A HISTORIC rail journey from Bournemouth has been made – 41 years after the tracks were last used.

SouthWest Trains ran its first passenger train from Bournemouth to Corfe Castle and Swanage for the first time since New Year’s Day, 1972, when the last British Rail trains ran on the dying Swanage branch line.

The journey gave stakeholders the chance to see the progress being made towards re-introducting a regular train service from Swanage to Wareham.

The visit of the three-coach SouthWest diesel train took place on the day before the 50th anniversary of the Beeching Report, published in March 1963, which closed several railway lines in Dorset.

Swanage Railway Company chair, Peter Sills – who travelled on the last train from Swanage as a teenager – said: “I am very grateful indeed to SouthWest Trains and Network Rail for their very kind help in enabling this historic and very special train to run on our behalf.”

He said feedback was positive after the “very exciting” day.

“The special train also enabled our guests to travel on the three-mile Network Rail line from Worgret Junction, on the main London to Weymouth line just west of Wareham, to the start of the Swanage Railway just east of Furzebrook – a stretch of line only used by occasional excursion trains from various parts of the country down to Corfe Castle and Swanage,” he said.

SouthWest Trains-Network Rail Alliance stakeholder and accessibility manager, Phil Dominey, who also travelled on the final train from Swanage as a child, said: “We are delighted to have been involved in such an historic journey and we believe it was an informative and enjoyable day for everyone involved.”

Swanage Railway was awarded a £1.47 million Government grant from the Coastal Communities Fund in February this year to re-introduce a regular train service from Swanage and Corfe Castle to the main line at Wareham.

The first regular trains are expected to be running by spring 2015.