A CONTROVERSIAL bike ban on some trains stopping at Oxfordshire stations comes into effect tomorrow.

Chiltern Railways will stop all bikes, except folding ones, being brought onto busy services stopping at Oxford, Oxford Parkway, Islip and Bicester Village stations.

The company is extending a ban which had previously only applied to trains arriving at London Marylebone station during the morning rush hour and leaving it at the end of the day.

Chiltern said it has brought the ban ‘for the safety and comfort of all our passengers’.

Its £320m Marylebone to Oxford line launched in October 2015.

Chiltern's competitor, Great Western Railways, also limits people from taking bikes on certain trains, requiring cyclists to reserve a space, including on all of its high-speed services.

Last month, Simon Hunt, the chairman of Oxford cycling community group Cyclox, described the ban as ‘regrettable’ but said he understood the rail operator’s reasoning.

He said: “When you’ve got an unpredictable number of bikes and a full train I can see why people would be pretty annoyed.”

The services affected by the new measures are trains from Oxford to Marylebone leaving at 6.43am, 7.17am, 7.43am, 8.01am, 8.21am and 8.40am.

In the afternoon, services affected will be the services at 4.38pm, 4.54pm, 5.23pm, 5.37pm, 6.01pm, 6.23pm, 7.02pm and 7.28pm.

For more information see Chiltern’s website chilternrailways.co.uk