Train managers at Chiltern Railways staged the first of two 24-hour strikes on Saturday in a dispute over safety staffing on the new East West Rail line, with passengers in Warwickshire warned there would be no trains between Stratford-upon-Avon and Leamington Spa for the day.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action after Chiltern Railways refused to guarantee what the union calls the safety-critical role of a second member of staff on board proposed services on the new Oxford to Milton Keynes route, the first stretch of the long-awaited £7bn East West Rail line connecting Oxford and Cambridge.

A further strike is planned for 17 October if the dispute remains unresolved.

'A significant risk to safety'

RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey said the plan for driver-only operation on East West Rail services represented "a significant risk to safety" as well as to existing train manager roles at Chiltern. "RMT members have voted overwhelmingly to take a principled stand against the watering down of safety on the rail network," he said. "It is time that Chiltern management took our members' concerns seriously."

The union has consistently described the company's proposals as driver-only operation, under which the driver alone would be responsible for safety-critical functions such as opening and closing carriage doors, with any additional staff member performing a customer-facing role rather than a safety one.

Chiltern's response

Chiltern Railways, which was brought under public ownership last month, said the vast majority of its services would not be affected by the strike action, with more than 93% of its network running as normal on both strike Saturdays, including normal services into and out of London Marylebone.

Tony Baxter, interim managing director of Chiltern Railways, said the company was "disappointed that RMT members have voted in favour of industrial action over how we intend to run services" on the opening stage of East West Rail. He said "every East West Rail service will have two people on board, the driver, and a colleague looking after customers," arguing that the dispute centred on the division of responsibilities between those two roles rather than whether a second person would be present at all.

The Department for Transport has previously pointed out that Chiltern has operated most of its existing network for decades with the driver in full control of the doors, a model it says has been approved by the independent rail regulator.

A long-running dispute

The row dates back to proposals for how the first phase of East West Rail, running between Bletchley and Bicester, should be staffed once services finally begin. That stretch of infrastructure has been physically ready to use since October 2024, but its opening has been repeatedly delayed amid the unresolved dispute over staffing, among other issues.

At a protest outside London Marylebone station last month, RMT regional organiser John Parsons argued that even where driver-only or driver-controlled operation already exists elsewhere on the network, that should not be treated as a template to extend further. "Just because we've made the mistake of having it in certain areas doesn't mean that we increase that mistake and make that the standard operation," he said. "The standard operation has to be that second" safety-critical role remains in place.

Timing adds to disruption

The strike dates were set to coincide with separate engineering works on the West Coast Main Line, where Network Rail is carrying out track renewals between Rugby and Stafford across the same two weekends, further reducing capacity into London Euston and prompting rail replacement bus services between Stafford and Rugby.

Passengers travelling through the affected areas this weekend faced a combination of planned engineering disruption and the Chiltern strike, with National Rail urging anyone travelling in the Midlands and south of England to check their journeys carefully in advance.

What happens next

With a second strike already scheduled for 17 October, there is no sign yet of a resolution. The RMT has said it remains open to further talks with Chiltern management, but insists it will not accept any reduction in the safety-critical staffing it believes passengers and crew are entitled to on the new line.

For commuters and leisure travellers hoping to use the long-delayed East West Rail route once it finally opens, the dispute adds yet another layer of uncertainty to a project that has already missed its original timetable by close to two years.