In 2011, Chiltern Railways took over the to route from First Great Western, in preparation for the opening of a link from the Chiltern Main Line to the Varsity Line (on which Bicester Town station is located), which would see twice-hourly services from Marylebone to Oxford. Construction was expected to start in 2011 but was delayed until the following year after bats were found roosting in one of the tunnels on the Varsity line. Services to Oxford Parkway started in October 2015 and services to Oxford began in December 2016. In 2018, a survey found that commuters from Oxford preferred the Chiltern route to Marylebone over the Great Western route to Paddington via .