The expected formal announcement has now been made that the Jacobite train is suspended until further notice due to the ongoing serious safety issues.
It will not be starting at Easter, and has no current start date this year.
West Coast Railways will contact any booked passengers in order of date of travel regarding refunds.
This has been well trailed on this forum so hopefully very few people here will be affected.
Thanks for posting the official confirmation.
I have never ridden the Jacobite but I do admit to enjoying seeing it come across the viaduct, which I have done a few times !! (Have also ridden the regular train several times too).
It's ironic that my family initially wanted to go the Highlands just to ride this train, and we've discovered so many other things we will be doing that it doesn't bother us that it's not running. Hopefully they'll figure out how to do it in the future again!
Have to wonder if any expanded other services will take up the slack ,I saw people unable to board the " normal" train 3 times last year as it was absolutely rammed.
I have been wondering that. Scotrail now have their Charter train (a 'Polmont' push pull set) which would be ideal and should also have spare diesel sets following the Barrhead electrification.
However the problem is that the service is suspended, not withdrawn. That semantic distinction means that West Coast Railways still hold the Operating Licence (essentially the Franchise) and thus retain the train paths. Until and unless that licence is withdrawn by the ORR no-one else can run extra trains, including Scotrail.
And the service trains can't be extended to beyond 4 cars due to platform lengths.
What charter train?
The 1980s-style 'Polmont' push-pull set as you describe it is owned by LSL, a private charter company, not ScotRail.
There are no spare diesel sets either, the two 156s units freed up from Barrhead are for Anniesland to free two 158s for the new Leven line.
What a carry on.
WCR have only had over 20 years notice to fit central locking. It seems to have become a weird matter of principle to avoid it. Hard to understand really.
According to today's Scotsman, they have cancelled from today to Apr 8 with a "chance" of resuming after that. Sounds optimistic - they might be hoping for a ground swell of public support?
The wording of the West Coast Railways announcement gives little hope and little confidence-
This suspension of this service is due to a debate with the rail regulator around door locking. We share the regulator’s commitment to safety and our priority now is to work with it to renew permission to enable us to run The Jacobite on the main rail line.
That is species wording. There is no debate, nor does it suggest that they are actually doing any work to make the required modifications or to find alternative rolling stock. Most of the rest of the Heritage Rail Industry has complied, WCR have had all winter to make the required modifications, having lost the "debate" last summer.
One option that has apparently been floated is to run the Jacobite slower, thus messing with the timings of the ordinary service trains. No thanks. And as if slower makes safer.
That closure of the "debate" last year followed several previous warnings, which WCR thought they could just ignore.
It doesn't matter what the public think, they do not make the rules. So far the only action by West Coast Railways has been along the lines of saying the area will lose x£million from us not running.
That is not and cannot be a consideration regarding safety.
The thing is, that WCR have been involved in several other serious incidents away from the Jacobite.
As was written above it is totally strange why WCR have made this a matter of principle. They run a number of other passenger services with the required rolling stock, so know and have made the required mods to other of their train cars.
They know its a safe bet for future revenue and I think I read three years ago were told that this was going to be enforced .
Be nice if another operator could take it on .
Did the current operator want a guy with a red flag to walk infront of the train!
they have been going the route of an online petition which they hope to have signed by hordes of supporters. I wonder how that is coming? And what difference it would make.
First rule on the railway is Safety First. I learned it on my first day many years ago.
I can't see how a petition can overrule safety.
For what it's worth, the train might be sitting at the Fort William station, so you can at least take a selfie next to it. I didn't mean to imply any likelihood of a PR or petition approach - just reporting the news.
That really isn't going to happen.
Both the locomotives and the carriages are based at Carnforth, Lancashire. They are transferred to the West Highlands for the season. Currently they are at Carnforth and that is where they are staying at until the mess is sorted out.
West Coast Railways are not going to pay for train crew, for the cost of the coal each day and for the fees to use Fort William Station Platform, and get no revenue out of it.
For what it's worth I saw a rake of compliant WCR stock on a steam ex on the Settle Carlisle line today, proving they do own some.
I did hear a rumour last night that there may be deep seated technical reasons why WCR do not want to modify the train cars. As I don't know the underlying truth behind that story I am not going to repeat the rumour here- but if true it is extremely interesting.
Article in the Oban West Coast Today newspaper.
A petition to stop the suspension of the Jacobite Steam Train had garnered almost 3,000 signatures less than a week after being launched.
Interesting article. I can't imagine their petition will make any difference.
For anyone in Fort William next Monday and Tuesday (8 and 9 April) only Locomotive Services Group (of Crewe) are to run a special service 'The West Highlander' using the Scotrail liveried Push-Pull cars.
It will depart Fort William at 0850, arriving at Mallaig at 1050, departing at 1130, arriving back at Fort William at 1320.
Tickets are £40 adults, £20 children, first come first served, purchase on the day. There is a buffet car.
Whether this is the start of a new operation remains to be seen.
This is a good quality train. If you get the opportunity this is one to patronise.
I was checking the petition on line and to date it has a total of 4681 signatrures. I don't think it will have much effect. As already been said many times WCR have had a lot of time to sort this out.
Another article from West Coast Today News
West Coast Railways’ refusal to comply with health and safety requirements angers residents
"This week Locomotive Services Limited ran some charter trains on the line and it is hoped others will come forward to fill the breach left by the Jacobite.
A Network Rail spokesperson said: "Any operator can bid for what we call train paths on a line so long as they can be accommodated without disruption to services already in the planned timetable."
In a very unexpected development yesterday and today West Coast Railways ran the morning Jacobite train empty in the normal timings, using diesel haulage, as well as there being the special Charter train services run by the competition. This retains their right to the train paths for three months.
It is not clear if they plan to keep doing this every day, or if it was just being spiteful.
If they do the train is scheduled to be in Fort William from 0915 to 1015 and briefly on it's return, although today the return ran 33 minutes early. Westbound it is also liable to leave Glenfinnan 20 minutes early at just after 1100 as soon as the track is clear from the Glasgow bound train.
The Jacobite steam train restarts operations on 15 April.
West Coast Railways have now sourced compliant train cars. but there are insufficient cars.
Thus trains will be shorter than normal, some existing bookings will be refunded and new bookings remain suspended.
