As Arriva approaches 10 years of running CrossCountry, the operator’s managing director ANDY COOPER talks to PHILIP SHERRATT about the progress it has made
In November, CrossCountry in its current incarnation will be 10 years old. Arriva has operated the franchise since 2007, and in October 2016 a new three-year directly awarded franchise began, which gave the company continuity as well as some new challenges and commitments. The Department for Transport has indicated this will now run until December 2019.
CrossCountry’s network is the most extensive in the UK. It serves seven of the 10 largest city conurbations (the other three are London, Liverpool and, perhaps surprisingly, Bradford). And managing director Andy Cooper says the key challenge for the franchise hasn’t changed.
‘In the original bid in 2006 the key question was how to solve crowding, and for the direct award the exam question was the same’ he explains. In 2007, CrossCountry carried 30 million passengers – by last year that had risen to 38 million.
‘In contrast with the radial routes out of London, with their key destinations, we have no single flow between two stations that represents more than 1% of our business’ says Mr Cooper. This cr…
