Chiltern Railways will be strengthening their timetable from Monday 6th July to prepare for a gradual increase in passengers travelling by train. The train operator has been running a reduced timetable since Monday 23rd March, ensuring that vital train services for key workers continued to run throughout the Coronavirus outbreak.
The new timetable will work to increase capacity on the Marylebone – Amersham – Aylesbury line as well as strengthening services to Oxford and Birmingham. Monday – Friday there will be half hourly services from Marylebone to Aylesbury, increasing to four services an hour in the peak and half hourly services to Birmingham and Oxford. The new timetable represents 90% of Chiltern Railways usual timetabled peak service. Customers looking to travel on weekends are advised to check the Chiltern Railways website for train times.
However, passengers are reminded that they should still only travel if their journey is necessary and wherever possible customers are urged to look for alternative methods of travel. If your journey is essential, customers are advised to:
- Travel during quieter times where possible,
- Go online or download the Chiltern app to access the latest information and to book tickets,
- Use contactless payments and avoid paying with cash in stations,
- Keep a safe distance from passengers and staff in stations and onboard trains,
- Wear face coverings when travelling on public transport if you can,
- Regularly wash your hands before and after your journey,
- Please stay home if you feel unwell.
Mary Hewitt, Interim Managing Director at Chiltern Railways said: “We want to reassure customers that their safety and the safety of our staff is of the utmost importance to us. We’re taking lots of extra steps to keep people safe such as increased cleaning onboard our trains and at our stations using enhanced products and we are also looking to provide as much capacity as possible to enable the 1m plus social distancing rule.
“To ensure that we can continue running a safe railway, we would encourage passengers to only travel and use public transport if absolutely necessary, in line with government guidance. If you do need to use public transport, we would like to remind our customers, for the safety of all, that face coverings are now mandatory, except for specific medical conditions.”
Photo credit: Chiltern Railways
