CrossCountry's services have been periodically disrupted by industrial action amongst its staff, often due to disputes over rostering and pay.

As per its franchise agreement, it obtained ten Class 43 power cars and forty Mark 3 carriages to operate on services that required greater seating capacity, while some Super Voyagers were transferred to Virgin West Coast.

It operates the UK's longest direct rail passenger service, from Aberdeen in the north-east of Scotland to Penzance in western Cornwall, which has a journey time of 13 hours and 15 minutes.

In August 2024, the then Secretary of State for Transport, Louise Haigh, criticised the company's performance and threatened to take action if it did not improve, following its request to reduce its service levels in the new timetable.

In October 2006, the DfT issued the invitation to tender (ITT) to the four shortlisted bidders: Arriva, FirstGroup, National Express and Virgin Rail Group.

[5][6] After taking over the franchise, CrossCountry continued to operate the existing timetable including the West Coast Main Line services for four weeks.

[10] By mid-2020, CrossCountry had considerably curtailed its services in response to the significant decline of passenger travel amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

[18] During September 2020, it was announced that the emergency agreements with train operating companies introduced due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom were to be extended for 18 months, and that all passenger rail franchising in Great Britain was abandoned.

[22][23] During November and December 2017, CrossCountry on-board train managers and senior conductors affiliated with the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) staged five 24-hour and two 48-hour strikes in an industrial dispute regarding staff rostering, in particular in relation to working on Sundays.

As a result of an agreement with CrossCountry to match their demands for an equal pay rise, the planned industrial action by the TSSA was cancelled.

[31] CrossCountry was capable of operating only a very minimal timetable on any of the planned dates for the strikes due to the number of staff involved.

Given your inability to run a full timetable, and the need to provide clear information for passengers I had little choice but to approve this request.

If you fail to deliver the Remedial Plan, I will not hesitate to take further action.The company operates medium- and long-distance services that run outside of the London area.

For example, passengers travelling from Cardiff to Edinburgh could change at Cheltenham – where both their trains use the same platform – instead of Birmingham New Street, a larger, more complex station.

[46] After driver training the ex-Midland Mainline sets returned to service in May 2008 on Glasgow and Edinburgh to Plymouth diagrams while the other Class 43 power cars were overhauled at Brush Traction including repowering with MTU engines[47][48] and the Mark 3 carriages overhauled at Doncaster Works to a similar specification as GNER's Mallard refurbishments.

[51] To operate services to Paignton and Newquay on summer Saturdays, two High Speed Trains were hired from National Express East Coast in 2008.

[citation needed] During 2008, the Class 170 Turbostar fleet was refurbished, during which the three-carriage units repainted at Marcroft Engineering, Stoke-on-Trent, the two-carriage units at EWS's Toton depot and the interiors renewed by Transys Projects, Clacton-on-Sea, including the fitting of first-class seating to the Class 170/5s and 170/6s.

[58] During November 2017, as a part of CrossCountry's franchise extension, two former Virgin Trains Class 221 Super Voyager driving cars of unit 221144 were reactivated, having been stored at Central Rivers TMD for several years.

[60][61][62][63] In September 2023, it was announced that seven Class 221 "Super Voyagers" would be transferred from Avanti West Coast to CrossCountry, following the withdrawal of its HSTs.