Wales On Sunday

GREAT SCOT!

- JAMES MCCARTHY Reporter james.mccarthy@walesonlin­e.co.uk

LEGENDARY steam train the Flying Scotsman will be in Wales next year for two trips in a day. The train will be arriving in Cardiff from Shrewsbury, having travelled through the Welsh Marches on the afternoon on Friday, May 19, next year. It will be carrying passengers who left the Welsh capital in the morning hauled by diesel.

The famous locomotive will then travel to Newport for 7pm, where steam lovers will be able to journey along the Severn Estuary line, past Chepstow and Lydney, to Gloucester and on to Bristol Parkway.

They will then pulled by a diesel.

The cheapest tickets are priced from £89, while the most expensive Pullman class seats – which include a four-course meal with wine and champagne – will be £225.

Travellers on the morning journey will be offered breakfast and lunch and those on the evening trip will get dinner.

“They will get two meals on the morning trip from Cardiff then in the evening Flying Scotsman will be going from Newport,” Marcus Robertson, chairman of trip organiser Steam Dreams, said.

A previous trip went from London Euston to Holyhead and back.

“People are not after the longest possible trip,” Mr Robertson said.

“They want nice scenery and the Flying Scotsman. That’s the thing for them, to say they have been pulled by Flying Scotsman.” return to Newport He was a big fan of the Newport route. “If the weather is nice, going between Newport and Gloucester through Chepstow and from Lydney is just stonking,” Mr Robertson said.

“Then we are going to Bristol and doing the same thing a couple of days later.

“Every person in the country owns that engine and I feel it is right they don’t have to go to London to experience it.”

The locomotive is normally housed at England’s National Railway Museum.

Mr Robertson was expecting high demand for tickets.

In the past they had sold out “in a day or two”.

“I think once the word gets out they will sell out,” Mr Robertson said.

The Flying Scotsman was the most popular train Steam Dreams used, he said.

“Wherever we have been, Flying Scotsman has in every sense had more pulling power than any other steam loco that we have used.

“This will be a great opportunit­y to see it perform on the mainline and, at the same time, enjoy a fantastic experience of a lovely day out in our historic carriages that are between 50 and 60 years old.”

For more informatio­n visit www. steamdream­s.co.uk

 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom