SRPS Railtours news

[31160]

Both the 45 tours in the save the date have disappeared but the 7 counties tour is still on the site and that ran 3 weeks ago, hmm duuno whats up but definitely something

 

[Forty29]

Website just probably needs updating. The 45 was on a test run recently perhaps more work is required on it?

 

[31160]

Website just probably needs updating. The 45 was on a test run recently perhaps more work is required on it?

Had a reply from the SRPS and the quote is they've had a replan and now they will be next year sometime, time to cancel my hotels

 

[GW43125]

Just had an email that the 37s to Glasgow on 28th June is cancelled due to low bookings. Was looking forward to that...

 

[The_Train]

It's a slippery slope for rail tours when 3x 37s and Mk1 coaching stock is no longer enough to sell a suitable number of seats. Gutted about this one!

 

[GW43125]

It's a slippery slope for rail tours when 3x 37s and Mk1 coaching stock is no longer enough to sell a suitable number of seats. Gutted about this one!

Wouldn't surprise me if most of the usual suspects have given it a miss having just spent their cash on the 3 day north Scotland trip the week prior!

 

[Rail Quest]

Just had an email that the 37s to Glasgow on 28th June is cancelled due to low bookings. Was looking forward to that...

Wow that's a real shocker! The fact that it was departing from Crewe as well, a place easily accessible to a wide audience, made me assume it would be a sell out.

 

[91130nut]

Also, I have had an email saying that the trip to Wemyss Bay on 24th May has been cancelled. Low demand apparently.

 

[Iskra]

Wow that's a real shocker! The fact that it was departing from Crewe as well, a place easily accessible to a wide audience, made me assume it would be a sell out.

Crewe, while central isn’t going to be a place where SRPS have much of a customer base. That’s a tour where the partnership with LSL could have helped with marketing with a bit of initiative and communication. I was actually going to book on that tour nearer the time as there’s a tour before that that I was prioritising. A recent change in my personal circumstances just means I can’t plan as far ahead as I would normally.

If you look on Railway Herald, there are quite a few tours showing as cancelled. Now they probably aren’t all for lack of bookings, but a number will be. The prices of tours keeps going upwards, while the enjoyment you can have on them keeps getting managed downwards. In a time of significant financial headwinds, people are going to think twice about what else they can do with that money. For the price of a railtour in Standard Class, you can get 3-6 Day Rovers on Heritage Railways if you choose wisely and you won’t be treat like a child on a school trip all day (admittedly that’s not all operators).

 

[bleeder4]

It doesn't help with budgeting when you have different tour operators releasing their programmes differently. Every November LSL release their entire Saphos/Statesman/Midland Pullman programme for the following year. Railway Touring Company also release a large chunk of their programme at the same time. So by the time Christmas comes around I've already booked on a load of tours and spent a lot of my budget for the year. Of the 21 tours I am currently booked on for this year, 17 of them were booked in November/December last year.

Then you have the ones like Pathfinder, Vintage Trains and SRPS that drip feed their tours throughout the year. This makes it a bit harder to set money aside in advance for them and sometimes the dates they've chosen are dates that I've already booked on another tour. I do book on some of these if I can (such as the Vintage Trains double-headed steam to Plymouth that they announced last week) but it involves using money that I've already starting saving for next year's tours.

 

[Iskra]

It doesn't help with budgeting when you have different tour operators releasing their programmes differently. Every November LSL release their entire Saphos/Statesman/Midland Pullman programme for the following year. Railway Touring Company also release a large chunk of their programme at the same time. So by the time Christmas comes around I've already booked on a load of tours and spent a lot of my budget for the year. Of the 21 tours I am currently booked on for this year, 17 of them were booked in November/December last year.

Then you have the ones like Pathfinder, Vintage Trains and SRPS that drip feed their tours throughout the year. This makes it a bit harder to set money aside in advance for them and sometimes the dates they've chosen are dates that I've already booked on another tour. I do book on some of these if I can (such as the Vintage Trains double-headed steam to Plymouth that they announced last week) but it involves using money that I've already starting saving for next year's tours.

I agree this also has an impact. I find BLS to be by far the worst for releasing tours last minute, sometimes at only 4 weeks notice, by which point I’m likely already busy.

 

[The_Train]

Wouldn't surprise me if most of the usual suspects have given it a miss having just spent their cash on the 3 day north Scotland trip the week prior!

I'm also booked on the 3 day tour as well - I was making June a bit mental haha. However, that 3 day tour still has spaces for all ticket types still available as well at the moment so hopefully that doesn't get canned as well.

Crewe, while central isn’t going to be a place where SRPS have much of a customer base. That’s a tour where the partnership with LSL could have helped with marketing with a bit of initiative and communication. I was actually going to book on that tour nearer the time as there’s a tour before that that I was prioritising. A recent change in my personal circumstances just means I can’t plan as far ahead as I would normally.

