Chiltern Railways warns of severe disruption to services serving Leamington, Warwick and Banbury at start of January

Train operator Chiltern Railways has warned customers to only travel if absolutely essential over the first week of January - and that on two days there will be no services at all.

Ongoing RMT industrial action (an overtime ban until January 2 and strike action on January 3, 4, 6 and 7 ) means that there will be significantly reduced timetable in operation.

If travelling is a necessity, customers should triple-check their full journey on the Chiltern Railways website or app before attempting to travel.

Customers can find out more information about how upcoming industrial action will affect them by visiting www.chilternrailways.com/strike

On these dates, customers should only travel if absolutely essential.

There will be no Chiltern Railways services north of Banbury or south of Amersham, and services will start later and finish much earlier than usual (between approximately 3pm and 4pm).

On January 2, trains will run later into the evening. Customers should check their last train before they attempt to travel.

A very limited service will be in operation throughout each day.

During times of operation, there will be four trains per hour: Marylebone to stations to Oxford Parkway (via Bicester Village, and vice-versa), Marylebone to stations to Aylesbury (via High Wycombe, and vice-versa), Marylebone to stations to Banbury (and vice-versa), Aylesbury Vale Parkway to stations to Amersham (and vice-versa).

Due to strike action by ASLEF, no Chiltern Railways services will run on any route on January 5.

And due to the cumulative impact of strikes and industrial action, staff shortages mean that Chiltern Railways will be unable to prepare, fuel and service trains at depots ahead of January 6.

As a result, no Chiltern Railways services will run on any route on this day.

A spokesman for Chiltern said: “Chiltern Railways would like to apologise to the customers and communities it serves for the very significant inconvenience that they are experiencing due to the ongoing RMT and ASLEF industrial action.”