Category: travel

THIS weekend – Saturday 05 and Sunday 06 May – Chiltern Railways is pleased to announce that it is running a full service with no scheduled track improvement works on the Aylesbury to London Marylebone via Amersham line.
On Saturday May 5, a normal service will operate on the Birmingham Snow Hill/Stratford-upon-Avon to London Marylebone via High Wycombe line.
On both Saturday and Sunday, buses replace all trains between Princes Risborough and Aylesbury.

CALLING ALL STEAM ENTHUSIASTS !!
Don’t miss the steam engine GWR 4-6-0 Hall class 4965 “Rood Ashton Hall” which will pass through Thame & Haddenham station on Saturday around 10.52am and again in the evening around 18.15pm.
It will pass through Princes Risborough station around 11.15am, and again around 17.57 pm when it will stop for just 8 minutes.

On Sunday 06 May, buses replace trains between Birmingham Snow Hill/Stratford-upon-Avon and Leamington Spa until 12.30. After 12.30, a normal Sunday service will resume. During the engineering works, passengers travelling to and from Birmingham should use connecting Virgin Cross Country trains between Leamington Spa and Birmingham New Street where applicable.

On Bank Holiday Monday, 07 May, a slightly reduced Monday to Friday service will operate on the Birmingham Snow Hill/Stratford-upon-Avon to London Marylebone via High Wycombe line and a Saturday service will operate on the Aylesbury to London Marylebone via Amersham line.

Look out for the Chiltern Steam Express this Saturday! Chiltern Railways is running a special charter steam train from Birmingham Moor Street (departing 08.23) to London Marylebone and back again (leaving London 17.03). Details available at www.chilternrailways.co.uk/steamtrain.

A shuttle train will be running from Aylesbury to Quainton Road this Bank Holiday Monday for anyone wishing to travel to the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre. Trains leave Aylesbury 10 minutes past the hour between 10:10 and 17:10. More information available at www.bucksrailcentre.org.

Chiltern Railways have a wide range of great value tickets available to suit everybody’s needs.

Take advantage of our GroupSave offer which allows a group of either 3 or 4 people who are travelling together to travel for the price of 2! Up to 4 more 5-15 year olds can accompany the group and only pay

Extra trains will operate all weekend between Aylesbury and London Marylebone via High Wycombe.
Normal service on Saturday between Birmingham Snow Hill/Stratford-upon-Avon and Leamington Spa.

On Sunday, a reduced service of one train per hour will operate between Aylesbury and Great Missenden.

On Saturday, buses will operate between Aylesbury and Beaconsfield for connecting trains to/from London Marylebone. Buses will also operate between Aylesbury, Stoke Mandeville, Wendover, Great Missenden and Amersham.

On Sunday, buses operate between Great Missenden and Beaconsfield for connecting trains to/from London Marylebone. Buses will also operate between Great Missenden, Amersham and Harrow-on-the-Hill.

On Sunday, buses replace trains between Birmingham Snow Hill/Stratford-upon-Avon and Leamington Spa until 12:30pm

This weekend – Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 April – Chiltern Railways are running extra trains between Aylesbury and London Marylebone via High Wycombe.

On Saturday, we are warning passengers that we will be operating buses between Aylesbury and Beaconsfield for connecting trains to/from London Marylebone. We will also be running buses between Aylesbury, Stoke Mandeville, Wendover, Great Missenden and Amersham.

On Sunday, we will be operating buses between Great Missenden and Beaconsfield for connecting trains to/from London Marylebone. Buses will also operate between Great Missenden, Amersham and Harrow-on-the-Hill. Chiltern Railways are also running a reduced train service of one train per hour between Aylesbury and Great Missenden.

Passengers should be aware that London Undergound buses will operate between Amersham and Harrow-on-the-Hill. London Underground trains also run between Harrow-on-the-Hill and London Baker Street.

A normal service will be running on Saturday between Birmingham Snow Hill/Stratford-upon-Avon and Leamington Spa. On Sunday, buses will replace trains between Birmingham Snow Hill/Stratford-Upon-Avon and Leamington Spa until 12.30pm. Birmingham passengers should use connecting Virgin Cross Country trains between Leamington Spa and Birmingham New Street until 12.30pm.