If you look on Railway Herald, there are quite a few tours showing as cancelled. Now they probably aren’t all for lack of bookings, but a number will be. The prices of tours keeps going upwards, while the enjoyment you can have on them keeps getting managed downwards. In a time of significant financial headwinds, people are going to think twice about what else they can do with that money. For the price of a railtour in Standard Class, you can get 3-6 Day Rovers on Heritage Railways if you choose wisely and you won’t be treat like a child on a school trip all day (admittedly that’s not all operators).

Crewe is surely easier for people to get to than Bo'ness or Leven and likely to offer cheaper hotels for those who need them. One reason I haven't booked onto more SRPS tours is due to the start and end points of them needing hotel stays before and after and generally being in locations where there are few hotels and therefore the cost of the hotels is naturally higher.

I don't entirely agree with the second part of your post. Heritage Railways clearly offer certain things that mainline tours cannot but there is no comparison to a loco working to its max on the mainline compared to 25mph on a heritage line! I'd also argue that the costs are creeping up for heritage lines as well - when I did a tour to Paignton last year and had a return ride on the Dartmouth that cost me £30 plus the SVR Gala this year is costing me £71 for 2 days plus £40 in travel to and from Kidderminster. Let's not pretend that Heritage Railways are in any way cheap!

It doesn't help with budgeting when you have different tour operators releasing their programmes differently. Every November LSL release their entire Saphos/Statesman/Midland Pullman programme for the following year. Railway Touring Company also release a large chunk of their programme at the same time. So by the time Christmas comes around I've already booked on a load of tours and spent a lot of my budget for the year. Of the 21 tours I am currently booked on for this year, 17 of them were booked in November/December last year.

Then you have the ones like Pathfinder, Vintage Trains and SRPS that drip feed their tours throughout the year. This makes it a bit harder to set money aside in advance for them and sometimes the dates they've chosen are dates that I've already booked on another tour. I do book on some of these if I can (such as the Vintage Trains double-headed steam to Plymouth that they announced last week) but it involves using money that I've already starting saving for next year's tours.

I agree that budgeting is difficult but I can assure you it would be a lot more difficult for me to book all of my rail tours for a year in one month like you have and I would imagine there are lots of people unable to pay for 17 different rail tours over 1 or 2 months! At least with a drip feed it gives me a fair chance to get onto the decent ones I want to do instead of all the best ones being snapped up by those people sat on excess funds and leaving those of us who live pay packet to packet to go on the tours nobody else wanted to do

 

[Iskra]

I'm also booked on the 3 day tour as well - I was making June a bit mental haha. However, that 3 day tour still has spaces for all ticket types still available as well at the moment so hopefully that doesn't get canned as well.

Crewe is surely easier for people to get to than Bo'ness or Leven and likely to offer cheaper hotels for those who need them. One reason I haven't booked onto more SRPS tours is due to the start and end points of them needing hotel stays before and after and generally being in locations where there are few hotels and therefore the cost of the hotels is naturally higher.

I don't entirely agree with the second part of your post. Heritage Railways clearly offer certain things that mainline tours cannot but there is no comparison to a loco working to its max on the mainline compared to 25mph on a heritage line! I'd also argue that the costs are creeping up for heritage lines as well - when I did a tour to Paignton last year and had a return ride on the Dartmouth that cost me £30 plus the SVR Gala this year is costing me £71 for 2 days plus £40 in travel to and from Kidderminster. Let's not pretend that Heritage Railways are in any way cheap!

I agree that budgeting is difficult but I can assure you it would be a lot more difficult for me to book all of my rail tours for a year in one month like you have and I would imagine there are lots of people unable to pay for 17 different rail tours over 1 or 2 months! At least with a drip feed it gives me a fair chance to get onto the decent ones I want to do instead of all the best ones being snapped up by those people sat on excess funds and leaving those of us who live pay packet to packet to go on the tours nobody else wanted to do

Crewe is easy, I agree. But, crucially SRPS don’t have their customer base there, so it was always going to be an uphill struggle for them without leaning on LSL’s mailing list.

Like anything, Heritage Railway’s vary massively in price, but you’re always going to pay a premium on tourist lines or at the big names. There are still many very competitively priced choices out there if you deviate from the most popular lines.

 

[50002Superb]

I had no idea it was starting at Crewe and had I known that I would have probably booked on.

My assumption was that with it being SRPS that the start / end points would simply be too far (adding further cost) to make it appealing to me.

 

[Iskra]

I was the same, I only came across it scrolling through the Railway Herald Railtours section this week. A big shame about the marketing as it did look a decent tour, but I’m sure I’ll find another one to do instead

 

[Harpo]

The prices of tours keeps going upwards, while the enjoyment you can have on them keeps getting managed downwards.

A succinct summary of my own thoughts on tours.

With the noble exception of Vintage’s enthusiast class (I’ve yet to be fast enough to book it!) nobody is making any effort to replace those ‘managed down’ elements.

 

[The_Train]

nobody is making any effort to replace those ‘managed down’ elements.

How would you like them to be replaced?

 

[Iskra]

How would you like them to be replaced?

I don’t think you can avoid what needs to be done to be compliant, but you can control how it is done. Some tour operators have a lot to learn on how to treat passengers that have paid hundreds to be there. Some operators get it spot on though and use common sense, meaning it is both safe and enjoyable.

