Chiltern Railways is a train operating company in England. It was formed by the privatisation of British Rail in 1996, and operates mainline passenger trains from
Marylebone station in London to
Aylesbury and
Birmingham Snow Hill. In 2002, the company began a new franchise of up to twenty years, promising significant investment in the route — the 20-year term is conditional on various investments and improvements over the life of the franchise.
Initially, the line was franchised to a company formed by the British Rail managers of the route, but in 2003 it became a wholly owned subsidiary of
Laing Rail, who had owned a much smaller shareholding at privatisation. In 2008, Laing Rail was taken over in turn by Germany's
Deutsche Bahn AG.
RoutesChiltern operate services on four routes.
* Chiltern Main Line
* London to Aylesbury Line
* Princes Risborough to Aylesbury Line
* Leamington to Stratford Line
The
London Marylebone to
Birmingham Snow Hill route used by
Chiltern Railways goes via
High Wycombe, Bicester, Banbury, Leamington Spa, Warwick Parkway, Dorridge and Solihull. Although the fastest timetabled journey between
London and
Birmingham via this route is 1 hour and 56 minutes, most express services take 2 hours and 5 minutes with semi-fast services sometimes taking up to 2 hours and 30 minutes (compared with approximately 1 hour and 35 minutes using Virgin Trains services between
London Euston and
Birmingham New Street). Some trains continue beyond Birmingham Snow Hill station to Stourbridge Junction or Kidderminster, where the preserved steam Severn Valley Railway starts at the adjacent Kidderminster Town.
Chiltern's Banbury StationThe line to
Aylesbury via
Amersham shares its route with
London Underground's Metropolitan Line between
Harrow-on-the-Hill and
Amersham. On certain Bank Holiday Mondays services are extended from Aylesbury to the Buckinghamshire Railway Heritage Centre facilities at Quainton Road, a short way south of Verney Junction. These services are often run by Chiltern's Class 121 diesel multiple unit, referred to as a "bubble car".
A shuttle service operates on the branch line from Aylesbury to Princes Risborough on the line to Birmingham via High Wycombe. Certain services from Marylebone via High Wycombe also provide a limited through service to Aylesbury.
In 2004 Chiltern Railways took over the operation of passenger services on the Leamington Spa to Stratford-upon-Avon branch line.
Chiltern's newly formed sister company, Wrexham & Shropshire, runs services from North Wales along the Chiltern route to London. The service began on the 28th April 2008.
Chiltern was also asked to bid for the Snow Hill Lines of the former Central Trains area of Birmingham as part of the new West Midlands Franchise competition. However the bid was unsuccessful.
Chiltern is the first train operator to pilot - and subsequently implement - a full system for
purchasing,
retailing,
fulfilling and
validating train tickets electronically in the United Kingdom. As of April 2008, over 18,000 "E-Day" customers have registered to use the service and more than 40,000 electronic tickets have been sold; mainly as barcodes delivered as text messages to the mobile phones of their customers and also as 'Self-Print' tickets. Chiltern's electronic ticketing system is specified, built, operated and maintained by
YourRail, based in Barnsley, Yorkshire.
ServiceThe "core" off-peak Chiltern Railways timetable currently comprises the following services:
*
Half-hourly London Marylebone - Aylesbury via Amersham stopping service
* Hourly London Marylebone - High Wycombe stopping service
* Hourly London Marylebone - Princes Risborough stopping service
* Half-hourly London Marylebone - Birmingham Snow Hill via High Wycombe semi-fast service
* Hourly London Marylebone - Bicester North via High Wycombe semi-fast service (extended to Stratford-upon-Avon in even hours)In addition, Chiltern Railways runs one train a day to and from
London Paddington to keep traincrew route knowledge up-to-date, as the route is regularly used for diversions during periods of engineering work, one train a day from
Birmingham Snow Hill to
Oxford, and a single train per week from
Stratford to
Oxford.
PerformanceChiltern is considered one of the best operators in the whole of Britain with PPMs regularly over 90% during the past 5 years. Chiltern is the only operating company which has achieved over 95% performance over 12 months. This is even more remarkable as Chiltern operates on much more stricter conditions compared with its long distance rivals, such as
Virgin Trains, as Chiltern has a 5 minute window for performance while others have a 10 minute window.
The latest performance figures, published by the ORR (Office of Rail Regulation), rate Chiltern Railways as the third most punctual train operating company in the UK at 94.8% (PPM) and 95.1% (MAA) as of the first quarter of the financial year 2008/9.
Rolling StockChiltern Railways operates services using a modern fleet of
Class 165 "Turbo" and
168 "Clubman" units. The "Turbo" units have undergone refurbishment work at
Bombardier's Ilford Works, and the Class 168s have recently been lengthened. Chiltern also operates a single
Class 121 "Bubble Car" on its Aylesbury to Princes Risborough heritage route. This unit was extensively refurbished, and operates the majority of the services on the line. In 2008, Chiltern ordered four 2-car
Class 172 "Turbostar" units to increase their capacity.
Chiltern's Class 168/1/2 Clubman TrainsWhen first starting in 1996, Chiltern inherited 37 Class 165/0 (Networker) diesel multiple units which were fitted with Automatic Train Protection and a tripcock so they could be used on London Underground lines on the approach to London Marylebone. The trains were originally used for both suburban and commuter services, including to Birmingham. However the class 165 was designed solely for suburban travel and not the intercity service to Birmingham unlike its sister, the Class 166, and so, following healthy growth, Chiltern took order of Class 168 units, leaving the Class 165's to be concentrated on the stopping services to Banbury and Aylesbury, although they are still sometimes seen on the runs to Birmingham. Chiltern now run all 39 Class 165/0 made.
The first Class 168's (Clubman) to arrive was the 168/0, a train deigned to externally look like the Networker Turbo, but be better suited for the intercity services to
Birmingham, and was, in fact, the basis for the Class 17x Turbostars. The Clubman trains were the first to be delivered post privatisation, and allowed Chiltern to intensify the commuter services, whilst also providing more comfort on the intercity runs. Later orders of the Class 168 provided the 168/1 and 168/2, which had the Turbostar wiring and external design, and so can be considered to be Turbostars. The Class 168 differs from the rest of the Turbostar family in that they are fitted with the tripcock and ATP, the same as the Class 165/0.
Gerrards Cross incident
'Tesco' Tunnel prior to the collapseA tunnel being constructed near the
Gerrards Cross railway station to enable the construction of a new
Tesco store collapsed at 19:30 on 30 June 2005. Nobody was injured but the line was closed for over six weeks. It eventually reopened on 20 August 2005. Compensation by Tesco to Chiltern is believed to have cost at least £8.5m and the retailer has pledged to fund a media campaign to win back passengers lost by the closure of its route.
Contact DetailsCustomer Services
Banbury ICC
Merton Street
Banbury
Oxfordshire
OX16 4RN
Phone: 08456 005 165 (Mon-Fri 0830 to 1730)
Fax: 01926 729 914
Email:
advancetickets@chilternrailways.co.uk 
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