Our service maybe more busier than usual on Saturday as England play Spain at Wembley National Stadium. Kick off is at 3pm, so be aware that our service could be busier than usual between the hours of 1.30pm and 3pm and 4.45pm and 6pm.

If you are looking for inspiration to start your summer, why not check out our website? Our website -www.chilternrailways.co.uk – has loads of great ideas for weekend days out. In addition to local event listings, there is also a link for great savings on entry to a number of attractions, theatres and restaurants along the line.

Enjoy a day out in London and take advantage of the 2 FOR 1 ENTRY offer. Pickup a leaflet from any staffed station, fill in the vouchers on the back and then make the most of discounted entry into some of London’s top attractions.

You could also take advantage of out free car parking, which will be available all weekend at Princes Risborough, High Wycombe, Beaconsfield, Seer Green, Gerrards Cross and Denham stations.

The website has full timetable information, as well as a summary of Chiltern Railways’ great value fares, such as Just

EXTRA trains will run all weekend between Aylesbury and London Marylebone via High Wycombe.
All weekend a reduced service of one train per hour will operate between Aylesbury and Great Missenden. Buses will operate between Great Missenden and Beaconsfield for connecting trains to/from London Marylebone.
On Sunday (22/04), buses replace trains between Birmingham Snow Hill/Stratford-upon-Avon and Leamington Spa until 12:30pm.

This weekend – Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 April – Chiltern Railways is running a reduced service between Aylesbury and Great Missenden.

All weekend, buses will operate between Great Missenden, Amersham and Harrow-on-the-Hill. London Underground trains run between Harrow-on-the-Hill and London Baker Street.

We will be running extra trains between Aylesbury and London Marylebone via High Wycombe. Therefore, passengers travelling between Aylesbury and London Marylebone are advised to travel via High Wycombe.

A normal service will be running on Saturday between Birmingham Snow Hill/Stratford-upon-Avon and Leamington Spa. On Sunday, buses will replace trains between Birmingham Snow Hill/Stratford-Upon-Avon and Leamington Spa until 12.30pm. Birmingham passengers should use connecting Virgin Cross Country trains between Leamington Spa and Birmingham New Street until 12.30pm.

If you are looking for inspiration to start your summer, why not check out our website? Our website – www.chilternrailways.co.uk – has loads of great ideas for weekend days out. In addition to local event listings, there is also a link for great savings on entry to a number of attractions, theatres and restaurants along the line.

Enjoy a day out in London and take advantage of the 2 FOR 1 ENTRY offer. Pickup a leaflet from any staffed station, fill in the vouchers on the back and then make the most of discounted entry into some of London’s top attractions.

You could also take advantage of out free car parking, which will be available all weekend at Princes Risborough, High Wycombe, Beaconsfield, Seer Green, Gerrards Cross and Denham stations.

The website has full timetable information, as well as a summary of Chiltern Railways’ great value fares, such as Just

THE M1 motorway has now been reopened after a collision this morning (18/4) between four HGV lorries, one of which is a petrol tanker, and a car.

One man died in the incident that happened at 2.45am. Four other people were slightly injured.

The collision happened on the northbound carriageway between junctions 13 and 14. Both lanes of the motorway have been closed as a safety precaution.

A 23 year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and has been released on bail until 5th June.

CHANGES are be made to some bus services in and around Thame from June 3.
The alterations follow an extensive Oxfordshire County Council review of those bus routes that it supports financially. The council?s decision making Cabinet recently decided on the award of new four-year contracts for a number of bus routes in South Oxfordshire.

These were the subject of a consultation exercise in the latter part of 2006 and were considered following the re-tendering of these routes undertaken earlier this year.

In the Thame area, the current shuttle to/from Chinnor is replaced by a new through route ?LINE 40? (Thame – Chinnor – Aston Rowant – Stokenchurch – High Wycombe), contracted jointly with Buckinghamshire County Council.

LINE 40 will operate every hour Mondays to Saturdays and partly replaces route 275 (Oxford – High Wycombe) which is withdrawn. Intermediate villages on the present 275 route (Postcombe, Tetsworth and Milton Common) will get a replacement connection to/from Thame on five days per week by an enhanced service on route 124 (Watlington – Thame), which currently only operates on Tuesday and Saturday.

