Swanage Railway confirms one e-year main line delay
THE Swanage Railway has confirmed that timetabled services connecting with the main line at Wareham in Dorset are being delayed by a year.
As revealed in RAIL 845, the trains intended to operate the service are still without wheels at Arlington Fleet Services in Eastleigh, where they have been since 2014.
The heritage railway had admitted it would not be possible to operate them until after the summer tourist season ends in September. Now it will delay the planned 90-day schedule of four trains a day each way until Easter 2019. The service had been planned to operate from this May, having previously been delayed by one year.
It has taken £5.5 million funding from a range of stakeholders - mostly local and national government - to bring the line back to passenger standards, fulfilling the railway’s long ambition to reopen a link to the national network that had been severed for 45 years.
A trial service ran last year using two locomotives, four coaches and crew chartered from West Coast Railways, but this was too costly to repeat. The service operated at a loss.
“The extensive overhaul, refurbishment and upgrade to exacting main line standards of our two former British Railways diesel multiple units by several specialist contractors has been very challenging work,” said Swanage Railway’s Project Wareham Director Mark Woolley.
The Class 121 “bubble car” and a three-car Class 117 are being fitted with central door locking, Train Protection and Warning System (TPWS), GSM-R wireless communication, and an on-train monitoring recorder, in order to run on the South Western Main Line between Worgret Junction and Wareham. However, the biggest problem has been obtaining new wheel sets.
“Because the trains were built almost 60 years ago, they were all made to Imperial measurements,” said Woolley. “And the only place we can get new ball bearings made to the right size is in America. It has led to more delay.”
He said the total refurbishment was costing around £1m. The vehicles have all been repainted, but the Class 117 remains without wheels.
Woolley said stakeholders and local authorities had been disappointed by the setback, but have accepted that a 90-day trial would now take place in 2019 instead. They had funded the project because of the anticipated benefits to local tourism.
Others see it differently. “The plan seems to have been made unilaterally, without the Purbeck Community Rail Partnership being consulted or informed before the decision was announced to RAIL,” said a source close to the process.
“Mr Woolley’s comments abandon the obligations to Dorset County Council under the operating agreement, which was made in return for a lease on the trackbed.”
Just over 13,000 passengers were carried during the 60-day trial last year, slightly ahead of expectations set out in the business plan. The railway said up to 70% of passengers arrived or departed from Wareham by main line train, which was a key objective of the project.
The service had originally been intended to launch in 2016.
The Swanage Railway hopes its rolling stock will be delivered from Eastleigh in the summer. An extended period of testing and crew training will then be required. It will then have to obtain an ORR exemption from railway regulations to enable the heritage diesel multiple units to run on the main line.
The source added: “Mr. Woolley’s indication that the situation was created by circumstances beyond Swanage Railway’s control hides a growing reluctance among staff and volunteers to support the Wareham service.
“Many of us are appalled that the Wareham services are being jeopardised by Swanage Railway’s apparent failure of commitment, mismanagement and unawareness of their responsibility to the community and the taxpayer.
“Due to the vast amounts of public money committed, many people feel Dorset County Council should take over the operation of the service.”