A regional focus and longer-term thinking are key aims for Britain’s most extensive franchise, as CrossCountry Managing Director TOM JOYNER tells Editor PHILIP SHERRATT
The coronavirus pandemic has turned life upside down. The railways have had to respond quickly with revised timetables to provide vital services for key workers while also adhering to Government guidance about social distancing.
The response has been rapid. Like other UK franchises, CrossCountry has moved to an Emergency Measures Agreement (EMA), with the Department for Transport taking revenue risk and paying the operator a management fee to continue running services for key workers.
But even before coronavirus hit there were signs of change at CrossCountry, which operates services stretching from Scotland to Cornwall. The operator is implementing a regional structure to move decision-making away from its Birmingham headquarters and has committed to incremental capacity increases. And despite having only a short time left on its current franchise agreement, CrossCountry is looking beyond that horizon to the longer-term future of the franchise.
COVID RESPONSE
For CrossCountry, the challenge of responding to coronavirus was perhaps greate…
