Steam & Heritage Track Record Future bright as railways reopen to good bookings

RELIEF, hope and trepidation surrounded a number of our heritage railways during the last weeks of July as they took their first operational steps in the post-lockdown era.

Considerable investment has been made in order to facilitate the running of passenger services once again, from the financial, including the purchase of screens, barriers and cleaning materials, to practical investment in crew training and volunteer labour.

It is no stretch to say that many lines have ‘bent over backwards’ to make passenger services a viable proposition, so it was with a sense of nervous anticipation a handful of railways opened their doors once again.

Didcot Railway Centre welcomed visitors on July 4 for the first of its non-steam Open-Air Discovery Days, and centre spokesman Graham Hukins says the reopening has “gone very well”.

He added: “Feedback from visitors has been very good indeed, with several delighted to be able to visit and support us as we reopen, while others have travelled significant distances to visit as we were one of the few heritage railway sites to reopen.

“Visitors have said they have felt safe and confident in the measures we have put in place – which is ideal.”

The Dartmouth Steam Railway (DSR) has been equally encouraged by the public’s response to its safety measures, since it ran its first trains on

July 6.

The Devon line has completed a number of measures to ensure passenger safety, such as fitting screens behind seat headrests, and running virus-killing fogging machines on the train each night.

Areas of the Paignton shop have been cleared to aid social distancing, while the station platform has itself been extended to give passengers more room to spread out.

“It’s going better than we feared, but is nothing like a normal year,” the railway’s managing director John Jones told The RM in mid-July.

“We started by running six trains a day, each day, between Paignton and Kingswear with no intermediate stops, and numbers have been around

60% down on a typical summer. However, we’re making enough to cover the basic overheads.

Social distancing

“We’ll soon be increasing to a two-train service, with 11 trains a day.”

Social distancing requirements have meant trains have been running at around 50% of their actual capacity, and the railway is accepting both pre-booked and‘walk-up’customers.

Face coverings are compulsory for passengers. However, that does not seem to have deterred anyone; quite the opposite in fact.

“The face masks have been quite a positive thing,” said Mr Jones.

“They seem to have given passengers an increased level of confidence, and we have had no complaints whatsoever about having to wear them.

“We had one incident where a passenger left the train because another had removed their mask, but otherwise it has been received very well.”

While most of the operational staff are now back from furlough, the DSR is taking precautions to ensure it can remain open should any member of staff be struck with Covid-19.

Loco crews, for example, work in set pairs and only work with each other. Each crew has its own mess and changing facilities, thereby preventing any cross-contamination with other staff.

North Norfolk Railway services between Sheringham and Holt resumed on July 8, and according to general manager Hugh Harkett it has all gone

“very well”.

Loadings have been around 70% of the ideal, and several trains have run with around 36 compartments of the 42 available occupied.

The railway has been reserving between six and 10 compartments on every train for walk-up passengers, and as the number of visitors to Sheringham increases, more speculative passengers have been travelling.

“Overall the feedback has been very good and passengers have said they feel safe,” said Mr Harkett.

“We’re getting more volunteers coming back too, and are now looking into the possibility of a two-train service for August.

“We’re lucky as we have the ‘Quad-Art’ set and Mk1

Suburban set, which are both compartment stock, so can lay on the extra service if we decide to.”

At the time of writing all passenger journeys started and ended at Sheringham, but Mr Harkett also went on to explain that the railway is hoping to open up its western terminus at Holt, which will require a change in the current operational practice to ensure passengers are not ‘cross contaminating’ trains.

“The only disappointment we’ve faced has been the treatment of our toilet attendant at Sheringham by a minority of the public,” added Mr Harkett.

‘Shameful’

We’ve made the toilet block available to the general public as well as railway users, but some of the abuse the attendant has been subjected to is shameful.

“It has been by a minority, but if it continues we will close the toilets to the general public and just make them available to railway customers.”

July 11 witnessed the return of public trains on the Mid-Hants Railway, and general manager Simon Baggott believes it has all gone according to plan from an operational perspective.

“We have had a number of positive comments such as ‘I felt safe’, ‘It was clean’ and ‘I felt comfortable’, and we also had a positive reaction to our revised service with the longer layovers at Ropley,” Mr Baggott told The RM.

“So far it has been a quiet start in passenger numbers and there