Chiltern Railways is urging passenger to only travel if essential throughout the Easter weekend (Friday 7 April to Monday 10 April inclusive).
Engineering works over the weekend will close part of the line between Birmingham New Street and London Euston. Alongside this, urgent safety assessments of a viaduct between Didcot Parkway and Oxford have resulted in a line closure.
As a consequence, Chiltern services will be the sole option for people wanting to travel directly between Birmingham/Oxford and London during this time, and services are expected to be extremely busy on all routes.
An enhanced timetable will be in operation for most of the four days, with additional and lengthened trains between London Marylebone and Birmingham Moor Street.
Despite this, the extent of the disruption on other parts of the rail network means that services are likely to be extremely busy throughout the Easter period on all routes. Owing to this, Chiltern Railways has taken the decision to urge customers to only travel if essential.
This week, services between Princes Risborough and Aylesbury have been disrupted due to a damaged culvert flooding. Depending on water levels, this may happen again over the weekend.
Buses will replace trains for journeys to and from Kings Sutton and between Amersham and Aylesbury Vale Parkway on all four days, and to and from Warwick, Lapworth and Hatton on Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 April.
Administrative fees for ticket cancellations or advance ticket changes (usually £10) have been waived if customers wish to rearrange travel.
If travelling is a necessity, customers should prepare for busier services and ensure they check their journey ahead of travelling on the Chiltern Railways website or app.
This “don’t travel over Easter unless you really have to” message seems to me to be an unfortunate one for a railway that is increasingly dependent on leisure, rather than business, travel for its custom. Network Rail continue to insist that it is less disruptive to close large parts of the network over public holidays, just when most people want to travel, but with business & commuter travel not recovering to its pre-Covid level is this really the best policy?