CrossCountry December Strikes Disrupt UK Rail Travel

Published on Nov 23, 2025, 4:23 pm CST

8 min read

Key points

RMT union has called CrossCountry strikes on Saturdays December 6, 13, 20, and 27 over pay and staffing
Most long distance CrossCountry routes via Birmingham New Street are likely to shut on strike days, removing a key UK rail backbone
Airport links for Birmingham Airport and Southampton Airport, plus some flows to Manchester and East Midlands airports, will face gaps and crowding
West Coast Main Line engineering from December 24 to January 5 will limit fallback routes between London, the Midlands, northwest England, and Scotland
Travelers should shift journeys to non strike days where possible, lock in alternatives like LNER or Avanti West Coast, and add extra buffer for connections
Those who cannot change dates should book earlier or later trains around the Saturdays, consider coaches or flights, and avoid separate tickets on tight connections

Impact

Where Impacts Are Most Likely: Expect the heaviest disruption on CrossCountry corridors through Birmingham New Street linking Scotland, northern England, the Midlands, Wales, and the South West, plus airport branches to Birmingham and Southampton
Best Times To Travel: When you cannot avoid the strike weekends, aim for Friday or Sunday travel and off peak hours, since Saturday services on CrossCountry are likely to be extremely limited or absent
Onward Travel And Changes: Connections that normally rely on CrossCountry, including links to and from Avanti West Coast or LNER, will be fragile so build generous buffers and avoid separate tickets
Airport Transfers And Buses: Plan backup routes to Birmingham Airport, Southampton Airport, Manchester Airport, and East Midlands Airport using local rail, trams, or airport coaches in case CrossCountry is unavailable
What Travelers Should Do Now: Check your December itineraries for reliance on CrossCountry, move non essential trips away from the four Saturdays, and secure alternative rail or coach tickets before remaining capacity sells out

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CrossCountry December rail strikes across Britain now lock in four Saturday shutdowns from December 6 to 27, cutting long distance links through Birmingham and other hubs at the height of holiday travel. RMT union members at CrossCountry will walk out on December 6, 13, 20, and 27 in a dispute over pay, staffing levels, and earlier agreements, and the operator is warning that only a small fraction of its normal timetable will be able to run. This puts Christmas shoppers, students, and families making long trips between Scotland, northern England, the Midlands, Wales, and the South West at particular risk, along with travelers using Birmingham and Southampton airports. Anyone with fixed plans on those weekends should now assume rail options will be thinner, book around the strike days where possible, and build backup routes that do not depend on a single operator.

The core change for travelers is that CrossCountry December rail strikes will strip out a major inter city network on four of the busiest Saturdays of the year, then overlap with West Coast Main Line engineering works after December 24, which will squeeze alternatives between London, the Midlands, northwest England, and Scotland.

How The December CrossCountry Strikes Will Work

RMT has confirmed that members at CrossCountry will take 24 hour strike action on all four Saturdays in December, after talks over pay, overtime, and staffing failed to resolve what the union calls long running issues. The walks outs cover train managers and other key grades, which means the operator cannot simply roster replacement staff and run a normal timetable.

Independent analysis of earlier strike patterns suggests that most CrossCountry trains are likely to be cancelled on each of the four days, with only a thin skeleton of services, if any, on core inter city routes. In previous one day actions this autumn, CrossCountry cut frequencies sharply, concentrated what remained into daytime hours, and left some regional routes with no trains at all. With action now spread over four Saturdays instead of a single date, the disruption window is much wider for holiday travel.

CrossCountry's network does not serve London directly, but it stitches together seven of Britain's ten largest cities through a hub at Birmingham New Street and provides cross country routes that bypass the capital. When that mesh is pulled out, passengers who would normally travel from, say, Manchester to Bristol, Leeds to Plymouth, or Edinburgh to southwest England on a through CrossCountry service must either take slower, multi change journeys or move to other modes entirely.

Airport And Leisure Corridors Most At Risk

One of the strengths of CrossCountry in a normal December is that it links major airports directly to cities around the network, especially Birmingham Airport (BHX) and Southampton Airport (SOU), and supports connections to Manchester Airport (MAN) and East Midlands Airport (EMA) through changes at Birmingham and other hubs. On strike Saturdays, those direct paths may be absent or heavily thinned, so airport transfers that rely on a single CrossCountry leg become fragile.

Leisure heavy flows that are particularly exposed include:

Birmingham New Street to the South West and south coast, including Bristol, Exeter, and Plymouth, used by families and students heading to and from university towns.

Birmingham New Street to the northeast, including Leeds, York, Newcastle, and Edinburgh, which often carries both domestic tourists and long distance airport transfer passengers.

