Doors open at crisis-hit railway

The Weardale Railway opened in July 2004

A team of volunteers is reopening part of a crisis-hit railway in Co Durham.

Although no trains will run on the Weardale Railway, the main station at Stanhope will be open to visitors from Good Friday until Easter Monday.

It will be manned by members of the Weardale Railway Trust which has been working behind the scenes to try to put the railway back on track.

Administrators were called in to the Weardale steam railway in January amid debts of almost £1m.

Since then, company directors, administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers, creditors and public funders have been trying to come up with a rescue package for the railway.

'Rescue package'

Train services, which carried nearly 14,000 passengers on a five-mile stretch of restored track last summer, have been suspended.

The Weardale Railway Trust operates independently of Weardale Railways Ltd and its acting chairman Kevin Hilary said: "We decided to reopen the station over Easter to demonstrate to our supporters both in County Durham and beyond that there is still a future for the Weardale Railway.

"Talks are still continuing to try to come up with a rescue package and until that is put in place we cannot run any trains.

"But on the evidence of the number of passengers we carried last summer and the number of people who have joined the trust since then, we are confident that there is a future for the railway."

The £5m project won cash from regional development agency One NorthEast and the Heritage Lottery Fund among others.