Do CrossCountry trains have power outlets?

Yes, but on the Voyagers that have not yet been refurbished, only at window seats — and that applies in First Class as well as Standard. ShowMeTheJourney's CrossCountry Voyager page answers it directly: “Yes, though in both First and Standard Class power sockets are only available at window seats.” They are UK three-pin sockets. The refurbished trains are different: the programme announced in February 2026 fits “integrated power sockets, including three pin, USB A and USB C outlets” across both classes, and the refurbished Class 170 Turbostars have plug and USB sockets at all seats.

On the refurbished trains, yes. On the rest, nobody documents one. The Voyager refurbishment specification names USB-A and USB-C outlets explicitly, and Porterbrook says the refurbished Class 170 has plug and USB sockets at all seats. For an unrefurbished Voyager the word USB does not appear on the source page in either class — which is silence rather than a published no, and either way not something to plan a journey around. Bring a charger that goes in the wall and treat a USB port as a bonus.

Not on an unrefurbished Voyager. This is the detail that surprises people, because the usual pattern is that premium classes get better power. Here the sentence covering the socket layout names both classes together — sockets are only available at window seats in First and in Standard alike — so a First Class aisle seat has none. On a refurbished Voyager the specification covers both standard and first class accommodation, so the distinction disappears.

You mostly cannot, before you board. Two programmes are running: 324 Voyager cars over two years from February 2026, and 29 Turbostars finishing by 2028. We found no published way for a passenger to check which unit is rostered on a given service. What we can tell you is what to look for once you are on: obviously new seating with sockets built into the seat rather than only by the window. And one warning — the Voyager source page describes the refurbishment as bringing “entirely refreshed seating saloons” without mentioning power at all, so a fresh-looking interior is not by itself proof of new electrics.

UK three-pin, Type G. ShowMeTheJourney states it for both First and Standard on the Voyager: the power sockets are compatible with the standard 3-point plugs as typically used in the UK. If you are travelling from continental Europe, the United States, Australia or anywhere else, you need a UK adapter, and that matters more than which seat you booked — an adapter turns a maybe into a yes, whereas a window seat only helps if your plug fits in the first place.

On this operator more than most, yes. Two things stack up: the aisle seat on an unrefurbished Voyager has no socket at all, and CrossCountry runs some of the longest journeys in Britain — Aberdeen to Penzance being the extreme, with plenty of five- and six-hour runs across the country. You cannot tell which generation of train you will get, and on a journey that long the cost of guessing wrong is arriving somewhere unfamiliar with a dead phone. A bank makes the whole question academic.