‘Harry Potter’ train conjures a way out of sticky problem

You may have heard rather a lot about the steam train associated with Harry Potter and the Hogwarts Express over the past few months.

The Jacobite, which hauls hordes of wizarding fans between Fort William and Mallaig every summer, has been at the centre of a court case whose outcome its operator had claimed could threaten its future.

West Coast Railways (WCR) sought to oppose a longstanding directive from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), the industry’s safety regulator, that central door locking must be fitted to the Jacobite’s old-fashioned hinged “slam door” carriages to prevent passengers falling out.

WCR has argued the system it operates using stewards to guard the doors is sufficient. But the ORR did spot checks last summer and are understood to have found they weren’t in place on the Jacobite, triggering temporary bans on the service operating. However, that didn’t deter the company going ahead with its legal challenge to the ORR’S directive, which was first announced more than two decades ago.

It portrayed itself as a valiant crusader against officialdom but lost the case in December and I’ve heard no reports of the collapse of the industry. That’s because other heritage operators, as far as I can gather, have accepted what’s been on the cards for a very long time and just got on with implementing it.

When I revealed last year that Bo-ness-based Scottish Railway Preservation

Society Railtours, the biggest player north of the Border and Britain’s oldest, had had to significantly cut back its programme while it upgraded its historic fleet, I heard not one word of complaint. They appear to have accepted it as a necessary safety improvement.

However, at least one other operator has become so fed up with WCR’S attitude they have gone public, laying into the company in an unpublished letter to another newspaper seen by The Scotsman.

Jeremy Hosking, who chairs the Locomotive Services Limited Group, pointed out the industry had had 24 years to put its house in order and said it was wrong to regard the ORR as unreasonable, “let alone nanny-statish”.

Mr Hosking went further, accusing WCR of “deliberate and calculated non-compliance”, which he said “has created an unlevel playing field whereby a dissenting firm enjoys a consequential competitive advantage over more responsible operators”.

I put that to WCR, which said it was a question for the ORR. I find that pretty extraordinary.

WCR also told me it was “continuing to work collaboratively” with the regulator to “find a solution to our current dispute”. That sounds like a softening of its previous tone. In addition, as The Scotsman revealed last week, WCR is looking at various options to resume the service next month.