 

[The_Train]

I don’t think you can avoid what needs to be done to be compliant, but you can control how it is done. Some tour operators have a lot to learn on how to treat passengers that have paid hundreds to be there. Some operators get it spot on though and use common sense, meaning it is both safe and enjoyable.

This is not always on the operator, it's a two way thing. If some people didn't act like morons around droplights, then maybe operators would be more relaxed about people who are able to stand in a vestibule in a sensible way.

 

[Harpo]

How would you like them to be replaced?

As mentioned, Vintage’s enthusiast class is a brilliant initiative guaranteeing seats right behind the loco so you can hear it. The fact that it sells out before anything else shows the demand.

An announcement-free coach would be very welcome with one incredibly verbose operator!

 

[Kite159]

I agree this also has an impact. I find BLS to be by far the worst for releasing tours last minute, sometimes at only 4 weeks notice, by which point I’m likely already busy.

Agreed there, like having "Save the Date" mentioned on the website without giving anything away about the area of the country the tour is starting from (so no ability to book accommodation when it's cheaper)

-----

As for the cancellations of the tours due to low bookings, the cost of living keeps on increasing, meaning for some their disposable income is decreasing (especially if their wages are not rising in line with the increase of various bills). Railtours become a luxury, taking into account not just the cost of the ticket for the tour itself, but the cost of accommodation for 1 or 2 nights (if required) & travel costs. A tour can hence become ~ £300, which for some is money they can't afford.

 

[HOOVER29]

On a recent Mazey day tour to Penzance that we went on, when you take into account travel to & from the start point, food & drink & the tour itself we didn’t see much change out of £600 but the key thing was we enjoyed it.

As for this year I can’t see us doing a tour.

37’s don’t interest me & the destination & route there has to be an interesting one.

Wouldn’t say no to a 50 tour to Norwich via London going & the fens on the return or somewhere like Llandudno

 

[nanstallon]

I hope that railtours can carry on for those who can afford them, but their number will not include me as a pensioner who needs to count the pennies.

Last year I travelled on the Vintage Trains trip to Plymouth last May - a two day tour which, with getting to and from Birmingham and accommodation expenses, took care of about £500. A good trip, but not something that I can afford every year. Instead, I shall go on the Waverley paddle-steamer all day trip on the long coast from Plymouth to Weymouth, costing £66 plus an overnight in Weymouth and coming back by service trains over the scenic Heart of Wessex line to Yeovil and then down the 'Mule' to Exeter and home - total about £150. And no hassles about opening windows - while at sea, anyway!

 

[The_Train]

3 more tours have gone live on the SRPS website:

The Whistling Clansman - Saturday 6th September 2025 - 40013 - Linlithgow to Inverness
The Oban Bucket - Saturday 27th September 2025 - 40013 - Carlisle to Oban
The Illuminating Brush - Saturday 18th October 2025 - 2x LSL 47s (47593 / 47614 / 47712 requested)

Booked the 40 to Oban. This was my book it without even worrying about the bank balance tour - hopefully enough others are as excited by it

 

[Rail Quest]

Booked the 40 to Oban. This was my book it without even worrying about the bank balance tour - hopefully enough others are as excited by it

Indeed I am. It'll probably be my only tour this year at this rate!

 

[The_Train]

Indeed I am. It'll probably be my only tour this year at this rate!

I feel that if it is your only tour of the year, it's a good one to do

Surely a first trip to Oban with a 40 will tempt people. I hope so anyway as I have had to do what I really don't like doing with railtours and book advances on service trains to get me to and from Carlisle, otherwise I'd end up paying 3 times the price for a walk up fare

 

[Kite159]

I feel that if it is your only tour of the year, it's a good one to do

Surely a first trip to Oban with a 40 will tempt people. I hope so anyway as I have had to do what I really don't like doing with railtours and book advances on service trains to get me to and from Carlisle, otherwise I'd end up paying 3 times the price for a walk up fare

Just ensure you leave enough time to account for the start time being 2 hours earlier and finish time being 2 hours later when the timings come back from network rail

 

[bleeder4]

Don't think it's been mentioned in this thread yet, but all the steam specials they had planned in August around the Forth Bridge have all been cancelled due to low bookings.
Comments on their Facebook page imply ticket price is a factor, which is a fair point. Although these tours were all going to run during the Edinburgh Fringe, when the city will be packed with thousands of wealthy tourists who all have money to burn. A bit of canny marketing maybe and they could have tapped into that lucrative market.

 

[The_Train]

Just ensure you leave enough time to account for the start time being 2 hours earlier and finish time being 2 hours later when the timings come back from network rail

I'm staying in Carlisle the night before and after the tour as well so a longer day makes no difference to me. I'd probably vote for that over spending more time in Carlisle anyway

 

[Kite159]

I'm staying in Carlisle the night before and after the tour as well so a longer day makes no difference to me. I'd probably vote for that over spending more time in Carlisle anyway

In that case cue the starting/finish point changing from Carlisle to somewhere random like Lockerbie