TYSELEY’S MAGICAL MYSTERY TOURS…
Tour operator Vintage Trains is being coy about the details of its pre-Christmas ‘Polar Express’ trains in its long-awaited public debut.
Is four-days-a-week operation and 68 trains inside a month a ‘gentle start’?
You’ll have to make up your own mind, because new train operator Vintage Trains Ltd has said it will not discuss operational or commercial details.
Steam Railway had asked a number of questions about VTL’s pre-Christmas ‘Polar Express’ trains, which the new outfit announced on November 6, some three and a half weeks before the first is due to run on November 29. The Birmingham Moor Street to Tyseley series of trips, a licenced operation based on the Warner Brothers film of the same name, brings the first public outings under the Tyseley banner since December 2017. At the time of writing, a number were already full – by the time you read this the season will have already started. However, as the new operator geared up for its first ever passenger trains, VTL would not say whether it planned to run any training trips before the launch of its shuttles (although at the time of writing ‘47’ No. 47773 had already been out again, to Stratford-upon-Avon; and a ‘Polar Express’ dress rehearsal took place on November 24 with ‘Hall’ No. 4965). It wouldn’t reveal how many train crew and stewards it would need for its 16-day operation (it advertised for drivers and guards in SR485), whether they were all available internally or whether they’d hired in. Nor would it comment on why the trains were launched at such short notice (although, as of October 30, it had said its “plans continue to be formulated” – SR486).
Also unanswered is how much of the £966,792 in planned passenger service revenue listed for 2018 in the November 2017 Vintage Trains Business Plan the ‘Polar Express’ could bring in (the 16 days of operation represent just under half the 33 planned for this year, but are described as “more profitable than others, and give us the potential to sell souvenirs”); what loading Tyseley needs for the trains to cover their direct costs; or how critical the first public trips in nearly a year are to VT’s future.
‘ONE SIMPLE ANSWER’
Press officer Denis Chick responded on November 13: “A number of questions but, I’m afraid, one simple answer: Vintage Trains Ltd will not be discussing operational and commercial details.”
Despite that, Tyseley had previously said that the plan is for trains to be hauled by Rood
Ashton Hall, or Clun Castle. That latter engine still awaits trial moves and running-in – but conceivably the shuttles could therefore mark the public return of Tyseley’s flagship doublechimney ‘Castle’ to the main line for the first time since 1988.
VTL also subsequently announced that Class 50 No. 50007 Hercules – an engine you may remember as ‘GWR150’s’ Sir Edward Elgar – would move from the Severn Valley Railway to provide diesel backup. The trains run ‘top and tail’.
‘Polar Express’ trains are to run over the couple of miles or so each way using a mixture of ‘Relief’ and goods lines. At Moor Street they will use the restored terminus area, rather than the 1980s through platforms. Four trips run Thursdays-Saturdays, with five on Sundays, until December 23. Each ‘performance’ – which includes on-board actors playing out aspects of the story and Father Christmas joining the train at Tyseley (the ‘North Pole’) – is expected to take around an hour, including the ‘out and back’ from Moor Street to Tyseley.
Stock is being hired in – something VTL MD Cath Bellamy predicted two issues ago while Tyseley’s coaches are put through ‘derogation’, and which she said may also happen over the longer term to provide a second rake. In this case, the Scottish Railway Preservation Society is providing its maroon Mk 1s.
SR understands the set comprises seven vehicles, including TSOs, FOs and a Brake. Ticket prices start at £25 for Standard, climbing through a couple of variants to £35 for other trains; First Class starts at £35 and rises to £45, although ‘Black Friday’ deals of as low as £10 mean that revenue calculations can no longer be exact.
There’s no doubt that the ‘Polar Express’ shuttles mark a key moment for Tyseley’s in-house operator, which has been in gestation for a couple of years since Vintage Trains confirmed in November 2016 that it had applied to the Office of Rail and Road for a Safety Certificate (SR461). At that point, the hope had been to run something in 2017.
Subsequently, after the launch of the £3m share issue to support the new TOC in December 2017, it had been hoped that VTL would be ready to run ‘Shakespeare Express’ trains in August/September (SR481). VT’s Business Plan envisaged that the operator would “cautiously build its activity levels from a gentle start in 2018” – with ten days of ‘Shakespeare Expresses’ and seven of other steam trips, as well as the 16 days of Christmas trains. Ultimately however, the first move on the network came with mileage accumulation for a Vivarail ‘D-Train’ in September 2018 (SR485), with a training run using Rood Ashton Hall following on October 9 (SR486).
As for next season, Denis Chick said the “timetable for 2019 should be published early next year, if not sooner. Rest assured that we will share it in detail as soon as it’s confirmed.”
VT’s Business Plan includes 58 days of tours – ten of ‘Shakespeare Expresses’, 16 of Christmas trains, 29 of other steam charters, and a trio of days to mark the launch of evening diners. Numbers climb to 82 days (including 16 diners) in 2020.
A NUMBER OF QUESTIONS BUT ONE SIMPLE ANSWER: VINTAGE TRAINS LTD WILL NOT BE DISCUSSING OPERATIONAL AND COMMERCIAL DETAILS DENIS CHICK, VINTAGE TRAINS