Stock faults force Pathfinder Railtours to cancel final 2024 trips

After a series of faults with its rolling stock hired from West Coast Railways, Pathfinder Railtours has been forced to cancel the three trains it had planned for the final weeks of 2024.

Its November 23 Gloucester to Edinburgh excursion ran with some coaches that had no lighting, no heating, and other defects including unusable toilets, This resulted in the company complaining to its main train operating company and rolling stock provider.

The coaches were a mix of those already owned by WCR and some of its recently purchased Riviera Trains vehicles. There were reports of passengers in Premier Dining having paid £300 a head only to have no heating or lights.

It followed a similar level of complaints from UK Railtours over its November 9 trip from Euston to Blackpool North.

Pathfinder Railtours issued a statement which said: “We strive to deliver high-quality excursions. However, due to unforeseen technical and operational challenges beyond our control, including increased pressure on third-party resources, it has become clear that maintaining these standards in the short term is not feasible.

“It is with regret that Pathfinder Railtours has taken the decision to cancel its forthcoming programme of Christmas excursions. We apologise to all passengers whose plans have been disrupted. It is not a decision taken lightly - neither is it one that we wished to make.

“As a company, we are confident that the current issues will be resolved in the New Year, and we are well advanced on planning the remainder of our excursion programme across 2025, which we expect to announce early next year. For the avoidance of doubt, all advertised tours in 2025 are not affected, and we intend them to run as planned.”

It has been suggested that parts from the recently acquired coaches have been taken off to fit to WCR’s Northern Belle set and those Mk 2s being used for the Polar Express trains, and that as a result there have been some ‘patch up’ repairs on the Pathfinder coaches that have not proved robust enough.

The three cancelled trains were set for November 30 to Chester, on December 7 to Manchester with D1015 Western Champion, and a freight line tour for December 21.

Pathfinder has also issued a statement responding to abuse its office staff received from a small number of passengers, after announcing the cancellations.

It said: “Our staff, both in the office and on trains, will always be polite to our customers but unfortunately, a number of people have not paid us the same courtesy. Pathfinder Railtours will immediately implement a new policy whereby abusive behaviour on our trains, when talking to the office, on social media, in writing through the post or in emails, will not

be tolerated under any circumstance. We reserve the right to permanently ban anyone from our trains who fails to act in a decent, polite, human way.”

WCR did not respond to RAIL’s request for comment about the shortfalls it has delivered to Pathfinder.