CrossCountry Trains Reviews 

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.

I caught the 4 coached Edinburgh to Penzance train yesterday at 10.56 train from Sheffield. I paid £90 with a senior rail card and stood in the vestibule with about 15 other people all the way to Bristol. Not only was this train hot and overcrowded it was 50 minutes late. I was standing for over 3 and a half hours. No fun. Unfortunately this is not a one off insident. I had a similar overcrowding experience just over a month ago and im still waiting for a response to my complaint about this. Who schedules a 4 coach train going to holiday destinations in the south west on a Friday in the summer holidays?

Truly awful. 6 hour journey with no aircon, no toilet paper, rubbish strewn all over the floors and seats. The water temperature in the toilet seemed to be ~80C, which really adds to the sauna feel. And it’s not a cheap service.

Easily the worst trains company going.

Honestly worst train company in the uk. They only had a four carriage train from Plymouth to Leeds during the most busiest rush hours and they think it’s everyone’s fault for travelling. They need to increase the carriages on all there trains how do you expect almost 80 people to fit on a 4 carriage rush hour train with one carriage dedicated to first class it’s sh*t. They don’t care about tge customers of there trains they only fair about the profit they gain, I mean they are still using diesel trains for journeys going from one end of the country to the the other end it’s bullsh*t.

I can’t remember the last time I had a decent experience on a CrossCountry train. The route from Plymouth to Edinburgh is routinely overcrowded. Seat reservations frequently double booked (how are you possibly allowing that to happen?). Passengers completely unable to get on packed trains and having to wait an hour for the next one which will also be overcrowded. People standing in the aisles and by the toilets. Carriages cut off mid-way through the journey and half the passengers told without warning that they must get off the train at the next station and reembark at the other end of the train where they obviously won’t get a seat.

It’s been like this for at least 3 years. I refuse to use crosscountry anymore. I would rather take a significantly longer journey on any other train provider than use XC again.

XC clearly know this is happening and choose to let it continue, putting profits over passenger welfare and safety.