UK December CrossCountry Rail Strikes Hit Key Routes

Published on Dec 1, 2025, 8:42 am CST

9 min read

Key points

RMT strike action will hit CrossCountry trains on Saturdays December 6, 13, 20, and 27 2025
CrossCountry expects limited services on core routes such as Birmingham to Manchester, Birmingham to Bristol, and Birmingham to Bournemouth, with no trains on several regional lines
Links such as Cheltenham Spa to Cardiff, Birmingham to Leicester to Cambridge and Stansted Airport, Bristol to Plymouth and Penzance, and Newton Abbot to Paignton will see no CrossCountry service on December 6
Services that do run on strike days will be busier than normal, finish earlier, and may have altered calling patterns, raising the risk of missed connections
Other operators are currently expected to run as normal, so many itineraries can be rebuilt using Avanti West Coast, GWR, LNER, EMR, and local services
Travelers relying on CrossCountry for Christmas markets, airport transfers, or cruise and long distance coach connections should move key trips off strike Saturdays or add large buffers

Impact

Where Impacts Are Most Likely: Expect the heaviest disruption on long distance CrossCountry corridors through Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, the South West, and Scotland, plus links serving Cardiff and London Stansted Airport
Best Times To Travel: On strike Saturdays aim for the first trains of the day where they run, or move essential journeys to non strike days from Sunday to Friday if your plans are flexible
Onward Travel And Changes: Avoid same day connections from CrossCountry trains to flights, cruises, or long distance coaches, and leave generous buffer time if you cannot move these departures
Alternative Routes And Operators: Rebuild itineraries around Avanti West Coast, LNER, GWR, EMR, ScotRail, Transport for Wales, and coach services, using CrossCountry only where a confirmed train is shown
What Travelers Should Do Now: Audit every December Saturday journey that uses CrossCountry, rebook now onto non strike days or different operators, and monitor CrossCountry and National Rail alerts for timetable changes

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CrossCountry December rail strikes will leave much of the United Kingdom with only a skeleton service on Saturdays from December 6 to 27 2025, cutting capacity on some of the country's busiest long distance rail corridors right in the heart of the Christmas travel period. Leisure travelers heading for Christmas markets, football matches, or winter breaks, plus visitors using CrossCountry to reach airports such as London Stansted Airport (STN) and Birmingham Airport (BHX), now face a significantly higher risk of cancelled trains and missed connections. Anyone who currently relies on Saturday CrossCountry services for long distance journeys should either move their trips to other days, or rebuild them around different operators and much larger buffer times.

In plain terms, the CrossCountry December rail strikes will sharply reduce Saturday services across the company's network, with limited trains on a few trunk routes and no CrossCountry trains at all on several important regional and leisure lines on December 6, and similar disruption expected on December 13, 20, and 27.

What Is Happening And When

The Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) has called strike action at CrossCountry on four consecutive Saturdays, December 6, 13, 20, and 27 2025, after a long running dispute over pay, staffing, and previous commitments. The first day will see customer service staff and other grades withdraw their labour, which in practice prevents the operator from running a normal timetable, even though drivers themselves are not on strike.

CrossCountry's industrial action page and press statements already describe "significant disruption" on December 6, with every route on the network affected, trains that do run expected to be very busy, and services finishing much earlier than usual. National Rail Enquiries repeats the warning, classing all Saturdays in December as disrupted by RMT industrial action and signposting passengers to CrossCountry's strike timetable and FAQ material.

For the later strike days, December 13, 20, and 27, CrossCountry is still finalising timetables, but both the operator and the union have confirmed that more industrial action is planned, and third party coverage is already describing likely disruption across the full north east to south west axis from Aberdeen, Scotland, down to Penzance, England.

Where CrossCountry Will And Will Not Run On December 6

For Saturday December 6, CrossCountry's own summary divides the network into two broad buckets, lines with a very limited service, and lines with no CrossCountry services at all.

On the limited service side, the operator expects to run some trains on key intercity corridors such as Birmingham to Manchester, Birmingham to Bournemouth, Birmingham to Bristol, Birmingham to Derby, and Derby to Leeds to Edinburgh. Even on these routes, frequencies will be lower than normal, services may start later in the morning and finish earlier in the evening, and calling patterns can be altered, which means not every intermediate station will see the usual number of trains.

The no service list is more severe for holidaymakers and regional travelers. CrossCountry is currently planning no trains at all on Cheltenham Spa to Cardiff, Birmingham to Leicester to Cambridge and on to London Stansted Airport (STN), Derby to Nottingham, Bristol to Plymouth and Penzance, Newton Abbot to Paignton, and on parts of the Edinburgh to Glasgow or Aberdeen links. Other operators will continue to run on many of these corridors, but the long through services that are characteristic of CrossCountry's network, for example a single train from the North East to the South West, will not be available.

This has direct implications for airport transfers and long distance leisure trips that lean on CrossCountry's cross country pattern instead of changing in London, especially when linking to flights at London Stansted Airport (STN), Birmingham Airport (BHX), or Cardiff Airport (CWL) via regional connections.

