PLANS ARE being drawn up to capitalise on the scenic value of the Heart of Wales line in the summer of 2023 with a tourist HST service. There are also plans for ‘active travel’ Class 153s to be allocated to the line.
Transport for Wales is in talks with Locomotive Services Ltd’s subsidiary company Rail Charter Services with a view to using the firm’s 2+5 green HST for a ‘Red Kite’ tourist service on the route (the name comes from the birds that can be seen along the line). The green HST, working as the ‘Staycation Express’, galvanised tourist traffic on the Settle and Carlisle line last summer (although no services will operate this year) and use on the Heart of Wales line is predicated on fitting round RCS’s plans for the S&C in 2023, with the aim being two or three workings a week on the Welsh route.
‘We are currently in discussions with RCS about the “Red Kite” service operating in 2023 on the Heart of Wales line, probably in part rather than over the whole route’ Jeremy Whitaker, Network Growth Lead at Transport for Wales, told Modern Railways. ‘We are considering whether the train starts at Crewe, where it is based, or from Manchester to provide a larger catchment.’ A possible desti…
