Cross Country HSTs bow out with special to Swanage

Credit to CrossCountry for commemorating the end of its High Speed Train sets after 40 years’ operation.

Murray Brown

CROSSCOUNTRY is commemorating the withdrawal of its High Speed Train (HST) fleet by running a charter on September 26, ‘The Pines Express’ from Leeds to Swanage. A mini tour then follows, ‘The Bournemouth Belle’, from Swanage to Bournemouth and return. The original ‘Pines’ ran from Manchester London Road (later Piccadilly) to Bournemouth via Bristol, Bath and the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway south to Branksome Junction, near Poole, and onto to Bournemouth, pine trees being prevalent in this part of the country. This means the end of full-length HSTs but, of course, shortened rakes still operate in the West Country and Scotland. The tour sold out immediately – hardly surprising in view of the £95 charged. Booking agent The Branch Line Society (BLS) has a waiting list for this tour, and seats for…

You're reading a preview of

Rail Express (Digital) - 1 Issue, September 2023

DiscountMags is a licensed distributor (not a publisher) of the above content and Publication through Zinio LLC. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered on our website, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of DiscountMags. DiscountMags does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, truthfulness, or usefulness of all or any portion of any publication or any services or offers made by third parties, nor will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in any Publication, or your use of services offered, or your acceptance of any offers made through the Service or the Publications. For content removal requests, please contact Zinio.