Mini railway is ‘renationalised’ after walkout

A MINIATURE railway hit by strike action has effectively been renationalised after its volunteers staged a walkout in protest at its new private owners.

Passengers have been unable to use Poole Park railway in Dorset since April after action by drivers, guards and engineers brought the attraction to a standstill. The volunteers, most of them exrailway workers, were said to have been at loggerheads with a new management team which took over running the railway last year.

Poole Council gave operators Friends of Poole Park until last week to resolve the dispute and get the railway running in time for the summer holidays. But the company failed to meet that deadline and its contract has since been torn up – and the railway put back into state control.

The railway has been delighting families since 1949. It takes passengers on a half- mile loop around a boating lake at 4mph.

From 2002 until last year, it had been successfully run by businessman Chris Bullen. But after 15 years he lost the contract to Friends of Poole Park and protests began. The council said it was now considering running the service inhouse with volunteers.