The fight to save the Hogwarts Express: MPs back bid to stop steam trains disappearing amid health and safety row over slamming doors on its 1950s carriages

• A cross-party group of MPs have written to the rail minister Huw Merriman
• West Coast Railways says its business is in jeopardy after the safety crackdown
• The iconic engine from the Harry Potter films could disappear from the railways

MPs have stepped in to save some of Britain’s last steam trains, including the iconic engine featured in the Harry Potter films, after a health and safety crackdown.

The train safety watchdog has scrapped an exemption that allowed West Coast Railways (WCR) to use traditional hinged-doors on its 1950s carriages.

The slam door ban affects the so-called Hogwarts Express, a popular steam-hauled Jacobite train service nicknamed for its appearance in JK Rowling’s fantasy series.

Until this decision, the service took tourists through the Scottish highlands, including over the famous Glenfinnan Viaduct.

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) was concerned that, due to its 60-year-old carriages lacking a central locking system, passengers could open the door themselves while the train was moving, risking injury.

MPs have stepped in to save some of Britain’s last steam trains, including the so-called Hogwarts Express (pictured)

The Office of Rail and Road has banned the traditional slam-doors (pictured) used on the service, for health and safety reasons

Their decision risks steam trains disappearing from the mainline, as the top heritage train operator, West Coast Railways (WCR), says it cannot afford to replace the doors (Pictured: The Flying Scotsman arriving into London’s Marylebone station)

The service has run every summer for 30 years along the West Highland line.

WCR, which is the biggest operator of steam and classic diesel trains on the national network, has had to suspend it services and has said its entire business is in jeopardy.

A cross-party group of MPs backing WCR have written to rail minister Huw Merriman, urging him to engage with the ORR on this and warning that regulators operating unchecked ‘have the capacity to bring businesses they regulate to a quick end’.

In their letter to Mr Merriman, the MPs claimed there was no safety reason to justify the refusal to grant a temporary exemption.

West Coast lost a High Court appeal over the ORR’s ruling last December after claiming it would cost too much to replace the doors, and the regulator is now considering a revised application from the rail company to resume operations.

The company has also requested a temporary license to permit Jacobite operations over the summer, but with the regulator not expected to respond for several months, at least half the season has already been lost.

In the meantime, West Coast has been forced to fully refund passengers who bought tickets for the Hogwarts Express.

Some 77,000 tickets costing between £55 and £98 were already sold for a season that should have started in March, meaning more than £4 million must be returned to customers.

The Hogwarts Express travels across the iconic Glenfinnan Viaduct (pictured), also featured in the Harry Potter franchise

The Hogwarts Express (pictured) takes 110,000 passengers from Fort William to Mallaig each year

It’s not just the Hogwarts Express facing the end of the line, but also many of West Coast Railway’s other historic trains.

The company operates 60% of all mainline heritage rolling stock in the UK, comprising 125 coaches.

West Coast also provides locomotives and coaches for the Cumbrian Mountain Express and Dalesman services over the Settle and Carlisle line, and operates the Great Britain, which takes passengers on a nine-day tour of the country.

Fitting new locks across the fleet would cost an estimated £7 million, a bill that commercial manager James Shuttleworth said was both unjustified and beyond its resources.

READ MORE: Harry Potter’s ‘Hogwarts Express’ SUSPENDS operating amid health and safety crisis over bid to ban slam doors on its 1950s carriage

West Coast Railway’s Mr Shuttleworth said: ‘Nobody is saying that they want to compromise on safety, but we’ve got to keep the historic ambience of the old carriages. Otherwise nobody will want to travel in the first place.’

He added that the Hogwarts Express had ‘become a key part of the Highland economy.’

The Jacobite train runs 300 services a year along the 41-mile route between Fort William and Mallaig, carrying a total of 110,000 passengers.

Many of these are drawn by the association with the Harry Potter films and the appeal is clear in the numbers.

A lunchtime Scotrail service deposited 70 people in Mallaig last week, according to Mr Shuttleworth, whereas West Coast’s two daily trips typically bring in 700.

A petition to save the Jacobite was started by a businesswomen who runs a Harry Potter merchandise outlet, Haggard Alley, in Mallaig, and it has attracted more than 3,000 signatures in a week.

The loss of the Hogwarts Express would deprive the Highlands not only of rail passengers, but thousands of other visitors who flock to Glenfinnan to watch the steam engine and its trail of vintage coaches cross the viaduct.

It would cost an estimated £25 million a year in lost tourism for the area.

A three-coach Scotrail diesel unit is unlikely to have the same draw, despite meeting all the safety regulations.

West Coast said it has been singled out by the ORR as the other mainline operators have an exemption to use the same carriages affected by the ban.

WCR operates 60% of all mainline heritage rolling stock in the UK (Pictured: Train in Waterloo station)

MPs have backed WCR’s bid for a temporary exemption to keep running its service this summer (Pictured: King Edward II steam locomotive near Paddington Station)

WCR itself has operated with an exemption for the past two decades, while similar rolling stock is also in everyday use on dozens of private heritage railways across Britain.

These private heritage railways are allowed to continue, because the running speeds are limited to 25 mph, meaning the central locking rule does not apply, whereas the Jacobite operates at up to 40mph on parts of the West Highland route.

In its appeal last year, WCR complained that the multimillion pound cost of having to refit central locking would ‘destroy’ its business and argued its door systems were just as safe.

However, at the December court ruling, the judge upheld evidence presented by the ORR that the cost of installing the door locks could actually be as low as £700,000 and could be covered by a £10 increase in the ticket price of the Jacobite service.

The judge dismissed the operator’s case and concluded that the ORR had taken a ‘justifiable’ approach.

An ORR spokesman said: ‘The law states companies cannot operate rolling stock with hinged doors for use by fare-paying passengers on the mainline, without the means of centrally locking them in a closed position.

‘Other charter heritage operators, which use the mainline railway, have made the necessary investment to install central locking on ‘hinged door’ rolling stock (or have committed to do so over a transition period) and it remains open to WCRC to do the same.’

A Department for Transport spokesman said: ‘The ORR is the independent rail safety regulator, and it would therefore be inappropriate for the department or ministers to intervene in their decision to refuse a further exemption to West Coast Railways, which was upheld by the High Court.’

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