Solent&Wessex
Established Member
- Joined
- 9 Jul 2009
- Messages
- 2,685
Glad to hear it.Just back from an excellent day out to the KWVR today, and would thoroughly recommend. Completely back to ‘normal’ normal with all stations open, tickets bought on the day, no silly mask requirements and most importantly the real ale buffet car open. For anyone worried about Covid the train included a suburban compartment coach but for me to be sat with a pint in the buffet with a great atmosphere as we steamed out of Keighley it was almost like the past 18 months had been a bad dream. If any volunteers are on here a huge well done to all involved and we look forward to returning very soon.
Following on from lots of the posts above, the "tourists who want an out and back train ride and never break their journey" model doesn't fit everywhere, and certainly not at the KWVR. It did for a bit last year and earlier this when people were generally more cautious and not visiting as many shops or attractions, but for some time now it hasn't been right.
The KWVR is nearly the closest you'll get to public transport on a heritage railway. The vast majority of visitors break their journey, normally at Haworth. There is no one very busy station which is the obvious start point. Keighley is normally the busiest and pretty much everyone wants to break their journey at Haworth- they are using the train to get to Haworth, something they can't do on prebooked out and back tickets. The railway also carries lots of walkers and people doing single journeys as well as local people having a quick trip (and perhaps a pint!). The compartment round trip model was starting to loose revenue as once Haworth village opened up and people were visiting more, there was huge demand for "a train to Haworth" and "can we come back later on".
To that end it was decided to follow Transport Operator guidance since late May and as such normal tickets with all stations open and normal walk up options, along with the relevant Members, Local Railcard etc discounts were then available. There was a period when the compartments on the train were reservable and the open coaches were for walk up passengers but it was found that the compartments simply weren't selling so that was dispensed with in late June.