With Richard Gibson of CrossCountry Trains answering the questions.

Q If the capacity to stop trains at Morpeth is limited during the week because people are travelling for work, why not stop more there at weekends when people are travelling for leisure?

A Although the Service level requirements are less flexible than the old the system, they do set a minimum number of stops and CrossCountry is already exceeding that requirement. Weekend engineering work means that there is less flexibility at weekends than you might think, but it might be something to think about in the future as we move towards the “7 days a week” railway.

Q Have you thought about running from Manchester to Leeds?

A That route is currently operated by TransPennine Express. However, there are possibilities in other places where CrossCountry might extend its services in the future or create new journey opportunities. It is partly in order to identify such options that this sort of event takes place.

Q I would like to compliment CrossCountry on the re-furbished HSTs. While I travel regularly on by train on business, it is too expensive for a family group to travel. Have you thought of anything to address this issue?

A It is a constant dilemma for the railways how they will compete with the apparent low cost and flexibility of simply getting into the family car. There are offers like Family Railcards which can reduce the cost for groups. CrossCountry reviews its fares almost constantly, but there is no easy answer.

Q We’ve heard that Hitachi have won the the contract for the replacement of the HST – and of the promise of 1200 new coaches. Have Cross Country thought about getting some HSTs displaced from the East Coast route when the new trains are available?

A CrossCountry might consider it, but the HSTs will be even older by then. Of those 1200 additional vehicles, only 6 were for CrossCountry and that translates to 2 x three coach trains for the Nottingham/Leicester-Birmingham-Cardiff services.

Q Is there any way of improving the fare structure. I recently made a spur of the moment journey to Leeds. It was cheaper to buy separate tickets and change at York. It was cheaper to get the bus into Newcastle than get the train from Morpeth.

DF Chester-le-track advertises that it can find cheaper journeys. For example, Newcastle to Worcester is cheaper than Newcastle to Birmingham, so they suggest buying a ticket to Worcester and getting off at Birmingham.

A Strictly speaking, that is not allowed with the ticket. The fare for each part of the journey is set by the main operator – so National Express for example, set the Newcastle –York fare and Northern probably set the Morpeth-Newcastle fare.

Q I can’t find Cheap Day returns on your web-site do you still do them?

A Yes. They should be there.

Q Why doesn’t your website check all the possibilities offered by buying separate tickets?

A It would be far too complex.

DF The risk of buying separate tickets is that if you miss your connection, you are stuck. With a through ticket, if you miss a connection because of a train being delayed, even if it’s a restricted ticket, the operator will still carry you.

A True.

DF We understand that CrossCountry is not a local service and we don’t want it to be. The franchise commitment is 2 stops, the previous operator increased it to 4 but you have cut it back to 3. And you haven’t speeded up the train where you’ve cut the stop out. You need to plan your service based on the current reality , not historic accident. Morpeth is the county town of Northumberland. 90% of Northumberland’s population live in the South East of the County, around Morpeth, yet Alnmouth which is in the middle of nowhere gets more stops than Morpeth. We are not trying to reduce Alnmouth’s service, simply to get the balance right.

A We are always open to review things, the value of meetings like this so you can let us know what you want and we can see whether it is possible now or in the future.

Q I travelled to Bristol at New Year and the train was absolutely packed, even though you put an extra coach on at Edinburgh. There were two coach “D”s and you cancelled the reservations. The staff were very helpful and did their best – but do you think that that was the right thing to do?

A No. We should only ever cancel reservations if a train is replaced by a different type – so if an 8 coach HST was replaced by a 4 coach Voyager for example – or if there was a major failure of the national system reservation computer. Was this HST or Voyager?

Q Voyager

A Part of the problem is we cannot add coaches. Voyagers have electronic coach numbering and would not allow two coach “D”s. CrossCountry is thinking of taking the seat reservation for its trains “in house”. Currently the seat reservations system does not allow seats to be reserved after 6.00pm on he day before travel. This is to allow time to print and apply the little paper labels – but CrossCountry trains don’t use these (HSTs do at the moment, but that’s only temporary). We could sell tickets right up to departure – which would allow better use of Advance Tickets. It would also mean the train manager could cancel the reservation on unclaimed seats.

Q Since the timetable changes, you cannot get to Cornwall without changing at Birmingham.

A CrossCountry trains do operate from Morpeth to Cornwall.

Q Are Advance fares available on all trains? I have asked to be e-mailed details of Advance tickets on the eight o’clock train but have never received a single notification.

A All trains have some, but some will have more than others. Obviously we make available few advance tickets on a train that we know will be full anyway.

DF It sounds like there might be a problem with the system

A I will check it out.

Q Why does your last northbound train no longer stop at Morpeth?

A We need to compete for routes with other operators.

DF The previous operator told us that most journeys from Morpeth were either to York or Edinburgh – not to Newcastle. Also, you have changed your stops and they are now very close to those of other operators.

A We have to plan our timetable in isolation and then go to Network Rail who tell us what others have bid for.

DF But National Express has not changed their time. Nor Northern. You have moved yours by removing the stop from your last train and bringing it forward an hour. This also means that the last train to Morpeth is an hour earlier than it was.

Q Even though you’ve removed the Morpeth stop, you haven’t altered the Newcastle-Edinburgh journey time, so what have you gained? Also, when travelling on CrossCountry – especially on Saturday nights, your trains have very long waits in the likes of Sheffield or Darlington stations – 10 or 15 minutes. I know its recovery time so you arrive at your final destination on time and hit your performance target, but surely that has more impact on slowing down your trains than one stop at Morpeth.

A Its not just for that reason. Anyway, a lot of those waits have gone with the December timetable changes. CrossCountry has to bid for slots between stations. We can’t leave early just because we arrive early and if we arrive early at a station, we often simply have to wait outside for a platform. If we started ignoring these facts we’d bring the whole national rail timetable crashing down.

Q Other operators seem to manage to avoid such long waits.

A We are driven by the timetable.

Q Is it possible to book wheelchair journeys on your website?

A Not sure – but it should be. Now you can select your seat on our website, you should be able to select the priority seat.

Q What about the need to phone 24 hours in advance?

A CrossCountry doesn’t operate any stations so we have to make arrangements with operators, that’s why we need 24 hours.

Q But why can’t you register on the internet instead of having to phone?

A It does seem like something we should be able to do.

Q How many priority seats are there?

A 2 – 1 in standard class and 1 in first.

Q Is that a fair reflection of the percentage of the population who are wheelchair users?

A It’s governed by the Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations.

Q What’s CrossCountry’s attitude to train spotters?

A We have no problem whatsoever – but we don’t operate any stations.