Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
Occurred to me while reading the thread on DalesRail fares - this is a very unusual example of a (very long running) service that is in practice a tourist day-tripping charter, but is actually a franchise commitment for the TOC.
Are there any other examples of this sort of service? Only one I can think of is Okehampton, obviously soon to be a regular service, plus the winter version of DalesRail, the Lancashire Rambler, which only goes to Hellifield and carries a lot of fresh air?
I specifically mean infrequent tourist-aimed services that are run as a franchise commitment by a franchised TOC, not charters, nor "useless" Parliamentaries - specifically trains intended for that sort of use-case.
(DalesRail sort of is a Parly because it's the only passenger service between Clitheroe and Hellifield, but that isn't the primary reason why it exists, if you see what I mean - and if it was it'd just be one randomly-timed Clitheroe-Manchester extended back to/from Hellifield, no doubt)
Are there any other examples of this sort of service? Only one I can think of is Okehampton, obviously soon to be a regular service, plus the winter version of DalesRail, the Lancashire Rambler, which only goes to Hellifield and carries a lot of fresh air?
I specifically mean infrequent tourist-aimed services that are run as a franchise commitment by a franchised TOC, not charters, nor "useless" Parliamentaries - specifically trains intended for that sort of use-case.
(DalesRail sort of is a Parly because it's the only passenger service between Clitheroe and Hellifield, but that isn't the primary reason why it exists, if you see what I mean - and if it was it'd just be one randomly-timed Clitheroe-Manchester extended back to/from Hellifield, no doubt)