Travel chaos across UK as CrossCountry cancels almost all trains after power cut
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CrossCountry was forced to cancel almost all of its trains across Britain after a power cut knocked out the systems at its Birmingham control centre, causing widespread disruption for passengers throughout Sunday. The operator said only a "very limited" number of services resumed from around 6pm, with most facilities reinstated and a full timetable planned to return on Monday, but the episode caused significant frustration for travellers, including some who missed events they had planned to attend.
Almost every route was suspended, including Manchester to Birmingham, Edinburgh to Glasgow, Newcastle to York and Bristol to Cardiff, with only the Peterborough to Stansted Airport service (via March, Ely and Cambridge) running near normally, alongside a planned rail replacement bus between Leicester and Peterborough. CrossCountry said it was working with National Grid and industry partners to restore services, while Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said she was "concerned" about the impact on passengers; affected ticket-holders were told their tickets would be accepted by other operators.
- Power cut at Birmingham HQ forced CrossCountry to cancel nearly all trains
- Only Peterborough–Stansted route ran normally; full service resumed Monday
- Passengers voiced frustration; tickets honoured by other rail operators
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CrossCountry is one of the UK's main long-distance train operators, running services that link regions across the country rather than a single city commuter route, such as Manchester to Birmingham and Edinburgh to Glasgow. Its network is coordinated from a control centre in Birmingham, which manages train movements and staffing across the whole system. When that control centre loses power or its systems fail, the company can lose the ability to safely run trains anywhere, which is why a localised power cut can ground services nationwide.
This matters because it comes only weeks after a separate power failure disabled Network Rail's control centre in Manchester, disrupting services across the north-west. Repeated incidents raise questions about how resilient the systems behind Britain's rail network are, given how much passengers rely on them for long-distance travel, and how one localised fault can cascade into widespread disruption.