Commuters from Bicester and Banbury are having to get up earlier to catch a train to London following the introduction of a new timetable.

One of the most popular morning trains used to leave Banbury at 7.22am and Bicester 12 minutes later. Now the train leaves Banbury at 7.06am.

A return train has also been re-timed, to leave London Marylebone five minutes earlier at 5.55pm.

Chiltern Railways brought in a revised timetable this week to allow Virgin Trains to run more trains on its Cross Country service through Oxford, Banbury and Birmingham.

Christopher Bates, chairman of the Cherwell Rail Users Group, said: "Many people have an hour and a half more travelling time in a day. Chiltern trains going on from Banbury to Birmingham have been re-timed because of congestion between Banbury and Birmingham."

Mr Bates explained that commuter groups had lobbied the Strategic Rail Authority to bring forward improvements to signalling between Aynho junction, outside Banbury, and Leamington Spa, from April.

Group secretary Sheila Gover said that when the signalling was improved there would be the opportunity to run more trains and Chiltern then might be able to return to a previous timetable.