Severn Valley Railway’s ‘Santa’ Trains Brush Recession Aside
There may be a recession in progress - but if the Severn Valley Railway’s Santa Steam Trains are any sort of guide, then you’d certainly never know it!
Telephone lines to the railway’s Bewdley station headquarters have been hot with bookings from families who clearly aren’t willing to compromise the long-standing tradition of ‘seeing Santa at the Severn Valley’ - whatever the pundits may be saying about a ‘credit crunch’.
With more than a month still to go before the first Santa trains run on Saturday December 6th, 14 trains are already fully booked, while many others are rapidly filling, and the railway is advising intending passengers to ‘book now while seats are still available’.
Says SVR Marketing Manager John Leach: “For many people, Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without the ride on the Severn Valley Railway’s Santa trains.
“We’ve been running these trains for 30 years, and many of the people bringing their children now were children themselves when they first came on the ‘Santa Specials’. It’s become such a part of local seasonal tradition that nobody wants to stop - not even in a recession.”
“We’ve never gone ‘glitzy’ with Christmas, and we never will. The journey by steam train from Kidderminster to see Santa in his grotto at Arley has just the right blend of magic and excitement that makes kids go wide-eyed with wonder. It’s been a winning formula for three decades. Santa steam trains just never go out of fashion.”
Steam-hauled Santa trains are running on seven days in December - the weekends of December 6th/7th, 13th/14th, 20th/21st and on Christmas Eve, with departures from Kidderminster at half-hourly intervals from 9.45am.
The railway’s ‘Santa Herald’ diesel unit service which runs from Kidderminster to Highley, with Santa travelling on the train, runs on a further three days - Friday December 19th, Monday December 22nd and Tuesday December 23rd.
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