Passenger Focus, the independent national rail consumer watchdog, has renewed its pressure on the Department for Transport (DfT) to create many more seats for passengers on the New Cross Country network, stressing that this is a top priority for passengers.

Passenger Focus has released a report, which includes a survey of almost 10,000 passengers’ journeys, looking into how passengers will be affected by proposed changes to the Cross Country franchise. Passenger Focus is calling for further efforts by the DfT to minimise the effect of these changes on passengers travelling on the Cross Country network.

Susan Tibbett, Passenger Focus passenger link manager said; “It is absolutely essential that the radical increase in longer and more trains, leading to a 30% increase in seats as put forward by the DfT, becomes a reality so that passengers might then be able to get a seat on the more crowded central areas of the Cross Country network.”

A commitment to funding for improvements at Birmingham New Street station is still uncertain and Passenger Focus remains concerned that the station will not be able to cope with the numbers of passengers that might change at the station. Passengers need to know what the alternatives are and need to be encouraged to change trains at stations other than Birmingham New Street. Our research shows that there are some realistic alternative stations for some passengers to change at, however an industry-wide approach will be necessary to make sure that these stations provide high quality interchanges for passengers. Passengers changing trains need to be given useful information, so sales systems and staff must be informed of the options. While we don’t like to having to make trade-offs between long distance and shorter distance, commuter passengers, if the proposals for the new franchise do go ahead, it is crucial that the proposed increase in services is procured. However, if more passengers do still want to change trains at Birmingham New Street it will not be able to cope, so what is ‘plan B’?”

As part of the New Cross Country franchise, the DfT has proposed to cut the number of direct services operating on Cross Country routes in preference for boosting the central areas of the network.