CrossCountry December Strikes Hit UK Trains And Airports

Published on Nov 28, 2025, 10:55 am CST

8 min read

Key points

RMT strikes at CrossCountry will hit services on Saturdays 6, 13, 20, and 27 December 2025 across the UK network
CrossCountry expects a limited timetable, no trains on some routes, and much earlier last departures on each strike day
Direct airport links to Birmingham International, Stansted, and Southampton are at risk of reduced frequencies and crowded surviving trains
National Rail warns that disruption will extend across the CrossCountry network and that timetables will be confirmed closer to each strike date
Most affected passengers should be able to rebook, reroute via other operators, or claim refunds under existing CrossCountry and National Rail rules

Impact

Where Impacts Are Most Likely: The sharpest disruption will hit long distance CrossCountry corridors through Birmingham New Street, routes into the South West, and the Stansted and Southampton airport links
Airport Links And Transfers: Travelers connecting to flights at Birmingham Airport, London Stansted Airport, and Southampton Airport should assume thinner rail options and consider fallback routes
Best Times To Travel: Where travel cannot be moved away from 6, 13, 20, or 27 December, early morning and late evening trains on non strike days will usually be safer than same day tight turns
Connections And Misconnect Risk: Same day rail to rail or rail to flight connections through Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, or Stansted carry a high misconnect risk and need extra buffer time or overnighting
What Travelers Should Do Now: Anyone with CrossCountry tickets on strike Saturdays should check their journey, look at alternative operators or coaches, and decide early whether to reroute, refund, or shift dates

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CrossCountry December strikes UK trains across Britain on Saturdays 6, 13, 20, and 27 December 2025 are set to thin out long distance services through Birmingham New Street and cut some direct trains to airport stations, leaving rail reliant travelers with far fewer options at the busiest time of year. Passengers who normally use CrossCountry as a through link between Scotland, northern England, the Midlands, Wales, the South West, and the south coast will face a skeletal timetable and much earlier last departures. Anyone with tight airport transfers or same day long distance connections should treat those four Saturdays as high risk dates, add generous buffer time, or move trips where possible.

At heart, the CrossCountry December strikes UK trains story is that RMT industrial action on four Saturdays will shrink the operator's nationwide grid, including airport links at Birmingham International and Stansted Airport, and force many travelers onto alternative train operators or long distance coaches instead of their usual through services.

What Is Actually Confirmed So Far

The Rail, Maritime and Transport union has confirmed that its members at CrossCountry will strike on Saturdays 6, 13, 20, and 27 December 2025 after talks over pay, staffing, and previously agreed commitments stalled. CrossCountry's first detailed notice covers 6 December, when RMT members in customer service roles will walk out, and the company says it will only run a limited timetable, with all routes affected, no trains at all on some parts of the network, and services finishing much earlier than usual. A companion National Rail disruption bulletin warns that industrial action will impact CrossCountry services on all Saturdays in December across the network, with altered or cancelled trains likely in every region the operator serves.

For now, the detailed reduced timetable for 6 December is still being finalised, and CrossCountry has paused advance ticket sales on strike days while it rewrites schedules. The company is telling passengers to check journey planners close to departure, and it has flagged that some services that do run will have altered stopping patterns, meaning that intermediate stations which normally see regular CrossCountry calls may be skipped entirely on the day. For 13, 20, and 27 December, CrossCountry and National Rail are signaling the same broad pattern, a heavily thinned timetable with pockets of no service, but have not yet published route by route details.

How The Strikes Hit CrossCountry's Long Distance Grid

CrossCountry is one of Britain's main long distance operators, with a network based on Birmingham and trains stretching from Aberdeen to Penzance and from Stansted Airport and Cardiff across the spine of England and into Scotland. Because its routes are designed as cross country corridors rather than London feeders, many travelers rely on CrossCountry to move between regional cities without changing trains, for example northern England to the South West, or the Midlands to the east coast.

On 6 December, CrossCountry says every route will be affected, with some lines seeing no trains and others running only occasional services that are expected to be very busy. Local media in the Midlands are already warning that services through Birmingham New Street may be especially thin and that last trains will be brought forward, which raises the stakes for anyone planning a same day round trip for Christmas markets, football matches, or family visits.

