Electric and vintage buses replace Wells Harbour line

THE UK’s first fully-electric bus is being brought in to replace the much-loved Wells Harbour Railway.

The 10¼in gauge line that linked Wells-next-the-Sea to its beach closed last September after landowner Holkham Estate declined to extend the lease. Operators Gary and Alison Brecknell, who ran the line for 21 years, sold it to the Lappa Valley Railway at St Newlyn East, Cornwall, as reported in issue 288.

Holkham Estate has announced it will introduce the electric bus, running from the Wells Town FC car park to a set-down point near the roundabout at the beach end of Beach Road. It can be lowered to kerb height with an access ramp, and should be operational by June.

At the height of the summer season, it will be joined in service by a 1951 Leyland Tiger open-top bus, which Pinewoods Holiday Park has brought over from Jersey, where it began its passenger-carrying career.