No start date for Oxford to Milton Keynes trains

More than a year after an operator was chosen to run the new East West Rail service, passenger trains on the first section of the route are yet to begin.

The infrastructure between Oxford and Milton Keynes has been available since October 2024, but has only been used for training runs, freight services and HS2-related testing.

Operator Chiltern Railways had been appointed in March 2025 and said "significant progress" had been made, but could not provide a date for the route opening.

Diana Blamires, co-founder of the East West Rail Action Group, said the situation had been "just a train wreck".

Blamires lives near Winslow Station, where construction had been completed in 2025.

"I live five minutes from the railway station, but I can't get a train," she said.

"Behind the railings it looks great, but there are no trains."

She also suggested the government had been "running down the clock" on Chiltern, and "doing absolutely nothing" to help the operator begin services.

Disputing the claim, a spokesperson for the Department for Transport (DfT) said it had been "supporting Chiltern Railways as they work with unions and other industry partners to get these services up and running as soon as possible".

In a statement, Chiltern Railways said it had made "significant progress", which included recruiting 44 trainee drivers and completing a new depot at Bletchley.

"However, there is still work to finish to prepare the trains, on Winslow Station and on the operating arrangements for the new route," it said.

"We are continuing to work with our partners on these to progress them as soon as possible."

When complete, East West Rail will directly connect the two university cities of Oxford and Cambridge by train for the first time in decades.

The planned route, which will travel via Milton Keynes and Bedford, is hoped to be completed by the early 2030s.

Passenger trains on the first section of the route, between Oxford and Milton Keynes, were originally scheduled to run for the first time in nearly 60 years by the end of December 2025.

"There's a fair few things that have gone wrong," Richard Wilcock, from Rail Magazine, explained.

"There is a whole host of reasons as to why we are in this situation, but it primarily comes down to the fact that the DfT and Chiltern and the RMT and ASLEF [the unions representing railway workers] didn't really bang their heads together soon enough."

As for when the route may open to passenger services, Wilcock said: "If you were the optimist, you'd say December, if you weren't then you'd probably say next year."