Swanage Railway: Wareham main line DMU service will not return in 2024

Railway has confirmed that its main line DMU service linking the heritage railway with South Western Railway’s station at Wareham will not be repeated in 2024 after last year’s operation was deemed to have been commercially unsuccessful.

The Wareham service first operated in the summer of 2017 using hired-in stock and locomotives from West Coast Railways. In 2023, the services were operated using the Swanage Railway’s Class 117 and 121 diesel multiple units, which had both been upgraded to operate over Network Rail between the railway’s boundary and Wareham station, again with WCR crews hired in to operate the trains. A statement seen by Railways Illustrated from Swanage Railway Trust chairman Frank Roberts said: “I would like to thank our dedicated and professional staff and volunteers who worked so hard to put the infrastructure in place so the Swanage Railway could operate its two-year trial heritage diesel train service to the main line at Wareham in 2017 and 2023.

“My grateful thanks are also due to our valued and appreciated partners and stakeholders – local councils, Network Rail, South Western Railway (previously South West Trains) and the Government’s Coastal

Communities Fund – for their enduring commitment and assistance in enabling our service to Wareham. “While our trial service on the busy Network Rail main line into Wareham was operationally successful, it did not deliver commercially and any future service to Wareham would require a subsidy to operate. We appreciate the disappointment this may cause to people in the Isle of Purbeck.

“Operating on 90 selected days between April and September in 2017 and 2023, the 2023 trial heritage train service to Wareham was operated against the background of the Government underwriting reduced price £2 tickets for bus journeys in England.” The Swanage Railway is currently running a Save Your Railway fundraising appeal, having suffered a fall in passenger numbers following the pandemic, while also experiencing a dramatic increase in operating costs. The railway stated that it needs to identify expenditure savings of about £350,000. The appeal target has been set at £450,000 and about £120,000 has be donated so far. Details of the appeal and its aims can be found at www.swanagerailway.co.uk/save-your-railway

Andy Coward The Swanage Railway has confirmed its service to Wareham will not operate during 2024, as the trial service has proved to be commercially unsuccessful. On the first day of services between Swanage and Wareham on April 4, 2023, the main line-registered Class 117/121 DMU stands at Wareham after arriving with the 12.14 service from Swanage.