“Jury’s out” over ‘Train of Lights’
Mixed reaction from railways to new festive trains concept.
There is as yet no consensus as to whether the ‘Train of Lights’ services inaugurated on a number of railways this year have been unilaterally successful.
Initiated by the Dartmouth Steam Railway for the 2018 festive period as an alternative to its traditional ‘Santa Specials’, the ‘Train of Lights’ features trains decorated in colourful LED lights and illuminated displays at the trackside. Following their success on the DSR, a number of other railways have introduced similar services this year, but reaction from managers has been varied.
One line that has reaped rewards from its ‘Steam in Lights’ trains is the Severn Valley Railway. SVR spokesperson Lindsay Kendrick told Steam Railway:
“It has been great so far. Tickets for the Saturday services sold out within a couple of weeks and so we arranged extra trains on Saturdays to meet the demand.
“We are fully sold-out and expecting 8,500 people to be travelling with us. Passenger reaction has been fantastic so far and we’ve had lots of really positive feedback about what a magical experience it was.”
This sentiment has been echoed by the North Norfolk Railway. “Talk about a successful venture!” said NNR managing director Hugh Harkett. “The customers love it and they say it’s also good value for money.”
Coverage of the NNR’s ‘Norfolk Lights Express’ on BBC Look East in late November resulted in “a deluge of calls” the following day, with the result that its ‘Norfolk Lights Express’ trains are fully booked out to the end of the year. Such is the demand that the NNR has added an extra week of trains in early January, and these were reportedly starting to sell out as SR went to press.
Reaction to the new services has not been universally positive,
however. North Yorkshire Moors
Railway general manager Chris Price said that its ‘Northern Lights Express’ had been a “measured success.”
He added: “Financially, it’s been very successful. It’s going to do what we wanted it to do, which is cover the loss of earnings caused by not running February half-term trains and losing a week at the start of April owing to the bridge replacement at Goathland, but we haven’t decided yet whether we’re going to do them again next year. The jury’s still out.”
Nene Valley Railway general manager Sarah Piggott expressed the same view on the NVR’s ‘Winter Lights Spectacular’ trains. Speaking to Steam Railway in early December, she said: “The jury’s still out at the moment on how successful it’s been for us until we’ve got the final sales figures in. Sales are starting to pick up, but until we know how it’s all gone, we can’t say yet
whether or not we’ll do it again.”