CrossCountry crowding

Fred Rogers bemoans the lack of capacity on CrossCountry services with good cause ( Open Access,

RAIL 843). Full and standing with no trolley service able to get through the trains is the norm, not the exception, since four-car and five-car Voyagers replaced High Speed Trains and locomotivehauled sets.

I’ve never understood the fascination of train operators and the DfT to run short sets in pairs, the Intercity Express Programme trains on Great Western Railway (and soon on Virgin Trains East Coast) being the latest incarnations of this approach. Two four-car or five-car trains need twice as many on-board staff, and prevent passengers spreading along the train.

CrossCountry has HST sets which will run beyond 2020, so are therefore now having power doors fitted. The obvious answer to the capacity issue would be to take on more HST sets when released from GWR - if good enough to continue in shortened form with GWR and ScotRail, then why not XC as well?

Many travellers using the South West-North East routes now travel via London, simply to avoid the terrible experience which is CrossCountry. John Burrows, County Durham