The ‘new normal’ of railtours
After a number of months without steam on the national network, I was relieved to see ‘Pacific’ 70000 Britannia arrive into Crewe station to haul Saphos Trains’ Fellsman tour to Carlisle on July 15.
With the staff wearing PPE, hand sanitiser stations installed in the vestibules, clear Perspex screens between the bays of seats, and the overall capacity cut by 40% per carriage to permit a seating plan that adheres to the Government’s social distancing regulations, it wasn’t a ‘normal’ tour. And yet, within five minutes of being seated, I felt relaxed as the Mk 1 carriage I was in broadly looked the same as before.
The screens really aren’t distractive - they have been installed in such a way that after a few minutes you don’t notice them. And while you have to wear a face covering at stations, they were not required onboard.
This certainly helped to make the charter feel like a ‘normal’ railtour, although evidence of the ‘new normal’ was still apparent - at water stops, which normally feature a scrum of people wanting to take photos of the locomotive, a big sign reminded bystanders to keep their distance.
I travelled in Premier Class, and the service and the food onboard was as good as it has ever been - in fact, thanks to a reduction in capacity, the service levels have probably improved.
All in all, the main reason to travel behind steam on the national network - the experience of being hauled by the closest thing man has created to a living and breathing object - remains as it did before the pandemic struck.