Furious passengers berate Chiltern Railways as it asks them not to travel at all after reeling out FOUR excuses for diabolical Sunday services
- Passengers said they were having to wait up to four hours for a train
- Chiltern Railways operate the line from London Marylebone to Bicester Village
Furious passengers have berated Chiltern Railways after the company told passengers not to travel at all today after reeling out four excuses for its diabolical Sunday services.
Chiltern Railways, who operate the line from London Marylebone to Bicester Village, declared a 'DO NOT TRAVEL' warning this afternoon - throwing people's Bank Holiday plans into turmoil.
The company blamed 'service disruption, crowding issues across the network, alterations due to engineering work and limited road transport' for severe delays today.
Passengers had reported having to wait up to four hours for a train before the warning was issued.
One furious passenger said: 'Complete disgrace been waiting at Leamington on delayed trains for four hours.
'Why haven't you moved the train that has broken down?
'We've had really poored comms, no one to talk to and complete disregard for passenger welfare.
'Complete lack of ownership or leadership.'
Furious passengers have berated Chiltern Railways after the company told passengers not to travel at all today after reeling out four excuses for its diabolical Sunday services (file pic)
Chiltern Railways, who operate the line from London Marylebone to Bicester Village, declared a 'DO NOT TRAVEL' warning this afternoon (file pic)
Lee Mallen added: 'This happens every weekend and is beyond a joke. Always engineering work absolute joke.
'Overcrowded trains to the point it becomes a health and safety risk.
'Three hour wait for trains - might as well walk.'
A third person said: 'Wow a Do Not travel declaration by #ChilternRailway on a Bank Holiday weekend and with a football final happening at Wembley.'
Another added: 'If you can't remove a broken down train within four hours, you shouldn't have a contract to run the service and be charging the public.
'Your service has been disgraceful and a pathetic delay repay payment goes no way to resolving what you have done.'
Chiltern Railways said they had not been able to organise rail replacement services and that tickets for todaywould now be accepted on trains tomorrow.
However, one frustrated passenger replied saying: 'Some of us have work tomorrow?!
'Are you're saying 'limited road transport' - you have a duty of care to look after your passengers and not leave people stranded.
'Get us home!'
Another person question whether Chiltern Railways would be paying for hotels for people stuck in London tonight.
A spokesperson for Chiltern Railways said: 'Ongoing engineering works on the West Coast Mainline meant that Chiltern Railways was the only operator running services between London and Birmingham yesterday.
'Combined with additional demand from passengers travelling between Solihull and Wembley Stadium for yesterday's National League Play-Off Final, services were busier than normal.
'This was further impacted by a points failure at London Marylebone which led to some services having to terminate at Wembley Stadium.
'Ticket acceptance was agreed with London Underground services from Wembley Park and with Great Western Railway, allowing travel between London and Oxford, however no alternative route could be offered between London and the West Midlands due to the works taking place.
'Additionally, a fault with one of our services blocked the line between Birmingham Moor Street and London Marylebone.
'We successfully evacuated the passengers on the affected service, however this impacted delays and cancellations and resulted in a 'do not travel' message being issued yesterday from 4pm and removed by 8:45pm. We're sorry for the disruption to journeys and would like to thank customers for their patience.'
The 'DO NOT TRAVEL WARNING' comes as train passengers across the country were told to prepare for severe disruption this weekend and into next week as ongoing engineering work coincides with industrial action.
Network Rail said it has 487 projects planned between Saturday and Bank Holiday Monday.
Today no trains ran between London Euston and Milton Keynes, or between Glasgow and England due to engineering works on the West Coast Main Line.
Train drivers who are members of the Aslef union are due to start a six-day overtime ban on Monday which is expected to cause short-term cancellations.
There will also be three one-day strikes across different operators between May 7 and 9.
