Severn Valley Railway relaunching 'hop on, hop off’ services
Severn Valley Railway is getting up steam to welcome back ‘hop on, hop off’ passengers on all regular services from September 7.
The service will be offered for those passengers with full-day freedom-of-the-line tickets or on journeys between selected stations.
Passengers at the forthcoming Autumn Steam and Diesel Galas will also now be able to choose their itineraries, rather than travelling on designated trains, as previously planned.
Since it reopened in August last year after the first lockdown, the railway has been running fixed excursion services, on which passengers have had exclusive use of a private compartment for the whole of their visit.
This proved extremely popular with visitors and gave many the confidence to return to the railway while it was permitted to operate in accordance with government restrictions.
Helen Smith, the railway's general manager, said: “We have thought long and hard about making this latest change.
“It’s been a delicate balancing act between operating safely and returning to our traditional way of operating.
With the progressive easing of government restrictions and the success of the Covid-19 vaccination programme, we think now is the right time to go back to a more traditional service.
“We know that many people will be thrilled to see a return to local services, giving them the freedom to plan their own journeys.
"Our freedom-of-the-line tickets, available online or at booking offices, give visitors the flexibility to board any train at any station throughout the day.
"For those who just want to travel between stations, on-the-day tickets will be available at booking offices.
“We will continue to offer a small number of private pre-bookable compartments, where passengers are guaranteed exclusive use of a compartment on a single train, throughout the day.
"We know there is still a demand for these, and the high numbers of 5* reviews we have received on TripAdvisor in recent months show how much people have appreciated the way we have done things during the pandemic.
The railway will contact passengers with private compartment bookings for September, including those for the Autumn Steam Gala taking place from September 16 to September 19, offering the choice of keeping these or changing them for flexible tickets.
The Autumn Diesel Gala will be held between September 30 and October 3, and tickets for this event will go on sale later this week when the VIP guest locomotives will also be announced.
