A RAIL passengers group chairman believes that the Gerrards Cross line will still be closed by the end of the year.

Reg Whittome, chairman of both the Marylebone Travellers Association and the Chiltern Railway Passenger Board, said he would be surprised if the line was reopened before Christmas.

He said: "I would be surprised to see any trains before Christmas frankly. But looking at the whole situation and bearing in mind the Jackson involvement, they are going to take time to make sure they get the safety of the track right."

Commuters have been demanding answers after a date for reopening the Gerrards Cross station has still not been set almost a month after the tunnel collapsed on to the track.

The collapse has caused major disruption to thousands of Bucks commuters and left bus services filling the gap between stations on route to London.

Yesterday the Star requested a rough date target from Network Rail for the tunnel to reopen, but their response will bear no relief to commuters hoping to get their travel plans back to normal.

A spokesman said: "Our priority is to reopen the line for passengers as soon as possible, but at this stage we are still unable to predict when this will be. We do, however, expect more clarity on this within the next few days."

Gareth Roblin, of Marlow, said he had been left frustrated after Chiltern said his £2,000 season ticket will no longer be valid on alternative lines.

Mr Roblin had started to use the Marlow-to-Maidenhead route to save time on his journey, instead of getting a bus from High Wycombe to Amersham.

He said: "I don't think we should be disadvantaged or left out of pocket for someone else's mistake.

"However, it is very frustrating there is no clear timeline. It could be months."

Ruairidh Husband, a commuter from High Wycombe, has been driving to Amersham to save time on his daily commute.

He said he was losing around £4 a day because the compensation package was only covering 50 per cent of his expenses as a season ticket holder.

A Chiltern Railways spok-esman said: "If people let us know about it we will look at each case on its merits. We are advising people to give us as much information as possible and that they keep hold of their receipts."

Chiltern said other services where their tickets had previously but no longer been accepted, was down to the operating companies on the services, and not down to them.

Jo DeBank, of the London Transport Users Committee, said: "It is in no one's interest to keep it closed or even Network Rail's."

Network Rail and Jackson Civil Engineering, for Tesco, are preparing the final stages of a report into the collapse.

Once this is evaluated, the future of the track and the tunnel will be reviewed.

Contact our reporter Nic Brunetti with your comments on the rail chaos on nbrunetti@london.newsquest.co.uk