Replacement buses to operate in Aylesbury as Chiltern Railways prepares for strike action and engineering works

Chiltern Railways has released an amended schedule due to strike action and engineering works planned over the weekend.

Customers in Aylesbury will be impacted by strike action on Saturday (29 July) and Sunday.

RMT union members are striking on Saturday, meaning the rail company is in operation between 8am and 10pm.

Also, engineering work means the line between Amersham and Aylesbury Vale Parkway will be closed all weekend with replacement buses in operation.

Just one train per hour will go between Aylesbury and London Marylebone with services going to and from the capital via High Wycombe.

On Monday another major union in the UK, ASLEF, is striking meaning fewer drivers will be operating trains in the country.

This strike is scheduled to last between 31 July and Saturday 5 August.

However, during the industrial action a near to normal schedule has been planned between Aylesbury Vale Parkway and London Marylebone.

During this period the message from the rail company is that trains will be “significantly busier than usual and journeys will take longer across the network”.

A majority of the engineering works planned over the next week will be happening in Warwickshire and Oxfordshire.

Chiltern Railways says the engineering works was planned months in advance before the company became aware of potential workers’ strikes.

RMT members are striking after train operators failed to make a new pay offer to them.

The union expects 20,000 workers to strike across 14 train operating companies.

RMT is seeking a better pay offer from the Government and train companies as inflation has skyrocketed over the past 18 months.

ASLEF the union for drivers is also striking over pay, as members have not received a pay rise since 2019. Union members work for 15 different UK train companies. During the week-long strikes, union members will not work overtime, ASLEF states this will expose the fact that “none of the train companies employs enough drivers to deliver the services they have promised passengers”.

RMT is also part of the “save our ticket offices” campaign in response to Government-backed plans to close a majority of kiosks at stations.