Chilternrailways Reviews 

If I could give less than one star I would as I feel they don't even deserve a singular star.
Before COVID (remember that?) they ran a pretty good service between Aylesbury and Harrow on the Hill, with 2 trains per hour in and out. Since then, and 4 and a half years later, they're still operating a pared back service offering just one train and hour at times, and they are frequently operating a rail replacement bus service at weekends with no trains at all. Buses take one hour to travel between Aylesbury and Amersham - a 20 minute run on the train. Busses back take longer!
One thing that hasn't changed though is that it's very expensive to use their "service" and I honestly begrudge paying for it. At night when you arrive back at Aylesbury the gates are wide open and tickets are never checked so I've taken to just buying a single outbound and getting the return free as I won't be challenged, so that is a small bonus.
Their online team are sarcastic and rude and don't take any form of criticism well. They've outright refused to reinstate a pre-pandemic service when they actually ran regularly and to time which is a shame.
I was, up until 2020 a annual season ticket holder but since then I have been using my car for commuting to Wembley. My car has had issues recently which has forced me back onto Chiltern and they're absolutely abysmal. Once I purchase a new car I will never use them again thankfully

I use this service reluctantly out of pure necessity, but if I had a viable alternative I'd certainly take it! Prices for tickets, i feel, are incredibly expensive, and in my experience trains are frequently delayed. On my journey I also need a connecting train which I have to wait on the platform for over half an hour for. To improve, this company should look into how they can manage their train schedules better, and ideally with more frequent trains. The plus side about this company is that most of the station staff are friendly and do their best to help, but sadly this does not make up for an overall sub standard service.

I have always liked Chiltern's railway service - and found their trains to be on time and well-run. However, after my experience with customer service, I am thoroughly disappointed. After reaching out because I was unable to travel due to a health issue, Chiltern refused to refund or issue a voucher for the unused tickets, claiming that advanced tickets are not refundable, and do not offer this protection. It seems therefore that if you have a health issue that may affect your travel, you must buy a more expensive, non-advanced ticket in order to be offered protections against being unable to travel. Chiltern's response was unprofessional and uncompassionate, and they left me waiting for twenty minutes on 'typing' to produce an auto-generated response - and then nothing at all. It seems that Chiltern is at its core a private company seeking to exploit, not serve, its customers. Will never book through Chiltern again!

Family return ticket to London from Warwick for £60 which was fantastic value.
I’d made an error with the tickets which I brought up with Chiltern customer service. They responded really quickly and refunded me straight away. Superb!

I was travelling from Luton airport to London Marybelon station and I Missed the last train to Banbury due to the trainline app I was using as refferral map and it reffered platform 3 instead of platform 6 so I missed my train. I stopped one of the workers Aleksandr Targanov, which I told him about my problem and also I told him about losing my black bag in the wrong train I got on, thinking it was the one to Banbury, and He immediately was helpful he called the workers from Aylesbury and he told them to look for my bag and they found it 😍😍😍 he knew I had no battery and I was tired and under stress and frightened and He paid an Uber for me until Huston railway station to get me close to Banbury and in order that my friend could pick me up, he borrowed me his power bank so that I had battery and he was very helpful to get me home safe. He is a great asset for the company. 👏👏👏👏👏 glad I met him that night he saved me😍❤️

Most expensive trains ever and there always are problems. While I'm writing, by the way, I'm stuck in a station, doors closed, 1h and a half of delay in a 30 minutes ride, increasing. No possibilities to leave, no information regarding when we will restart (more like a kidnap than a poor service). For the love of god, stay away from this service whenever possible

You’re a joke of a rail line! How can MK have a faster train than Aylesbury in to London! Always packed out, trains are 30 years old and you charge an arm and a leg to get to London! You’re a mess and sort it out absolutely sick of it! Grow up and make a fast train from Aylesbury!!!! And stop messing around

The service generally seems ok and there always seems to be lots of staff around with the Chiltern logo clothing to ask questions too however the majority seem clueless about the move to ticketless booking or how their systems work - there was a group of 2 ppl talking from Chiltern who said they didn’t even know Chiltern had an app or anything about smart cards when I asked for assistance. Also when I called the helpline I was called back only to be then transferred to another team who wasn’t current open so no help there also. They seem to have the ppl but clearly training is missing.

