Wareham bid axed for now

THE Swanage Railway has called time on its current plans to run services to Wareham after finding that a two-year trial proved commercially unviable.

Swanage Railway Trust chairman Frank Roberts said: “I would like to thank our dedicated and professional staff and volunteers who worked so hard to put the infrastructure in place so the Swanage Railway could operate its two-year trial heritage diesel train service to the main line at Wareham in 2017 and 2023.

“My grateful thanks are also due to our valued and appreciated partners and stakeholders – local councils, Network Rail, South Western Railway (previously South West Trains) and the Government’s Coastal Communities Fund – for their enduring commitment and assistance.

“While our trial heritage train service on the busy Network Rail main line into Wareham was operationally successful, it did not deliver commercially. Any future service to Wareham would require a subsidy so it could operate.

“We appreciate the disappointment this may cause to people in the Isle of Purbeck. Operating on 90 selected days between April and September in 2017 and 2023, the 2023 trial heritage train service to Wareham was operated against the background of the Government underwriting reduced price £2 tickets for bus journeys in England.

“During the trial, Wareham ticket prices reflected the additional costs of running over the national railway network into Wareham while not detrimentally affecting the fare structure of our important heritage services between Norden, Corfe Castle, Harman’s Cross, Herston and Swanage.”

However, he added: “The Swanage Railway’s important connection with the national railway network at Worgret Junction enables excursion trains from anywhere in the country to run to Corfe Castle and Swanage, bringing several hundred passengers on each train and much-needed business to the Isle of Purbeck.”