Birmingham and other Chiltern Railway services to be impacted by industrial action

After the RMT rail union called for further industrial action on Thursday, 12th November, Chiltern Railways have confirmed it will run over 90 per cent of services as normal. As well as running most timetabled services, Chiltern Railways will run train services to and from Wembley Stadium Station for the evening’s England football match against Croatia. Because of the industrial action, the following services will be affected: - There will be no direct Chiltern services between Stratford-upon-Avon and Leamington Spa; - No Chiltern services will run north of Birmingham Moor Street; - Fewer services will run between Leamington Spa and Birmingham Moor Street, and these will also affect services from Hatton and Lapworth. An alternative option for travel to or from stations between Leamington Spa and Stratford-upon-Avon is to use West Midlands Railway services via Dorridge; there will be no extra cost to use these services. For travel between Birmingham Moor Street and Stourbridge, Chiltern Railways tickets can be used on West Midlands Railway services. Further information about next Thursday’s industrial action can be found here. On 20th September, Chiltern Railways became the latest train operating company to be brought into public ownership under Great British Railways. “We’re disappointed that the RMT is continuing with industrial action over how we intend to run services on the first stage of East West Rail between Oxford and Milton Keynes. Industrial action by Train Managers has been announced by the RMT on 12 November. We expect to run the vast majority of our services on that day, helping to minimise disruption for customers, and will publish confirmed timetables as soon as possible. Every East West Rail service will have two people on board – the Driver, and a colleague looking after passengers: checking tickets, helping people who need assistance, and on hand to assist with any issues.” “We have run most of our trains with the Driver in control of the doors for decades, safely and as approved by the independent rail regulator. It also means over 100 new permanent jobs at Chiltern, and no changes to the roles of existing colleagues. We remain committed to working with the RMT to resolve this, and urge them to work with us so passengers can start benefiting from this new railway as soon as possible.” Tony Baxter, Interim Managing Director, Chiltern Railways