Oxford, Chalgrove, Watlington, Wheatley, The Miltons

It has been possible to maintain or improve a number of inter-urban routes such as X39 (Oxford – Chalgrove-Watlington) (to be re-numbered back to 101) – including later, evening journeys on Fridays and Saturdays and routes 103/104 (Oxford – Wheatley – The Miltons) – where the current need to change buses to reach the furthermost villages has been dropped; buses will in future, run all the way through.

Councillor David Robertson, Oxfordshire County Council?s Cabinet Member for Strategic Transport Policy said: ?A number of very difficult decisions had to be made as to the direction of the available funding. An effort was made to retain those services that were more extensively used at the expense of some of the lesser used routes.

?A number of parishes will therefore see a reduction in service or in one or two instances lose their services completely. In such cases community transport alternatives may have to be investigated as an option.

“I am pleased to announce that most of the services will receive brand new low-floor accessible buses as a result of these awards.?

The revised services will be introduced on 3 June 2007 and passengers are advised to check nearer the date to see if their services will change.

THE Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway will be celebrating St George’s Day on Sunday, April 22, with the assistance of Traditional Morris Men groups who will be demonstrating their unique skills from 1pm onward throughout the afternoon.
A beer tent will be open selling locally produced Real Ales from the Chiltern Brewery.

Trians depart Chinnor station at
10.30, 11.30, 12.45, 2.00, 3.30 and 4.45pm.

CHILTERN Railways has entered phase two of its mobile phone ticketing project following the success of the initial three month pilot during which 6,000 mobile phone tickets have been sold.

Working closely with project partners YourRail, Cubic Transportation Systems, Mobiqa and ts.com, Chiltern Railways is the first rail company in the UK to offer barcodes on mobile phones as an alternative to paper tickets.

Stage 2 will see further automation incorporated into the project. Two scanning devices have been attached to the ticket gates at London Marylebone station to allow passengers to scan their own phones and open the gates.

The scanners, developed by Cubic Transportation Systems, were installed last week and are already helping to save time for passengers with mobile tickets who had previously been reliant on a member of staff to open the gates for them.

Chiltern Railways Commercial Director, Neil Micklethwaite said: “Our mobile phone ticketing pilot has been very successful from a technological point of view, but more importantly, it has proved very popular with our passengers, with over 99% telling us they would recommend it to a friend.

“We have listened to our passengers and what they want is a simpler and easier way to purchase tickets for their travel. Mobile phone ticketing means easy purchases, anywhere, any time.

“Our high-tech gate technology was installed last week. The next stage looks at ways to expand this product to other areas along our route.

“Currently this technology is only valid with our popular E-day product, purchased exclusively from our website, allowing passengers to travel between Birmingham and Stratford-upon-Avon to London Marylebone for

GOOD service running on the Birmingham Snow Hill/Stratford-upon-Avon to London Marylebone via High Wycombe line on Friday, April 6; Saturday, April 7; Sunday, April 8 and Monday, April 9. BUT…
Engineering Works on the Aylesbury to London Marylebone via Amerhsam line on Friday 6 April, Saturday 7 April, Sunday 8 April and Monday 9 April.

This Easter -Good Friday 6 April, Saturday 7 April, Easter Sunday 8 April and Bank Holiday Monday 9 April – Chiltern Railways are pleased to announce that there are no planned engineering works on the Stratford-upon-Avon/Birmingham Snow Hill to London Marylebone via the Banbury and High Wycombe line.

Chiltern Railways will be the only Train Operator to be running between London and Birmingham during the Easter Holiday period. This is due to Virgin being unable to run a through service between the two cities due to major engineering works taking place on the Euston to Birmingham New Street line.

Therefore, any passengers travelling between London and Birmingham should do so using Chiltern Railways over the Easter period. London Marylebone is a city centre terminus and is only about a 20 minute walk from Euston. Chiltern Railways run regular services to Birmingham Moor Street, which is a 5 minute walk from other National Rail services at Birmingham New Street.

