Swanage link revived
Passenger services between Wareham and Swanage resume after BR closed the branch line in 1972.
TIMETABLED passenger services between Wareham and the seaside resort of Swanage in Dorset resumed on June 13, for the first time since British Rail closed the branch line in 1972.
Four return trips a day will operate for 60 days this summer across Network Rail and heritage railway tracks, in the first season of a two-year trial. Rolling stock and crew have been hired from West Coast Railways (WCR).
The service had been intended to start last summer, but delays with both infrastructure work and Swanage Railway’s own rolling stock led to a year-long postponement.
Improvements to meet main line standards have proved more time-consuming than anticipated, so WCR provided a Class 33 and a ‘37’ locomotive to haul four Mk 1 coaches. Swanage Railway plans to use its own diesel multiple units next year.
For decades it has been the heritage railway’s goal to reinstate a connection to main line trains from London (since 2009 it has welcomed occasional excursion trains). The line has remained in place as a three-mile link from Worgret Junction (one mile west of Wareham) to Furzebrook for clay trains and to Wytch Farm oil field.
“I must admit I never thought this would happen. All credit to everybody who’s got it to this stage,” said long-serving volunteer Colin Stone, as he boarded the first train.
“It was a lump in the throat moment, pulling away,” agreed volunteer Julian Hathaway.
Frederick Sills and his son Peter were on board the very last service to Swanage, 45 years ago. In warm sunshine on June 13, both were on the first scheduled train since then. Peter said: “Dad told me on the last train in 1972 that I wouldn’t ever have the opportunity to do this again. Dads are never wrong, are they? But it’s nice to see that he didn’t get this one quite right!”
It has taken £5.5 million funding from a range of stakeholders to bring the link between the heritage railway and Network Rail back to passenger standards. New signalling equipment was also required at Wareham and Worgret Junction, with the heritage signal box at Corfe Castle connected
to Network Rail’s Basingstoke signalling centre more than 60 miles away.
Purbeck District Council and Dorset County Council provided £3.2m of the cost. The councils estimate the heritage railway boosts the Purbeck economy by £14m a year. The Swanage Railway carried 211,000 passengers in 2016.
Swanage Railway Trust Chairman Gavin Johns said: “The investment from the councils is looking to remove dependency on the one road link into Purbeck, and generally to make life a lot more acceptable for everybody using this area.”
Work included replacement of 1,200 sleepers and half a mile of new track. A new level crossing has been built west of Norden station on the access road to Wytch Farm. The line speed on the link was increased from walking pace to 25mph in April 2016.
Mark Woolley, director of the Wareham project and a volunteer for 30 years, said: authorities believe this railway can play an important part in the local economy, and be an alternative way for people to visit this beautiful part of the country.”
Passengers will pay £15 for a round trip on the ten-mile route between Wareham and Swanage, which takes 45 minutes each way. Services operate from Swanage at 1023, 1223, 1423 and 1623 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays until September 3.
It is not clear what will happen