Government grant for updated Swanage-Wareham feasibility study
ALMOST 50 years after BR closed the ten-mile Wareham-Swanage branch in January 1972, the Swanage Railway has won a £50,000 Government grant to update a feasibility study and business case aimed at reinstating a train service to reconnect Swanage and Corfe Castle with the main line at Wareham. The proposal has political support as it would boost the local economy in Purbeck.
South Dorset MP Richard Drax welcomed the grant from the
Department for Transport’s national ‘Restoring Your Railway Fund’ as “an important step to ensure our iconic railway sustains its place in our hearts and our livelihoods.” The Swanage Railway has been rebuilt from nothing since 1976 (BR lifted the track in summer 1972) and in 2014 the heritage line was connected with the national railway system near Worgret Junction, south of Wareham, on the main London to Weymouth line. This was thanks to an innovative signalling system linking the heritage line with Network Rail.
Swanage Railway’s Project Wareham director Mark Woolley said: “We hope the new feasibility study and business case – last carried out 12 years ago in 2008 – will be wide-ranging and fully take into account our existing award-winning heritage railway. We hope that the outcome will provide us with an updated way ahead on how to operate a sustainable train service to Wareham. We are also hopeful that the work will also help us identify potential sources of further funding to provide the necessary train servicing and maintenance facilities to achieve this.”
During the summer of 2017, the Swanage Railway ran a 60 selectedday trial diesel train service to Wareham that saw four trains a day run from Swanage and Corfe Castle to the main line at Wareham, operated by West Coast Railway. However, revenue was dwarfed by operating costs.