41 years on, axed trains run again
FOR the first time in 41 years, a passenger train has arrived in a picturesque seaside town.
Peter Sills of the Swanage Railway hailed the success of the venture as “Beeching in reverse.”
Swanage in Dorset was cut off from the network when the Lord Beeching’s axe slashed British Rail routes.
Now an army of volunteers has rebuilt the connection to Wareham, seven miles away.
Saturday’s diesel engine trip was experimental but a regular passenger service will be running by 2015. A popular steam heritage railway already runs along a four-mile section of the line.
Peter Sills of the Swanage Railway, who travelled on the last British Rail train from Swanage in 1972 hailed the success of the venture as “Beeching in reverse.”