Chiltern Railways warn customers of severe disruption due to industrial action

No Chiltern Railways services will run on Sunday 18 December 

The operator has taken the difficult decision not to run any services on Sunday 18 December. Chiltern maintains all its trains at its own depots – some train companies have their trains maintained by third party providers who are not affected by strike action - and this means RMT strike action this week has severely reduced staffing levels at Chiltern’s train maintenance depots. As a result, the operator is unable to provide enough trains to run its normal timetable on Sunday 18 December and will instead use that time to service and fuel trains for Monday 19 December onwards.

Between 19 December and 23 December, Chiltern will operate a revised timetable with services starting from approximately 08:00 and finishing at approximately 22:00. On 24 December the service will finish at approximately 1600. There will be no train services on some parts of the Chiltern network and further details are on the Chiltern website. Customers should only travel with Chiltern Railways during this period if their journey is essential. 

The impact of the overtime ban for RMT members from 18 December and further strike action in early January means there will be reduced levels of staffing in Chiltern’s train maintenance depots, and this will result in reduced hours of operation and changes to services on some parts of the network from 18 December until 9 January.

A Chiltern Railways spokesperson said: 

“We would like to sincerely apologise to our customers that our train service will be severely impacted throughout the four-week period of industrial action by the RMT union. If travelling is a necessity, customers should check the Chiltern Railways website and app before they travel.” 

Customers can find out further information about how industrial action will affect services at https://www.chilternrailways.co.uk/strike.   

ENDS