Timetabled passenger services between Wareham and the seaside resort of Swanage in Dorset will not resume until September, after the peak summer season. They had been planned to operate from May.
On June 13 last year, scheduled trains from the heritage railway ran onto the South Western Main Line at Wareham for the first time since British Rail closed the branch line in 1972.
It had taken £5.5 million funding from a range of stakeholders to bring the line back to passenger railway standards, reopening a link that had been broken for 45 years.
Plans to use Swanage Railway’s own Class ‘117’ and ‘121’ diesel multiple units did not come to fruition in time, and the business had to charter West Coast Railways to provide a service. Now it is clear the heritage DMU units will not be ready this summer either.
- For more on this exclusive, read RAIL 845, published on January 31, and available now on Android and iPad.
- For even more on this story, read RAIL 846, published on February 14, and available on Android and iPad from February 10.
FrankH - 29/01/2018 19:24
I would have thought that along with reopening the link to the main line would have been stock to utilize this potential money earner. So are the dmu's in a worse state than first thought, were they even checked over to see if they could be brought up to main line standards?