VIRUS CAUSES MULTIPLE CHANGES TO TOUR PLANS

Before any of 2021’s trains run though, this year’s services are still causing some editorial scribbling and notes in the margin – as the responses to Covid-19 taken around the country continue to prompt recalculations in the plan.

One fairly drastic rethink for Steam Dreams is that the traditional London to Lincoln trip for that city’s famous Christmas market has been recast – because there will be no such event in Lincoln this year. So while the train will still start in the ‘Smoke’ (Ealing Broadway) its destination has been shifted to York – where the fair is still on. That trip is on December 6, with No. 61306.

To an extent, it’s a similar situation to that already reported for the London-Bath specials on November 29 and December 1, albeit that the response here was less of a complete rethink; after Bath cut back its planned festivities, Steam Dreams extended the trains a smidgen further along the Great Western, to take in Bristol as well (SR509).

Moving on from such circumstance induced rejigs… how are bookings? David Buck reports that the pre-Christmas days out are selling well, with signs of pent-up demand coming through from passengers; even months out, the December 10 Southend-Oxford trip is already knocking at the limit of its ‘new normal’ loading.

Just what those social-distancing passenger limits are though is movable from train to train. For as we’ve said before, there’s no such thing as a fixed capacity at a time when who you travel with, and how many people are in your ‘bubble’, makes a difference to how many seats can actually be used… As a rule of thumb, promoters and operators are finding that you can reckon with losing perhaps around 40% of seats per carriage.

To help combat this, Steam Dreams’ man says his outfit will be taking an extra coach or two compared with normal – up to a maximum of 13.

● In addition to its longer trips, David intends to run a debut series of ‘Santa’ trains from the heart of London, at Victoria, this season, plus evening dining trips along the lines of the already established ‘Sunset Diners’ (SR508).