Earlier CrossCountry strike days this year provide a rough template for what a "no service" corridor can look like. During an August bank holiday walkout, for example, the company ran no trains between Birmingham, Reading, and the south coast, and no trains between Leicester, Cambridge, and Stansted Airport, with only very limited services into the South West and north of York. December strike timetables have not yet been published in the same detail, so those exact gaps are not confirmed, but travelers should expect similar patterns in which peripheral and lower frequency routes lose their CrossCountry trains altogether while core spines see only a few busy services.

Airport Links At Birmingham, Stansted, And Southampton

One of the sharpest traveler impacts will be on rail access to key regional airports. CrossCountry's own travel connections pages market direct trains to Birmingham International for Birmingham Airport, Southampton Airport Parkway for Southampton Airport, and Stansted Airport station, positioning those links as a stress free alternative to driving. CrossCountry also advertises through trains from Birmingham New Street, Cambridge, and Peterborough straight to Stansted Airport, which are particularly useful for passengers who want to avoid changing in London.

On strike Saturdays, those airport trains sit in the same high risk category as the rest of the network. CrossCountry has already signalled that some airport routes will have no service at all and that any trains which do run are likely to be very busy. For Birmingham Airport, other operators such as Avanti West Coast and West Midlands Railway also serve Birmingham International, which gives travelers more room to reroute, although frequencies and journey times will vary. At Stansted Airport, passengers can switch to the Stansted Express and other Greater Anglia trains from London Liverpool Street, which normally run several times per hour, but that usually means adding an extra connection and potentially traveling into London first.

Alternatives, Workarounds, And When To Reroute

For many December trips, the simplest mitigation is to avoid using CrossCountry on the four strike Saturdays altogether. Where itineraries are flexible, shifting rail travel to adjacent days, or moving a long distance daytime journey to a Friday or Sunday and staying overnight, will be more reliable than gambling on a heavily cut timetable.

Where date moves are impossible, travelers should first check whether another operator runs a viable parallel route. East Coast and West Coast long distance services, including operators such as LNER, Avanti West Coast, and TransPennine Express, can often substitute for parts of a CrossCountry journey, especially if passengers are willing to change trains in hubs like Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester, or London. In the Midlands and South West, Great Western Railway and West Midlands Railway cover some flows that would otherwise be CrossCountry only, while National Express and Megabus coach networks expand capacity on busy intercity corridors during rail disruption.

For airport trips, especially those involving early morning departures or late night arrivals, the safest choices on strike days will often be to travel in the day before and stay overnight near the terminal, or to route via operators whose staff are not involved in the dispute, such as Stansted Express from London or alternative rail connections to Birmingham International. Cutting transfer risk is more important than shaving half an hour off the schematic journey time.

Tickets, Refunds, And What To Expect On The Day

CrossCountry is directing passengers to its industrial action page and National Rail journey planners for the latest timetable information, as well as for guidance on alternative routes, ticket acceptance, and Delay Repay rights. As on previous strikes, most passengers whose trains are cancelled or who choose not to travel because of the industrial action should be able to claim a fee free refund or rebook for another date, although exact rules will depend on ticket type and point of purchase.

On the day, anyone who does travel with CrossCountry should expect busy trains, shorter formations on some routes, and queues at major stations for information and assistance. Luggage space on surviving airport services will be tight, and boarding may be controlled at Birmingham New Street, Birmingham International, and Stansted Airport to manage crowding. Passengers with mobility needs should request assistance well in advance, as customer service staff availability is part of the dispute and support teams will be stretched.

Background, Why This Strike Matters For Holiday Travel

CrossCountry's December action comes on top of other winter travel risks, including separate strikes in Italy, France, and Portugal, and heavy engineering works on parts of the British network, which means that backup options that might normally be available can also be constrained. Because CrossCountry is one of the few operators that tie together multiple UK regions and airports without going through London, any prolonged thinning of its timetable has outsized effects on holiday and family travel. For Christmas and New Year 2025, that makes its four strike Saturdays some of the highest risk days of the season for long distance rail journeys within Britain.