30 June 2008

PR070

EXCURSION AND SPECIAL WEEKEND FARES TO CELEBRATE 5TH ANNIVERSARY
(4 JULY 2008)

Adult and senior citizen train fares will be slashed to £5 for a Day Rover ticket from all five stations this weekend, to mark the 5th anniversary of the re-opening of the Wensleydale Railway in 2003.

“We hope this offer will enable more people than usual to have a long summer day out in beautiful Wensleydale,” says Wensleydale Railway chairman Mrs Ruth Annison. “These Day Rover fares apply on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (4-6 July). We have included Friday because it is market day in Leyburn, as well as the weekend.  No advance booking is needed – passengers can 'turn up and go' from any of WR's five stations.”   The first train each day departs from Leeming Bar at 10.05  (and from Bedale at 10.11, for intermediate stations to Redmire); full timetable on www.wensleydalerailway.com.

To join a special excursion on the actual anniversary date, Friday, 4 July, booking is essential as seats are limited. On arrival by train at the present railhead at Redmire, passengers on the Anniversary Excursion will travel onwards by coach through Wensleydale.  The escorted tour will include sites on the closed 18 mile section of the line, including Apedale Beck, Aysgarth station, Yorebridge, the 'Iron Bridge' and Hawes station. After time for lunch in Hawes, the group will travel another six miles to see Dandrymire Viaduct and Garsdale station on the Settle-Carlisle line, before returning to Leyburn station and the train journey back to Leeming Bar. Tickets for this all-day excursion cost £20 (lunch not included) and should be booked on 08454 50 54 74 (may be answerphone).

For collectors of railway memorabilia, a small number of individually numbered commemorative medals from the First Train Day on July 4, 2003, are available at £20 each in presentation box from Wensleydale Railway's Leeming Bar station, postcode DL7 9AR (free postage and packing for orders received in July and August).

On July 4 2003, William Hague MP waved the green flag for the first train to depart. Celebrations included the bells of fourteen local churches being rung in sequence as the train travelled through Wensleydale. Last month (20 June) Mr Hague re-visited the Wensleydale Railway to see for himself the progress that has been made over five years – and to wave the green flag for a departing train once more.

Notes for editors:

1. The original 40 mile Wensleydale Railway opened in stages during the nineteenth century and closed to passengers in the 1950s. 22 miles of track survived and on 4 July 2003 scheduled services began again, operated by a local company set up in 2000 for this purpose, Wensleydale Railway plc.

2. The 40 mile railway used to connect the East Coast main line at Northallerton with the Settle-Carlisle line at Garsdale station.  WR's long-term goal is to reinstate this connection by re-building the missing 18 mile section from Redmire to Garsdale.

3. Although trains can come and go between the ECML and WR, the short length of track into Northallerton station is also missing.  Feasibility and costing studies are already in hand for reinstating this, thanks to rail industry sponsorship by Corus Rail Infrastructure Services.

4. “There's never been a better time to re-open a railway,” says Ian Sesnan, WR's director of Regeneration and Communities (email ian@iansesnan.co.uk).