I've ever experienced.

My first cross country train leg on a journey from Southampton Parkway to Pwllheli was so heavily overcrowded they were preventing more passengers from boarding at Winchester. I was therefore, as a 79 year old left standing for around 40 minutes of my journey. It arrived in Wolverhampton about 45 mins late, meaning I missed my connection to Pwllheli by a mere 3 minutes, meaning I arrived nearly 3 hours late. Since then I have wasted a further still very determined 3 hours online trying, still unsuccessfully to claim back my £67.15 rail fare on delay-repay with Crosscountry.
I can’t help feeing this reclaim proceedure is made deliberately difficult and annoying to use in order to reduce claims.
I feel this company deserves to lose its franchise in view of this and all the other complaints below.
If I could give 1 star I would

FURTHER TO THIS REPORT ABOVE
I have since made perhaps 10 to 15 more attempts to use the delay repay website for CrossCountry trains, still without being able to make a valid claim, as after filling in all details and copying tickets there are three choice virtual buttons for “journey” “confirm” or “compensation” , the first two just take you backwards on the form and the “compensation” button does nothing. There is no confirmation of any submission nor any indication of any missing info.
I looked at the CrossCountry website again and saw an email address for customer services, wrote a medium length email regarding the above then clicked “send”. Despite this being clicked on on their website before writing, it then implied this email box effectively doesn’t function.
Maybe it’s because they don’t seem to have viable company services??!

1st experience

booked on brockenhurst to Manchester with bike April 2024
Train was cancelled which i only learned through the platform display
ticket office werent that helpfull as my ticket was advanced and non refundable and i was on the last train to Manchester
They advised me to get on the next xc service to Wolverhampton and get off at Coventry which i did and change on to Avanti to rugby and change onto Avanti to Manchester but my bike was locked in the train so could not get off at Rugby and ended up in Milton Keynes !
the train manager said they would arange for me to get on the next Avanti train north which only went as far as Wolverhampton
The Avanti dispatcher who i was introduced to and was assured would help me dissapeared
45 mins later i fount him and asked why he had abandoned me his explanation was that the government was making his life hard so why should he help anyone

I ended up in Wolverhampton and was kiked out of the station as they were closing for the night!

i ended up riding my bike around all night to keep warm as it was 0c

next morning at 5am i went back to the station and was refused entry on first Manchester train by the guard as i did not have a valid ticket
i then went to the ticket office to try to get an endorsment but they would not help but persistense put me in the hands of a manager who spoke to the guard on the next train so eventualy got to Manchester the next day

upon complaint to xc i was refused delay repay because of having papaer ticket which i threw away i was ilegible for a refund despite having proof of perchase
they did to be fair give me 50% rail vouchers which is why i did not write this review then

However a week ago i desided to give xc a second chance as the fare was cheep and there was not really any choice for my destination
i booked a train ticket with a bike reservation but could not get the papper tickets out of the machine as it did not accept the code the ticket office could not help eather
I then rang xc customer services and they could not resolve or explain this situation

This train company are worse than cowbys i fail to understand how a company this bad is allowed to continue to operate and staff low morale and attitute takes me back to the 1970s only worse because it so fragmented
iff i have to go anywhere this company goes i drive my car

Very disappointed with CrossCountry. My train was delayed, which then caused me to miss my connecting train home from Birmingham. What should have been a straightforward journey turned into a stressful and frustrating experience because of the delay.

I appreciate that delays can happen, but the lack of reliability has a real knock-on effect when you’re relying on connections. I was left having to deal with the consequences of a delay that wasn’t my fault.

Overall, a very poor experience and one that has seriously damaged my confidence in using CrossCountry again.

After paying a lot of money for a first class ticket I have to say it was a horrible experience. I don't blame the staff as they were lovely but the train was understaffed and the refreshments were very limited. Even in first class there were people standing the train was overpacked and very hot with no aircon. I would never ever book with them again.

We have travelled on

What an embarrassment of an operation on today's 09:33hrs Winchester to Reading service - and quite simply the most hideous journey that I have ever taken by train.

With the Boomtown festival finishing locally, trains were understandably going to be very busy, so perhaps not the best day for cancelled services. But of course there were cancellations and that bundling more passengers than usual onto even fewer trains.

The experience was frankly inhumane. The temperatures were through the roof, air conditioning non-existent, and of course seat availability also zero!

So for my £20.70 one-way fare, I got to endure a sauna, with each every arm and every leg in constant contact with a fellow passenger in the vestibule area.

There was, to be fair, an increased staff presence on the platform at Winchester, but they proved ineffective in stopping people from boarding extremely overcrowded trains. The situation was simply unsafe.

The stop at Basingstoke only saw even more people pile on.

We heard of a train accident only a few days ago. Had this train have derailed, the number of casualties would have been catastrophic.

There was zero regard for the comfort of anybody travelling - including a visually impaired customer, who was escorted as far as the vestibule and encouraged to sit on her suitcase.

And onboard staff were of no use. Their occasional announcements acknowledged that the train was "very busy" and that carriages were likely "cosy". Perhaps an effort at humour but nobody was amused.

Disgusting service, Cross Country.

Delay & Repay service - the train crew encourage you to use this service if your train is delayed but I have had very patchy results to date.
I submitted a claim for a shambolic journey which meant I was 60+ minutes late. Initially I got a response saying my claim was unsuccessful as "this service was operated by another train operator (West Midlands Trains). Therefore, we are unable to process your claim."
This is rubbish as the train which was cancelled and the 2nd which was late were both CrossCountry Trains.
I appealed this decision immediately giving all the train details - I even have screen captures on my phone with the evidence.
This was back on 17/7/26 - got response saying appeal in progress. Another update on 27/7/26 apologising for the delay.
It is now 17/8/26 and still no response.
I am currently sitting on the phone trying to get through to them - I have been on hold for 47 minutes!!
Such a bad service.
If I could just get a response saying the claim is still being reviewed that would help.
If there is a query then they should come back to me and ask for more information - I could send the screen captures. Just communicate with the customer!!

Where do any positive reviews come from? Trains are shabby and timetabling not great. The cross country booking should be outlawed. One day I’ll get a refund from one of my applications. They should not be allowed a franchise.

The perfect, foolproof way to ruin any experience that requires you to have to travel by train. Never on time, never get a seat, more than once had to get a taxi over 50 miles due to a cancelation. I can't imagine that there is a worse run company out there.

Paid for first class travel and got third class service. Food was microwave Thai green vegetables curry dried out and not edible. Lemonade offered in a can without a glass. Rubbish was not removed either. Asked for forward travel and ended up with backward travel. Don't waste your money on Crosscountry Train company.

Can this train company be any more unhelpful! They still insist on charging customers to collect their paper tickets from the station when booking online at a cost of £1. AND, when you place the booking there is no information in your email about the train and connection times which means you have to screenshot or write them down somewhere else. Cross Country trains are still operating in the twentieth century which is painfully obvious when you look at the state of their trains - overcrowded, old, air conditioning not working, delayed or cancelled. The sooner they lose their contract next year the better

Train 18 minutes late. Had to stand at the side of the toilet as train was packed to the brim. Worst performing train company in the country.