Chiltern Railways warns customers to only travel if absolutely essential for week affected by RMT strike

Train operator Chiltern Railways has issued strong guidance to customers to only travel if absolutely essential across the week in which the RMT union is taking industrial action. The guidance is in effect between 21 June and 25 June inclusive. 

On strike days (21, 23, 25 June) there will be extremely limited availability of staff and as such we will not be able to operate services on most routes.  

We expect to have significantly less staff to service and prepare the number of trains we would normally need to operate the timetable. Coupled with the fact we are unable to position our fleet how we normally would, this means that we will have to operate a heavily reduced timetable on non-strike days during the week. 

Additionally, Network Rail engineering work in the Birmingham area between Monday 20 June and Thursday 23 June mean that no Chiltern Railways services north of Dorridge will be in operation on Monday. Rail replacement transport that was previously planned for this four-day railway closure has been cancelled.  

There will be no service north of Banbury, or to Oxford, between Tuesday 21 June and Saturday 25 June.  

Passengers seeking to travel to Leamington Spa or Birmingham New Street throughout the week can join an hourly CrossCountry service at Banbury, which our terminating services will connect to. 

Due to the industrial action, Chiltern will not be able to serve the Ed Sheeran concerts at Wembley Stadium on Friday 24 and Saturday 25 June. Concertgoers can get to Wembley Park and Wembley Central station on the London Underground network for Wembley Stadium events. 

In addition, industrial action is taking place on the London Underground on Tuesday 21 June which will mean Chiltern Railways services will be unable to call at stations operated by London Underground. 

Chiltern Railways strongly advises customers to consider their journey and seek alternative methods of transport, but in cases where rail travel is a necessity, to check before they travel on the Chiltern Railways website (www.chilternrailways.co.uk) or app. An industry-wide, special timetable will be released on Friday.  

More information and FAQs can be found on www.chilternrailways.co.uk/strike.  

Service levels W/C Monday 20 June (subject to change) 

Monday 20 June 

• No service north of Dorridge due to planned engineering works (no rail replacement bus service) 
• Some services will finish earlier (normal finish unless otherwise stated) 
• Last trains from Marylebone: 
  
  22:37 to Dorridge  
  23:52 to Oxford and Banbury (all stations) 
  
  

Tuesday 21 June, Thursday 23 June and Saturday 25 June (strike days) 

• Service starts at 07:30AM 
• Last trains from Marylebone: 
  
  15:10 to Banbury 
  16:10 to Bicester North 
  16:45 to Aylesbury Vale Parkway via High Wycombe 
  
  
• 2 trains per hour from London: 
  
  1 train to Banbury/Bicester North 
  1 train to Aylesbury Vale Parkway via High Wycombe 
  
  1 train per hour between Amersham and Aylesbury (except on Tuesday 21 June due to London Underground strike action – no trains between Aylesbury and Great Missenden) 
  
  

Wednesday 22 June, Friday 24 June (non-strike days, services still affected) 

• Service starts at 07:30AM 
• Last trains from Marylebone:
  
  21:10 to Banbury
  22:10 to Bicester North
  22:45 to Aylesbury Vale Parkway via High Wycombe 
  
  
• 2 trains per hour from London: 

1 train to Banbury/Bicester North 
1 train to Aylesbury Vale Parkway via High Wycombe 

1 train per hour between Amersham and Aylesbury 

Sunday 26 June 

• Amended Sunday timetable in operation from 09:00AM 
• First services from Oxford/Birmingham: 
  
  11:11 from Oxford  
  11:17 from Birmingham Moor Street  
  
  

Eleni Jordan, Commercial & Customer Strategy Director for Chiltern Railways, said: 

“We are disappointed that the RMT industrial action, if it goes ahead, will bring severe disruption across our network. The action is also coupled with planned engineering work on the Chiltern mainline between Birmingham and Dorridge. We are calling on customers to travel only if essential between 21 and 25 June and seek alternative transport where possible. 

We have worked tirelessly with our train planning team and industry partners to ensure that we can provide as many services as possible during the week that the strike action is planned – and keep people moving as best we can.”