How This Fits Into UK Rail Strikes

These December strikes are part of a broader pattern of industrial action on the United Kingdom's railways over the past three years, but this particular dispute is specific to CrossCountry. According to the RMT, the core issues include unresolved staffing shortages, disagreements over overtime and wage outcomes, and what the union describes as broken commitments by the company. RMT has framed the December walkouts as a last resort after talks failed to reach a settlement.

For travelers, the most important takeaway is that this is not a system wide rail shutdown. Other train operating companies, including Avanti West Coast, London North Eastern Railway (LNER), Great Western Railway (GWR), East Midlands Railway (EMR), ScotRail, and Transport for Wales, are currently expected to run their own services as normal on the strike days, and National Rail is encouraging passengers to use these operators where possible.

Planning Around Strike Saturdays

Because the industrial action falls on four consecutive Saturdays, the safest strategy for most visitors is simple, shift as many long distance journeys and airport transfers as possible onto Sundays through Fridays, keeping Saturdays free for local activities that do not depend on CrossCountry. That might mean staying an extra night in Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, or Edinburgh, or using a Friday night or Sunday morning train as the main travel leg instead of a Saturday slot.

Where a Saturday rail journey is genuinely unavoidable, the next best option is to rebuild the route around other operators and confirmed services that are already visible in journey planners. For example, someone traveling from Manchester to the South Coast could route via London on Avanti West Coast and South Western Railway instead of taking a direct CrossCountry train, while a traveler between Cardiff and the English Midlands could use Transport for Wales and West Midlands Trains with a change rather than the usual through CrossCountry service.

If you still intend to use CrossCountry on a strike day, treat any remaining services as fragile. Book the very first train that works for your itinerary, avoid the last departures of the day in either direction, and assume that trains will be crowded and that boarding might be controlled at busy stations such as Birmingham New Street. Leave additional contingency time if you are connecting onward by local rail, coach, or taxi.

Airport, Cruise, And Coach Connections

The biggest operational risk on these Saturdays lies with same day connections. Travelers who have built itineraries that rely on a Saturday CrossCountry train feeding a flight out of London Stansted Airport (STN), Birmingham Airport (BHX), or Cardiff Airport (CWL), or a cruise departure from Southampton, should now assume that their original plan is no longer robust.

The most conservative move is to shift the rail leg to a non strike day and add a hotel night near the airport or port. If that is not feasible, look for alternative rail routes that use non CrossCountry operators, for example LNER and Thameslink for some Stansted connections, GWR for links into Bristol and the South West, and Avanti West Coast or Chiltern Railways for routes into the Midlands and London, then layer a coach or airport bus onto the last leg. National Express and Megabus can also plug gaps where Intercity rail is not reliable.

Travel advisors should be particularly cautious about packaging Saturday CrossCountry legs into new bookings for December, and should explain the strike risk to clients who still want to use affected dates. Linking to recent coverage of other strike driven disruptions, such as the Belgium general strike that shut down most flights at Brussels in November, can help set expectations that even limited one day actions can reshape travel plans. A broader evergreen guide to how UK rail strikes work, and how to plan around them, can give first time visitors a framework for building more resilient itineraries.

For more structural guidance, see Adept Traveler's strike coverage in Europe and its explainer on UK rail strikes and train travel once that guide is live.

Tickets, Refunds, And Delay Repay

CrossCountry is directing passengers to its industrial action page for details on ticket flexibility, alternative routes, and Delay Repay compensation rules. As a general pattern, customers who choose not to travel on a strike day when their booked train is cancelled or significantly altered are usually allowed to either travel on another date or request a refund with no administration fee, but precise rules and options can differ by ticket type and retailer.

Because the December strikes intersect with the peak Christmas travel period, many trains on the days immediately around the strikes are already busy. Travelers who decide to move their journeys should make changes as early as possible to secure alternative seats, particularly on Friday evenings and Sunday afternoons.

It is also worth checking whether your travel insurance explicitly covers strike disruption. Many basic policies treat strikes as a known risk that is only covered when you can show a specific loss, for example non refundable prepaid accommodation that you cannot reach, and even then excesses and limits apply.

Background, How CrossCountry Fits Into UK Rail

CrossCountry is a long distance train operator that runs a dense grid of services across the United Kingdom, connecting more than 100 stations from Aberdeen in the north to Penzance in the south, and from Stansted and Cardiff in the east and west. Unlike operators that focus on a single main line into London, CrossCountry's role is to provide east to west and cross country links that bypass the capital, which is why its strikes can feel especially disruptive for itineraries built around Christmas markets, regional cities, and domestic airport transfers.

Because other operators remain in service, these strikes do not represent a shutdown of UK rail, but they do remove some of the most convenient one seat journeys just when demand is highest. Travelers who rebuild their plans now, using non strike days, alternative operators, and bigger buffers, will have a much smoother December than those who wait to see what happens on the day.