A major Oxford train operator to face its critics on Monday (October 7) in a public meeting.

Railfuture Thames Valley has lined up a senior manager from CrossCountry Trains to discuss future service levels through Oxford to Birmingham, Manchester, Southampton and Bournemouth.

The meeting has been scheduled for Monday, October 7 and is open to the public, amid concerns about overcrowding on this vital north-south route.

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CrossCountry has already received communications from the Government demanding a remedial plan, and Oxford East MP Anneliese Dodds has followed up with her own demand for action due to the ‘frustrations and difficulties’ endured by passengers on these routes.

There have been concerns from the pubic that CrossCountry has not restored the services through Oxford to pre-Covid levels.

Richard Gibson, stakeholder manager West & Wales for CrossCountry, will update the meeting on extra Voyager trains being introduced, and plans to refurbish the entire CrossCountry fleet.

Railfuture Thames Valley spokesperson Dave Richardson said: “We are grateful to Richard Gibson for coming to talk to us and hope he will give us a clear timetable for improvements.

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“Many people are put off train travel altogether by the levels of overcrowding we have seen on CrossCountry, when some passengers can’t even reach their reserved seats.

“This impacts not only passengers travelling to major centres such as Birmingham, but also more local journeys. Banbury, for example, has a worse rail service to Oxford than Bicester or Didcot.”

The meeting will be at West Oxford Community Centre, Botley Road, at 5pm.