Cross border routes linking South Wales with the Midlands and northeast England, and Scotland with southwest England, where CrossCountry often provides the most direct option.

On these corridors, other operators will continue to run, but capacity is limited and December Saturdays already carry heavy demand from Christmas markets, Premier League fixtures, and family visits. Travelers should assume busier trains, more standing passengers, and a higher chance of being unable to board the first service they see.

Christmas Engineering Works Remove Backup Options

Even if travelers can route around the four CrossCountry strike days, they face a second squeeze when Christmas engineering works start after December 24. Network Rail has scheduled major track upgrades near Milton Keynes that will affect West Coast Main Line services between London Euston and Scotland from the afternoon of December 24 through the morning of January 5. During much of this period, journeys to and from London Euston will be diverted, replaced by buses, or subject to extended journey times and reduced frequencies.

Across the rest of the country, the usual pattern of Christmas and New Year engineering will also thin timetables and close some routes on specific days, reflecting the long standing industry practice of using low demand days for heavy works. That means travelers hoping to use Avanti West Coast as a backup for CrossCountry between London, Birmingham, northwest England, and Scotland will have fewer trains to choose from after Christmas, and more of those trains will be full of passengers displaced from other routes.

In practical terms, the overlap of CrossCountry strike days and post Christmas works creates three distinct risk windows. The first two Saturdays, December 6 and 13, will mainly feel the direct impact of CrossCountry action. The December 20 strike will bleed into the Christmas getaway week and pinch capacity for travelers trying to position before the engineering starts. The December 27 strike then lands right inside the engineering period, when many lines are already on reduced timetables, so alternative options are thinnest.

Alternatives By Region And Sample Workarounds

For many journeys, there are still ways to travel on or around the strike Saturdays, but they require more planning and a willingness to accept either longer routes or earlier and later departures.

Between London and Scotland or northern England, LNER on the East Coast Main Line is the simplest alternative for destinations such as Edinburgh, Newcastle, York, and Leeds, and will be less affected by West Coast Main Line works. However, seats on key trains will be in high demand, so advance reservations are strongly recommended where possible.

For trips that would normally use CrossCountry between Birmingham and Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, or the South West, combinations of Avanti West Coast, local operators, and Great Western Railway can often substitute, at the cost of extra changes and sometimes higher fares. For example, a traveler from Manchester to Bristol might route via London or via Manchester to Birmingham on Avanti West Coast, then onward on an alternative operator where available.

Airport access also has alternatives, though they vary by field. Birmingham Airport is linked to Birmingham International station and then into central Birmingham by frequent local services and the Air Rail Link people mover, so local or regional trains may cover some of the gaps on CrossCountry strike days. Southampton Airport Parkway has other operators on the south coast routes, and coach transfers can fill in where rail is thin. Manchester Airport and East Midlands Airport both have dedicated rail or tram links plus strong coach networks, so National Express or Megabus, or local trams and buses, can often substitute at the cost of more time and less comfort.

For truly long distance trips where rail alternatives become too complex or risky, domestic flights may be worth considering, particularly on city pairs such as Edinburgh to Bristol, Newcastle to Birmingham, or Manchester to Southampton, although winter weather always adds its own disruption risk. Travelers should compare total journey times door to door, including airport transfers and security queues, before switching modes.

Booking Strategies For December And Early January

Because the strike dates are fixed and public several weeks ahead of time, the most powerful tactic is simply to avoid them. If your plans allow, move rail travel to Thursdays, Fridays, Sundays, or Mondays in early and mid December, keeping Saturdays for local trips that do not rely on CrossCountry or for non travel activities.

Where Saturday travel is unavoidable, the next best step is to lock in alternatives early. That means booking seats on LNER, Avanti West Coast, or other long distance operators as soon as ticket releases and engineering adjusted timetables allow, since spare capacity will shrink as more people abandon CrossCountry. It also means considering first class, off peak timings, or slightly less direct routes if those are the only options with guaranteed seats.

Holiday travelers with complex itineraries should avoid separate tickets on tight connections, especially where one leg depends on CrossCountry. A missed connection on unprotected tickets can turn into a same day fare shock, while a through ticket on a single operator usually carries better rebooking rights. Similarly, anyone connecting between rail and air should build in generous buffers of two to three hours for domestic flights and more for long haul departures, in case earlier legs are disrupted.

Finally, keep expectations realistic. Timetables for December are likely to be published later than usual and may be amended repeatedly as operators respond to both strikes and engineering works. National Rail Enquiries and individual train operator sites remain the definitive sources for day by day planning, and travelers should check again in the week before departure and on the morning of travel itself.