More carriages announced to beat overcrowding

CROSSCOUNTRY Trains has announced they will be adding extra carriages to some of their services.

Rail Minister Chris Heaton-Harris announced they had been given £2.5 million of Government funding to help ease overcrowding.

From May, services running from Birmingham to Nottingham, Leicester and Cardiff will get more than 5,000 additional seats.

A further 15,000 weekly seats are planned for other routes such as Cambridge-Stansted Airport from mid-2021. The carriages will come from West Midlands Trains, which is receiving new rolling stock.

Mr Heaton-Harris said: “Investing in transport is essential to levelling up the country, as we look to modernise our rail network and restructure the industry to put passengers at the heart of the railway.

“But we want to fund benefits to address pressing needs and improve journeys for passengers in the short-term, as well as in the future. More seats mean more people can travel, increasing access to opportunities and better connecting our regions.”

Just 58 per cent of CrossCountry passengers are satisfied with the level of crowding on trains, the latest major survey by watchdog

Transport Focus suggested.

This was the second-lowest score of all operators, above only TransPennine Express which received 57 per cent.

CrossCountry operates longdistance trains, with routes stretching from Penzance to Aberdeen. The funding follows the Department for Transport’s decision last summer to extend the Arriva-owned operator’s franchise to October 2020.

CrossCountry managing director Tom Joyner said: “This delivers the biggest increase in seats for our services in more than 13 years. These will deliver an immediate boost for rail users in the Midlands.”