Protest Against Reduction in Chiltern Railways Service Levels For Regular Commuters

We, the undersigned, are long-suffering commuters of Chiltern Railways who wish to strongly protest against the restructuring of the timetable. We require prompt action by the rail company to address our concerns.

We protest against enduring months of significant disruption to support the "Mainline" project, We were promised a launch in May 2011 with faster commuter trains and more seats. Instead, we suffered more months of disruption including effectively shutting the line for two weeks in August.

The new timetable has now launched with far fewer trains in the peak morning & evening travel times, resulting in net longer working days for some. Concerns about fewer services that were raised during the "consultation period" apparently went completely ignored.

The new timetable has suffered from late services, short formations and continued signal problems. To make matters worse, even when running normally, many trains are now standing room only for the entire duration of the journey.

It is quite clear that Chiltern Railways have chosen to prioritise their Mainline service between Birmingham and London above and beyond the daily commuters who have little alternative option for daily travel between their home and place of work. We believe that Chiltern Railways are treating commuters as second-class customers and are effectively abusing their monopoly. We demand that the company refocus their attention on providing core commuter services. We refuse to let the current situation stand and demand a clear response from Chiltern Railways that:

a) acknowledges that our concerns are valid and are being listened to
b) further acknowledges that the new timetable provides a significantly lesser service for regular commuters
c) communicates a clear plan of action that addresses these concerns to restore the goodwill between the company and its long-standing customers