Return of regular train service to Swanage and Corfe Castle

[whole diary]

[bradshaw]

From April to September the Swanage Railway wil be running four trains a day on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. They will be using a restored Class 117 three car dmu with a Class 122 added if necessary. Crewing witll be by West Coast Railway. See website for detail.

https://www.swanagerailway.co.uk/news/view/trial-train-service-from-wareham-main-line-into-the-heart-of-purbeck-thanks-to-working-in-partnership

[grahame]

From April to September the Swanage Railway wil be running four trains a day on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. They will be using a restored Class 117 three car dmu with a Class 122 added if necessary. Crewing witll be by West Coast Railway. See website for detail.

https://www.swanagerailway.co.uk/news/view/trial-train-service-from-wareham-main-line-into-the-heart-of-purbeck-thanks-to-working-in-partnership

Wonderful news - to be clear that is a service from WAREHAM to Corfe Castle and Swanage. 

West Somerset Railway please take note.

[IndustryInsider]

Excellent.  Perhaps not quite as much appeal as the top and tailed 33s used when it ran last time five or so years ago, but most welcome nonetheless.

[ChrisB]

A bit more detail in this report from Rail Advent

selective

....tickets available to buy via mainline operator South Western Railway enabling passengers to include travel for Corfe Castle and Swanage to mainline tickets....The landmark trial will mark the first mainline ticketing facility for travel to Swanage in 51 years...

....will start on the 4th of April, continuing each week until the 10th of September....The first train departure will be at 11.19am at Wareham and the last train will leave Swanage heading to Wareham at 4.20pm, which provides visitors a good four hours to enjoy Swanage and Corfe Castle. On special events days, the timetable will be subject to change....

....The trains will be operated and staffed by West Coast Railways for Swanage Railway as one of the countries leading mainline charter and special train operators....Four services will operate each day out of Wareham each day and will be made up of a three-carriage heritage Class 117 diesel multiple unit which can also have a one-carriage heritage Class 121 diesel multiple unit added when capacity requires, providing 292 seats....

Tickets will be available to buy from Monday the 13th of March via Swanage Railways website.

And, presumably, as quoted, from SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) website & retail

[grahame]

I took the opportunity to try out this service yesterday - taking the electric train from Weymouth (where I had arrived ex Melksham on the through service), connecting into the diesel service to Swanage and then taking the steam train back up to Norden. Lovely to try out all the various modes and a great trip. Swanage warm, scenic, bustling, happy, sunny.  SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) running a few minutes late, not that it mattered, and a lack of staff to be seen (though tickets were checked).  Swanage railway on time, and volunteers ample and happy to engage with public.  The dmu old and knocked about in some ways to make it compliant, but looked in good condition and brought back many memories.  Lovely to see a consistent rake on the steam train and a realistic steam loco on the front of it (as opposed to an interloper).    Pleasant number of people around on the railway; Norden towards the end of the day was a quietish haven, but even there ended up chatting as I took photos of the leaving steam train.

[Timmer]

Were many people using the DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) service to/from Wareham Graham?

[grahame]

Were many people using the DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) service to/from Wareham Graham?

Perhaps 30 or 40 each way.   Pleasantly middling between "empty" and "crowded".  Without being there all day I don't know, but I only arrived on the 13:05 from Wareham where I would expect the earlier service to have been busier, and I left on the tail of the day whereas, again, I would that thought earlier would have been busier.  Certainly, at Norden they were shutting up shop by that time suggesting we were into quieter times.