After many years of poor investment, the CrossCountry network is finally seeing (some) improvements to its services by introducing newly refurbished trains, with its regional express Class 170 fleet being the first in for treatment. Quite a lot has changed but is it any good? Find out in this video!
Journey details:
Date of travel – March 2025
Operator – CrossCountry
Train – Class 170 “Turbostar”
Class of travel – Standard
Origin – Coleshill Parkway (originally Birmingham New Street)
Destination – Cambridge
Price – £10.35 (inc Railcard discount of 1/3)
Distance – 129 miles
Journey time – 2 hours, 36 minutes
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#class170 #crosscountrytrains #crosscountry #birmingham #cambridge #tripreport #vlog #trains #turbostar
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:35 Birmingham New Street (Sort of…)
02:31 CrossCountry Regional Services & Arrival of the Train
04:13 Boarding & Route Summary
05:22 Departure & Travelling Through the West Midlands
07:02 Interior
08:45 Crossing the East Midlands
10:33 Walkthrough
11:52 Loo Review
12:45 Entering the East Anglia
15:25 Journey Summary, Conclusions & Pricing
16:05 Arrival into Cambridge & Outro – Thanks for Watching!
39 Comments
I didn’t see the King Power stadium. I did, however, see the Leicester Tigers stadium.
Why did you miss out the busiest station in Rutland? Come to think of it you missed the least busy too.
Is XC the only TOC franchise with no Stations…?
Long overdue; great informative video.
8:04 They just want to save money to make a seat with no tables behind.
Imo i am not a fan of the new livery of the 170
What is the app you're using on your phone that shows the speed?
Brum to Cambridge is nowhere near the harsh endurance nightmare for passengers as Edinburgh to Penzance, so the south-east wins over the north-east yet again . . .
I have been in Class 170 on London Midland and West Midlands Railway between Walsall and Birmingham New Street
how long will it take for the British to electrify their rail network?
What genius decided that 1st classis not needed?
Melton… home of the porkpie and rather unfortunately Pedigree Pet foods! I live in the south-west and would love these trains on our route – Cardiff – Bristol – Bath – Salisbury – Southampton – Portsmouth – Brighton!
Is it ib br roblox
I admit that the interors look nice but with cross country, if they want to upgrade their service, they should be going thurther than interiors, the real problem with birmingham to stanstead being operated by class 170s also affects the fastest direct train service between birmingham and cardiff, is that 2 or 3 car trains being used on important ntercity connections leads to severe overcrowding meaning that both birmingham to stanstead and cardiff to nottingham should be leaning to a more intercity style of operation and be operated by voyagers or whatever replaces them. either that or you could just extend the cross country 170s to be 7 or 8 coaches at the least
What is this app? 6:24
What is the app used for measuring the speed and tells you the line speed?
Great video and definitely a huge improvement on the old interiors. Ultimately though what CrossCountry really needs is a whole new fleet with much higher capacity to replace both the voyagers and turbostars.
They're too short! Also the livery doesn't do anything for me, it looks too much like TFW, East Anglia and LNER. Now, West Midland Trains – that's what I call a great and original livery.
Could be worse, look at the rolling stock that Northern use…..
Great but when are the Voyagers going to get the same treatment? I travel on them regularly; they are tatty, tawdry and dreadful with seats unsuitable for a 200 mile journey. I only use them because I have no choice.
What's happened there? Last time I travelled on this route the extortionate Cross Country were charging £60 return or thereabouts. Is it because Arriva have taken them over? That's cheap. It was about £16 return Coleshill Parkway to Leicester a year or so ago. I'm surprised, but Arriva have always been reasonable. Nice journey in the summer. 👍
I was your Driver from Leicester to Cambridge.
The cab refurb is a new seat, two foldable cup holders and a lick of white paint…
No expense spared..🙂
Oh and the delay past Stamford at Hoods Mill crossing was due to a couple taking selfies on the track and ignoring my warning horn. It got a bit too close for my liking and I had to apply the emergency brake.
I'm going on a class 220 today, wish me luck!😂
the exterior is ugly as hell
I more or less did this journey, but went from Birmingham to Ely back at the end of February. Trains are smart, but like others have said, they always cram way too many people in and have very few carriages. It seems a common theme with Cross Country, as they do it on the Cardiff to Nottingham service as well.
hold on hold on hold on WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT LIVERY?
Livery yukkie 170s not long enough for Birmingham-Stanstead or any where else !
I hope the voyagers keep their original seats, I am not too bothered by the turbo stars getting new seats. The livery however is a cardinal sin, who approved it? Bright pink does not fit trains
1:31 my local is water orton right next to there
I've had a couple of trips on 170101 from Newport – Cardiff and back. I really like it especially the livery.
i really like the new XC livery however i hope the new voyager refurbishment will have the same quality.
Waste of money, when the whole rail service gets nationalised. They will be painting the trains all red!
OM the rails you should try the class 171 turbostar
What app do you use to get the train speed
……. and about time too.
I travelled from Nuneaton to Ely last November and was shocked by how grubby the train was. Worn carpets ingrained with filth, tatty and saggy seat cushions and backs, grimy wall and ceiling panels. Nothing to do with the cleaners efforts, they can't polish a t*rd.
For extra fun the toilet had a door which would open and close ok but would not lock so fellow passengers had to be on door lookout for each other. Nobody had bothered to put the seat reservations on so everyone had the delight of seat roulette at every stop. I did complain to Cross Country but received no reply.
It is a disgrace how Cross Country have got away with letting their 170s get so down at heel.
The refurbs can't come soon enough. I'm not bothered what colour they are as long as they are clean and tidy.
So no seat reservations and not sure how the seat numbering works if at all?. (You say reservations but this seems to be for wheelchair spaces only?) Basically a refurbished three car cattle truck service and nothing to recommend it. Time to end the franchise. The line may have nice views but such low aspirations by Cross Country. Why aren't they running six car trains with mandatory reservations?
I absolutely hate the livery. It looks really outdated compared to the old one. Buy everything else about the refurbishment is great
I would advise blurring the reflections of other passengers visible in parts of this video. These people would not have been aware of being filmed and if the video is monetised you could find yourself being fined as a business.
Lifelong resident of East Anglia here. I’ve never heard anyone say ‘the’ East Anglia before. It’s always just ‘East Anglia’. Besides that, nice video.