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CrossCountry cancels trains across almost every route after power cut

Published 13:22 23 Aug 2026 BST

Updated 11:55 23 Aug 2026 BST

Christian Buschardt
CrossCountry cancels trains across almost every route after power cut

Homenews

Which CrossCountry routes are affected

CrossCountry has cancelled services on almost all of its routes on Sunday after a power cut in Birmingham city centre knocked out the building housing its control centre.

The outage began on Saturday and has left many of the systems used to manage the railway unavailable, with cancellations running from Glasgow to Penzance and Leeds to Manchester until further notice.

Services to Edinburgh, Sheffield, Manchester, Bristol, Exeter, Penzance, Cardiff and Bournemouth have been withdrawn, the Mirror reported.

Major routes between Manchester and Birmingham via Stoke-on-Trent, Coventry and Wolverhampton are hit, as are Leeds to York, Cheltenham to Cardiff and Glasgow to Edinburgh.

Trains to Plymouth and Penzance are disrupted, with Great Western Railway picking up passengers.

The operator normally calls at more than 100 stations, the only line expecting a near-normal service is Peterborough to Cambridge and Stansted Airport.

"Although colleagues are working hard to safely operate services using alternative processes, CrossCountry services will be significantly disrupted on Sunday 23 August," said a CrossCountry spokesperson.

"We are sorry to passengers affected by this significant and unforeseen disruption."

Tickets are being accepted by other operators, and National Rail said affected customers can use London Underground services at no extra cost, plus West Midlands Metro between Wolverhampton and Birmingham New Street.

Tickets bought for Sunday travel will stay valid until Wednesday.

Anyone delayed by 30 minutes or more can claim Delay Repay, and those who abandon their journey can claim a refund, a familiar frustration for train passengers already dealing with an operator ranked Britain's worst in June, according to the BBC.

CrossCountry has urged customers to check before they travel.

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