Chiltern Railways will be increasing the length of their Birmingham – London trains to cater for the increased demand expected and providing additional staff at stations to assist.

There will also be later trains than normal running from London Marylebone to Birmingham Moor Street on Good Friday, Saturday and Easter Sunday.

On Friday 6 April, Saturday 7 April, Sunday 8 April and Monday 9 April, engineering works affect services on the Aylesbury to London Marylebone via Amersham line. A reduced service of 1 train per hour will run between Aylesbury and Great Missenden. Buses will run between Great Missenden and Beaconsfield where train services to/from London Marylebone will resume. For local journeys, buses will replace trains between Great Missenden, Amersham and Northwood where London Underground trains will resume for stations to/from London Baker Street. On Saturday 7 April and Sunday 8 April, additional trains will run from Aylesbury to London Marylebone via High Wycombe.

For full timetable details of Chiltern Railways services over the Easter period, visit www.chilternrailways.co.uk/easter.

The Chiltern Railways website -www.chilternrailways.co.uk – has loads of great ideas of places to go by train during the Easter holiday. In addition to local event listings, there is also a link for great savings on entry to a number of attractions, theatres and restaurants along the line. Chiltern Railways has now launched their 2-for-1 offer that allows you a ‘buy one get one free’ to top London attractions when you travel by train. Details are at staffed stations.

The website has full timetable information, as well as a summary of Chiltern Railways’ great value fares, such as Just

ACCORDING to the Office of Rail Regulation, which has just released its National Rail Trends results for October to December, 2006, Chiltern Railways is the best daily performing train company on the main land.
Overall, an average of 95.2% of Chiltern Railways train services ran on time. This means that Chiltern Railways annual average performance rate is 94%.

Chiltern Railways Managing Director Cath Proctor said: “This result has been achieved primarily through getting the basics right. Our focus is to provide a safe, punctual and frequent service for our passengers.
“It’s no coincidence that we also received 90% passenger satisfaction rate in the recent National Passenger Survey, the highest rate in the UK.
“Even though we have received these results, this is no time for complacency. We will continue to focus our attention to improving our performance and increasing our passenger’s satisfaction.
“Chiltern Railways passenger complaints are down by 60% to 50 per 10,000 passenger journey’s.
“This year passengers can look forward to a large part of

A scheme that offers Speed Awareness Training instead of points on your driving licence, is to be expanded.
Motorists will be given extra opportunities to assess and improve their driving after being caught speeding as part of an expansion of the Thames Valley Speed Awareness Scheme.
From 1 April, Thames Valley Police will be adopting the full Association of Chief Police Officer (ACPO) guidelines for speed awareness schemes and broadening the programme. This means around 30 per cent more drivers and riders caught speeding will be given the option of attending the Thames Valley Speed Awareness Scheme instead of getting points on their licence. The four different workshops and courses aim to educate drivers about the dangers of speeding and change the public?s attitude towards speed, and are now being offered to more motorists than ever before.

Malcolm Collis, Safety Manager for Thames Valley Police Roads Policing Operational Command Unit, said:”We recognise the benefits of educating drivers rather than just punishing them. We believe our education schemes have a major influence on driver attitudes and behaviour. By increasing the number of workshops and courses, we will be able to reach a greater number of speeders who are breaking the upper and lower speed limits on different types of roads.
“We are determined to do everything we can to make the roads in the Thames Valley safer for all. Each year around 150 people are killed in the region. Many of these deaths may not have happened if people had not been speeding. Our Speed Awareness Scheme is very successful and we regularly receive feedback from sceptical drivers who say that it has changed the way they drive.”

There are four education programmes including; Urban Roads, Faster Roads, Rider Improvement Workshops and Speed Awareness Course.
The Urban Roads workshop is for those caught speeding in 30 and 40mph limits. This is for those detected in the speed range of 35-39mph in a 30mph limit or 46-50mph in a 40mph limit.
The Faster Roads workshop is for those caught speeding in 50, 60 and 70mph limits. This is for those detected in the speed range of 57-61mph in a 50mph limit or 68-72 mph in a 60mph limit or 79-83mph in a 70mph limit.

Both workshops last two-and-a-half hours and both cost