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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Travel
Robin McKie

End of the line? Vintage train journeys at risk as coal supply fails

A locomotive on the Ribblehead viaduct
A locomotive on the Ribblehead viaduct as it travels through the Yorkshire Dales on a journey from Preston to Carlisle. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA

Britain’s heritage railways are running out of steam. Or, to be more precise, coal. Vintage rail operators across the country have warned that their stocks are now dangerously low and the prospects of replacing them in the near future look bleak.

Many of the UK’s heritage rail companies say they are already having to cut services just as they prepare for the Easter break, when their main operating seasons begin. “It is a very serious problem,” said Paul Lewin, of Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways.

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