Used the Oxford parkway part and ride today and caught the train into Oxford. Using the ticket machine it came up with an any day single price much higher the Chiltern Railway website. I challenged this with a member of staff - Sean Dawson. He couldn’t have been more helpful and found tickets for our group that represented the best value and I found his manner attitude and genuine desire to assist a refreshing change, and he is a credit to Chiltern railways.

I am pretty disgusted that Chiltern is refusing to compensate for strike action taken by ASLEF. Having booked a day return to Stratford upon Avon that I was subsequently unable to use owing to the strike, the company is refusing to reimburse the ticket on grounds it was bought through a third party website. This is fraud on a grand scale but typical of the state of UK railways now which wriggle out of paying any compensation.

I went to the recent England game v Brazil at Wembley (23rd March) travelling from Denham to Wembley Stadium with a friend in a wheel chair.

On arrival at Wembley we enquired about queueing after the game with a wheelchair and use of the lift at the station.

We were fortunate to ask Guy Watts, and employee of Chiltern Railways (the station controller / manager) who couldn't have been more helpful. What a star. He advised of train timings, to look out for him, where to queue etc.

When we arrived after the game he met us, took us down in the lift, told us where to stand for the wheelchair access, collected a ramp for the wheelchair, phoned ahead to the train to advise that we would be using a ramp and then helped us get our friend on to the train. An absolute star. Guy Watts. Thank you

As an independent company for 25 years, led by Adrian Shooter, and backed by private capital from 3i, this was the No.1 rail line in mainland Britain.

Since, the badly-named, Arriva took over it has slumped markedly. Shabby, overcrowded, dirty carriages and lack of investment all evident in 3 trips in April 2024. All the cash has gone into the eco-disaster HS2. The UK government stand idly by….mediocrity is their mantra it seems.

Time for an overhaul. We know how really good Chiltern Rail can be if run properly.

It's great that all the helpful and smiling staff are still employed at the ticket office (High Wycombe). Many people, myself included appreciate their stay of execution and long may it remain.

There was a drunk lady who was drinking a whole bottle of champagne and was swearing so I asked her to lower her voice but she carried on and started threatening me and telling me to fight outside and to leave the train and she was with 2 other boys who where taking the mickey

Absolutely useless, no extra trains to Oxford. Constant misinformation and announcements basically saying you're gonna miss the next train and the wait is around 2 hours. Never again. If CR add a comment, believe me it's not genuine as their CS have no interest in listening to anybody.

I left my bag on the train today.I spoke to the clerk at the station.
I couldn't thank her enough for helping me to get my bag back.
While waiting for news of my bag, she made me a coffee also gave me a bottle of water and some biscuits.
Also contacted me later on to tell me where my bag has been left for me to pick up tomorrow.

When I arrived at Solihull station I found that the 14:54pm train to London Marylebone was cancelled, so I sat on the platform for an hour waiting for the next train. The 15:54pm train got as far as Warwick Parkway, when we were told there was a problem, and it had to crawl to Leamington Spa, I could have walked quicker. We were then told the windscreen wipers were broken, so we were off loaded (by the way it was not even raining). I then had to wait for the third train of the day which was the 16:49pm which was overcrowded, and I had to stand all the way to London, I am 63. I arrived 2.45 hours later at 18:26pm instead of 16:46pm. I put a complaint to Chilternrailways, and requested a refund. Chilternrailways have given me a derisory £12 refund, and do not seem particularly bothered by what happened!

Over hour journey and standing room only. Rubbish for a 30 quid ticket. Put an extra carriage or two on you tight ar5es. Should have took the car like I usually do.

Booked ticket day before travel. Checked Chiltern website showing disruption but hourly trains.
Arrived at Station to travel to find trains cancelled at 10.09pm night before without warning for bus replacement service to Amersham leaving 20 minutes after my train should have and arriving at Amersham 20minutes after my train should have arrived in Marylebone and I paid £42.50 for the privilege as well as the taxi fare to catch a non existent train
This company is becoming a shambles with its last minute changes and cancellations and lack of putting enough carriages on trains to cope with the volume of passengers

After reading these afwul reviews I was reluctant to book a ticket at Chiltern railways, but it was so much cheaper that I took the risk. An adult and a child ticket for 8 pounds from London to Oxford. I was surprised about everything. The train was on time, we had very spacious seats with a table, no overcrowding. It was clean and it went as planned. Thank you Chiltern Railways!