A NEW 41 mile long rail-line and station have not seen a single passenger despite being completed more than a year ago due to a row over staffing.
The £1.3 billion rail link between Oxford and Milton Keynes is the first phase of the East West Rail line, a £7bn corridor to Cambridge.
It was completed in October 2024 after construction began four years earlier – but, despite plans to run passenger services from late 2025, it’s only open for freight trains.
The delays have been blamed on numerous issues such as a dispute between Chiltern Railways and the RMT union over whether the trains should have guards to open and close the doors.
The union is against the use of Driver Only Operation (DOO) trains, saying they are unsafe.
A new station with a £5m investment in the village of Winslow, Buckinghamshire, also remains out of operation despite being completed in 2024.
Resident Diana Blamires said residents were “fed up” of the wait for services to begin.
Diana, who is also a town councillor, said: “Never mind rolling stock, it has become laughing stock.
“No one involved has shown any signs of getting this sorted.
“Residents are fed up. It’s very lucrative to have ‘fake’ trains rattling through the day and night but there are consequences for the people here.
“It is catastrophic that people have moved to Winslow or any of these places between Milton Keynes and Oxford, thinking it’s a great place to get the train.
“The biggest failing here is the government. The taxpayer are dishing out £1m for security each year for a station which isn’t even open.”
The project is set to unlock £6.7 billion in economic growth, support 100,000 new homes, and provide more frequent trains for passengers between Oxford and Cambridge.
Passenger trains, run by Chiltern Railways, between Oxford and Milton Keynes were scheduled to launch by the end of December – for the first time in nearly 60 years.
Roy and Bridget Kelsey have lived in Winslow for nine years and said while they thought the station would be beneficial, the lack of progress was concerning.
Roy, in his 80s, said: “The station not being open does concern me.
“Two years ago we were all invited to a meeting when the construction was taking place and they had quite a lot of managerial types painting a wonderful, rosy picture of how everything was going to go.
“Now it has come to a full stop.
“I hear it’s because they’ve got to extend the length of the platform but if that’s true then why wasn’t that foreseen?
“You can surely get it started without, by telling passengers it has a short platform and to move up if they want to alight.
“We’ve lived here for nine years and quite a long period of that has seen the line refurbished, put back and then the station built.
“With the amount of houses that are being built around the area for the Oxford to Cambridge corridor, it will eventually be of great opportunity and benefit.”
Roy added house prices had increased in the area since plans were announced for the station and he imagined they would continue to rise once it was running for passenger services.
Ray Dewberry, 72, has lived next to Winslow station for three years and said “nobody seems to know what’s going on”.
He said: “It’s silly how much money they’ve spent and it’s still not open.
“I’d use it all the time if it was cheap enough. We had some correspondence before Christmas to say it would open soon but nothing since.”
Natalie Wheble, external affairs director for EWR, said: “East West Rail handed over the newly rebuilt line between Bicester and Bletchley to Network Rail in December 2024 and this section is now part of the operational network and is used by regular freight trains and has been used by some charter trains.
“In March last year, the Government announced that Chiltern Railways would be the operator of services connecting Oxford, Oxford Parkway, Bicester Village, Winslow, Bletchley and Milton Keynes Central.
“Chiltern had hoped to begin services in December 2025 and they are currently working closely with the Department of Transport and industry colleagues with the aim of introducing services on the new line as soon as possible.
“To meet increasing demand for passenger services, we recently announced our intention to increase the frequency of services and also to extend the number of carriages on each train.
“This uplift in capacity has led to a review of all infrastructure requirements and in the case of Winslow station, a decision has been taken to extend the platforms, so it can accommodate the use of longer trains.
“Any work to extend platforms at Winslow would not affect the introduction of Chiltern’s new services and work to extend the platforms could be carried out whilst the station is operational.”
A Chiltern Railways spokesperson said: “Since being announced as operator of the first stage of East West Rail between Oxford and Milton Keynes in March, we have been working at pace to get everything ready for services to begin on the new line.
“Significant progress has been made, including the hiring and training of 44 train drivers, the creation of a new colleague facility at Bletchley, and the fit out of a new modern station with step-free access at Winslow.
“However, there is work still to finish to prepare the trains, on Winslow station and on the operating arrangements for the new route.
“We are continuing our work on these areas in conjunction with industry colleagues and will provide updates as soon as we are able to.”
An RMT spokesperson said: “Our dispute with Chiltern is about the introduction of Driver Only Operation and the running of services without a second safety critical person onboard between Oxford and Milton Keynes.
“It is simply inaccurate to blame delays to East West Rail on our dispute when the project has been held back for years by indecision, rising costs and unresolved planning issues.
“The industrial dispute only affects one part of the route and the biggest delays sit squarely with those in charge of managing the project.
“Even if the industrial dispute were resolved tomorrow, East West Rail would still face major delays because the central section between Bedford and Cambridge has not been built or fully planned for.
“In many places the old railway route cannot be reused, so a new line has to be designed, agreed and approved.
“That means planning, land acquisition and construction are still ahead of us, and those are the real reasons this project is far from completion.
“Our members are committed to delivering a safe and reliable railway, but they will not accept being used as cover for failures in project management.”
Do you know more? Email ryan.merrifield@thesun.co.uk
