Chilternrailways Reviews 

I was surprised to see so many poor reviews. We travelled with Chiltern on 2 & 5 October 2025 between London Marleybone and Oxford and it was an excellent experience. I hadn't booked passenger assistance (I am disabled) but the Chiltern staff on the gates at Marleybone could see I was struggling. Before I knew it both of us and our luggage were deposited in one of their buggies and transported to our train. We were assisted onto the train (passengers who were occupying the disabled carriage were politely moved) and we were safely installed with arrangements made to assist us in Oxford. I didn't know there was such a thing as a disabled carriage. Very
comfortable. Our trains were on time, But the assistance provided by their staff was impressive.

Genuinely the worst trainline I’ve ever had to use. I commute via Chiltern railways and the consistency of their cancelled and delayed trains, overly packed trains, and abysmal refund policy is impressive. Not only do they constantly cancel or delay trains for seemingly no reason, but when you are delayed they will aim to refund you as little money they physically can

Excellent service. Great conductors

I have never given an online review for any company before, but I am so fed up with Chiltern Railways that I couldn’t help myself. I don’t have a lot to add to the other negative reviews on here (I tend to go back and hate read them as a way of passing the time while I’m crammed into someone’s armpit on another short formation service from Marylebone). To put it plainly: the carriages are dirty and old, and there aren’t nearly enough of them. Delays are frequent. They run a bare bones operation, so whenever there is some sort of external issue affecting their service (bad weather, strikes), they end up being much more impacted than other operators because thy don’t have any extra capacity or ability to cope. I don’t expect it to get any better when they nationalise, but at least I’ll know that shareholders won’t be profiting off of my misery anymore.

Expensive, late and not enough carriages for the volume of paying customers. A disgrace.

Trains generally in time recently but never enough carriages on Marylebone to Oxford route: overcrowded, scruffy compartments with worn seats. People regularly stick dirty feet on seats and as carriages aren't staffed, nothing is done about this. Wrote to them a few months ago after having to remonstrate with a rude idiot blaring sound from her phone in seat opposite, and their response was pathetic. Expensive service for what it is.

Awful and unreliable service.
I’ve taken this train twice, and both times it was delayed and took ages to reach the destination. Today, it was cancelled altogether. I was told that my ticket could be used for another service, but when I tried, it wasn’t accepted — leaving me no choice but to buy another, more expensive ticket. Terrible experience — think twice before booking with this service.

Awful service - trains are old and worn out, seats super uncomfortable and badly maintained. Trains rocks about all over the place making it hard to work on a laptop and very easy to fall over. Get backache every time I travel with Chiltern. It’s like getting a knackered old bus from some random place in the middle of nowhere with a bad driver and poor condition roads - but having to stay on it for over an hour whilst trying to work and not be sick! Wish they’d sort themselves out.

Attempted to buy a day ranger ticket at Leamington Spa station. Twice I was sent away being told I was too early. Both times I returned quoting West Midlands Railway website showing that I was able to buy the ticket. On the 3rd attempt, I was sold the ticket. The guy on the counter was rude, arrogant and argumentative.
Appaling service.

What is the point of having power sockets if the power goes off mid journey. It’s bad enough the WiFi is so awful but you can’t even work locally with no power. It’s not good enough. Do better, £120 for a return to London is extortionate but to then not be able to work is a disgusting rip off.

I had an issue with being double-charged for tickets online, so I filled out the contact form on a Saturday. By Monday morning, Chiltern Railways had processed my refund with no hassle. Really impressed by how fast and efficient the customer service was.

Moved trains to Wembley line so no late trains from other major venues the operators are just plain stupid

Disgraceful service. Massively overly crowded train, standing room only on a train to London with 3 stops yet to go. Not for the first time, why do they send a 2 carriage train to London at a popular time to travel?
Crap service. I don't know what the CEO gets paid, I expect it's millions, but he or she needs to pull their finger out and sort it out.
Terrible service. Shame on you.

Arrived on time at Dorridge Station in Solihull, only to find no staff working, and the toilets? Closed. Naturally, the nearest bathroom is a solid 50 meters away at a nearby hotel, which presents a real dilemma: Will I make it back in time for my train? Of course I will because trains are never, ever on time. I was on my way to London yesterday, 07:30 train ... business meetings so I was hoping to get there on time.

The station itself? It’s like stepping into a time machine that malfunctioned and dropped me straight into the 1970s. Everything’s old, worn out, and leaning at awkward anglls. It’s as if the whole place is stuck in a perpetual state of "we'll get around to fixing it... eventually."
And as for the train? Well, at least I didn’t miss it... because it was 20 minutes late. Honestly, the station and the trains are perfectly in sync both equally timeless and equally unreliable.

The worst train trip I have ever experienced.
Bank holiday Saturday Warwick Parkway 11.10am to Marylebone. Dangerously overcrowded. Standing for 2 hrs.
No additional carriages in spite of the date and the other events planned for that weekend.
I would be embarrassed if I was running the Company.
Will be asking for a refund.

Customer service is none existent, stranded with no way of getting home

Appalling service. Season ticket holder from Bicester to Marylebone.

Trains are routinely delayed or cancelled. The staff and company in general simply don’t care.

Their rolling stock is almost always overcrowded, dirty and poorly maintained. They regularly fail to air condition the carriages in 30+ degree heat.

While they increase annual fairs by double the rate of inflation every year almost without fail, they never reinvest it in their rolling stock, choosing instead to place up to 4 “revenue protection” officers on their trains at a time.

I am taking this service to commute from Aylesbury to London. The trains are regularly delayed or cancelled and recently a lot of trains broke down. It is not surprising that happens given the fact that the trains are old and not well kept. The fares are ridiculous and even when they do go on time it still takes 1 hour from Aylesbury to London Marylebone even if they could run the service on shorter time. It used to be that you have faster trains but all of those were removed after Covid. It is a really bad railway company and if you have alternatives, avoid using it.

On multiple occasions their service/trains are delayed or late. This is not uncommon with rail providers however what is truly unique with Chiltern is how they handle such situations in terms of compensation.

Whilst trying to catch my return train from London Marylebone to Gerrards Cross I arrived at the station to find all trains from Marylebone cancelled and was then informed by the station team that all trains were cancelled for the evening. I checked this with two different staff members.

Having to get back to pick up my son from nursery I had no other choice other than to book an Uber for £56.

When trying to seek compensation from Chiltern I was offered £6 against my original return ticket of £24! Their rationale is that train services returned an hour later!

I've tried to dispute this provided full evidence including a picture of the board at London Marylebone showing all cancelled and their only reply now is to go to the Ombudsman.

This has taken a week of back and forth and despite flagging the fact I was instructed no trains would depart that evening they just ignore it.

Truly the worst customer support and service!

I caught the 9.36 from Marylebone to Birmingham Snow Hill and the air conditioning was on full blast. It was absolutely FREEZING cold. Everyone was cold. The train was old and had loud vibrating noises that were difficult to deal with. Absolutely awful train. I’ve never written a review about a train service before but having shivered for 1hr 30 mins, I felt people should be warned to put your winter coat on if using this service during the summer. I expect it’s just as bad in the winter!