Dear Customers,
We are aware of numerous customer complaints surrounding capacity on our services and the short formation of trains recently. We know it’s frustrating when your train arrives and it’s shorter than normal.
We will always be honest and transparent with our customers, so we wanted to provide you with an update on progress, set out some of the challenges we’re facing, the solutions we’ve identified to these, and the action we are taking to implement changes. .
The average age of our fleet of trains is thirty years old, and has been confirmed by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) as the oldest in the country. This means that the need for maintenance and repair of our trains is higher than we would like. The age of our units brings obsolescence issues with it. This means that spare parts are more difficult to find, and that supply chain issues can delay a train being repaired, meaning it is out of passenger service for longer.
The knock-on impact of industrial action has also caused delays in maintenance of our trains. We do the vast majority of our maintenance and repairs in house, meaning that prolonged strike action can cause significant delays to repairs and set us back from delivering the correct amount of carriages on your service.
We want to reassure you that we endeavour to use all of our available rolling stock in passenger service each day and are doing our utmost to deliver for our customers. Any units not available have been earmarked for engineering and critical maintenance.
In response to customer concerns about overcrowding during peak hours, we are taking proactive steps to introduce new services. In 2023 we introduced a new 15 minute commuter timetable in the West Midlands, increasing capacity from Leamington, Solihull and Dorridge into Birmingham.
Since June 2024, additional services have been available in Buckinghamshire from Tuesday to Thursday. This has increased seating capacity at major stations including Beaconsfield, High Wycombe, Princes Risborough, and Haddenham & Thame Parkway, with a total of 1,290 more seats each week.
We also have secured a £10.7 million investment from our train owners to refurbish our 23-year-old diesel Class 168 trains. Over the coming year the trains will be upgraded to include new carpets, reupholstered seats, 5G Wi-Fi, and charging points, along with a fresh repaint.
We would also like to reassure you that as part of our Right Route 2030 vision, we are working at pace to resolve current capacity challenges:
- Recently we set out our Right Route 2030 vision, setting out how we intend to modernise and decarbonise our operations to deliver easier, greener, and better train travel for our communities. We recognise the feedback we have had from customers across the route: current seating capacity is being outgrown by rising levels of demand, and there is a clear need to modernise and improve this railway for future generations and make customer journeys the best they can be. Improving reliability and increasing the number of seats available on our trains is a crucial part of our 2030 Vision. We are doing everything possible to get more trains on the line and replace our oldest trains with newer, more reliable models.
- To do this we are working urgently to acquire trains that are currently going unused elsewhere on the rail network. We can’t do this on our own though. Trains in the UK are not owned by operators, but leased from specialist providers, and require government approval before they can be used by operators like Chiltern. We have been working with the Department for Transport on modernising our fleet since 2021, and recently we have specifically sought to secure their authorisation so that those trains can be operated by Chiltern instead of sitting unused, and made good progress.
- The recognition by the Government of the need to get these trains running as soon as possible is positive, and we will continue to do everything we can to get their formal approval, which will allow us to move quickly to introduce these new trains and alleviate overcrowding. As these discussions progress we will keep you updated on developments and our work to improve your journeys with Chiltern. You can read more about our Right Route 2030 vision here.
We would once again like to apologise if you have travelled on a crowded train in recent months and thank you for your patience. Our engineering and maintenance teams are working around the clock to bring carriages and trains back into passenger service. We will continue to keep you updated on the situation as we work to resolve it.
Hear from our Head of Fleet Delivery, Jordan Clarke, on the capacity challenges we have faced recently.
FAQS
- Why is my train shorter than usual at the moment?
- Regrettably, we have been unable to provide the required number of carriages each day to run our full timetable. We’re sorry if your train has been shorter than usual in recent months. A train that is shorter than usual is called a “short form”, and sometimes, we have to make decisions on which services will be shorter based on the capacity available to us. A short form is usually due to a train or carriage being out of action for planned or unplanned maintenance. There is no one cause, but lots of different factors including the age of our fleet, industrial action and infrastructure issues have exacerbated the issue. This means that there is a significant strain on our fleet and capacity at the moment. We are working around the clock to bring trains back into service and add capacity onto the network so that you can travel comfortably.
- What kind of repairs are regularly needed on your trains?
- There are many reasons why a train could be out of service. B-Exams, which are essentially MOTs for our trains, are due approximately every 110 days. Other examples include toilet repairs, gearbox changes, routine engine changes, wiring and electrical faults, fixing doors and windscreen repairs. This list is not exhaustive, but all maintenance and repairs are done with customer safety and satisfaction in mind.
- How old is your rolling stock compared to other train operators?
- We have one of the oldest fleet of trains by average in the country. What this means is that getting parts for repairs is becoming more difficult as time goes on. Supply chain issues when repairing our trains can cause delays in getting it back into passenger service.
- Has industrial action had an impact on our capacity?
- Yes. We do all our maintenance and engineering in house. This means that when there is a day of strike action, less trains are moved, maintained and repaired than we would like. Periods of prolonged industrial action can cause a significant engineering backlog.
- What are you doing to fix the problem?
- We are working around the clock to bring carriages and trains back into passenger service. We have a clear maintenance plan in place to help alleviate this issue in the coming months and are exploring ways we can optimise our processes for how we maintain our units. We will continue to work with our supply chain to ensure that any delays are kept to a minimum so that we can provide the capacity that you, our customers, deserve.
- Can you add more carriages to my train?
- Our May 2023 timetable update is implementing data-driven capacity improvements where possible. As all of our available rolling stock is used for passenger service each day, it may not be possible to add capacity to your train, but we will not hesitate to intervene and explore all available options to us should the demand on your train outstrip the capacity we currently offer.
- Are you going to buy more trains?
- Leasing new trains can be a prolonged and complicated process, but we are actively engaging with the rolling stock market with a view to leasing newer trains, or even building new units, to deliver the capacity that we know you deserve. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, we have not been self-reliant in terms of funding and investment, meaning that enhancements to our fleet must be approved and supported by the Department for Transport. We will continue to update you on this as discussions continue.
- When will you be back to full capacity?
- We cannot confidently say when full capacity will be restored to the Chiltern network, as some of the issues that have exacerbated our capacity challenges are unpredictable – such as industrial action and unplanned closure of parts of the infrastructure. We are continuing to implement our fleet recovery plan with urgency to ensure that as many carriages as possible are back into service in the short-term.