,

Swanage-Wareham services may resume this year

by

Swanage Railway’s multiple award-winning scheduled diesel services to Wareham may resume this year.

LSWR T9 No. 30120 and U 2-6-0 No. 31806 on Santa Special duty at Swanage on Christmas Eve. ANDREW PM WRIGHT

Just over 13,000 passengers were carried on the grant aid-funded 60-selected day trial train service from Swanage to Wareham on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays between June 13 and September 3 in 2017, above the target figure of 12,000 passengers that had been outlined in the Purbeck Community Rail Partnership business plan.

However, the service ran at a loss because of the cost of hiring an outside party, West Coast Railways, to run them, and having to use diesels at both ends because of the lack of run-round facilities at Wareham.

Article continues below…
Advert

Enjoy more Heritage Railway reading in the four-weekly magazine.
Click here to subscribe & save.

The railway has therefore been waiting to resume the Wareham timetable until the refurbishment of its own two DMUs – a Class 121 ‘bubblecar’ and a three-carriage Class 117 unit – by Arlington Fleet Group Ltd at Eastleigh Works is completed.



Advert
Subscribe to Heritage Railway Magazine Enjoy more Heritage Railway reading in the four-weekly magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Article Tags:

About the Author