No Chiltern Railways services will run on Sunday, December 18 

The operator has taken the decision not to run any services on Sunday, December 18.

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.

READ MORE: E-fit released as police appeal after Wood Farm burglary

As a result, the operator is unable to provide enough trains to run its normal timetable on Sunday, December 18 and will instead use that time to service and fuel trains for Monday, December 19 onwards.

Between December 19 and December 23, Chiltern will operate a revised timetable with services starting from approximately 8am and finishing at approximately 10pm.

On December 24 the service will finish at approximately 4pm. 

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 December 18 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 December 18 until January 9.

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.   

 

Read more from this author

This story was written by Matthew Norman, he joined the team in 2022 as a Facebook community reporter.

Matthew covers Bicester and focuses on finding stories from diverse communities.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Matthew.norman@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @OxMailMattN1