Weardale 'Polar Express'

I see from the latest news page of the Weardale website (The Weardale Railway Project) that they have sold around 24,500 tickets for their 'Polar Express' trains - I know that nearly every heritage railway runs Santa Specials, but this seems an exceptionally high number of passengers - does any other railway's Santa Specials come close to this number?

This is going to suddenly lift the Weardale in the heritage railway turnover league - a back of an envelope calculation suggests that this is already worth over £500,000 in ticket sales (given the prices shown on https://www.weardale-railway.com/Polar_Express/ - second class £25 for adults/£15 for children, first class £35/£25).

Is this going to make other railways look again at their Santa Specials?

 

This is an operation that will be watched with interest because it is based on the American filmoon (film / cartoon) of the same name rather than the traditional Santa Trains based on the UK's Santa Claus theme. Of particular interest is the (presumed) licensing by Warner Brothers (of Harry Potter fame) and the comparison between the American-style offering from the Weardale Railway and the UK-style offering from other heritage lines.

 

Up to three trains a day formed of 45133 + 11 air con Mk 2s + 31454 or 33103. That's a pretty impressive operation for a "small" preserved line. 1500 passengers a day and up to 100 staff and volunteers as well. There can't be many lines that have that many people working there for Santas.

 

Indeed, best of luck, just a shame that no normal running is planned with the stock or locos while they are there.

 

Impressive numbers indeed. Compared with say the SVR, who as of today have 46 fully booked Santa trains, and a further 6 nearly full. I think they load to about 350 pax per train, so on the back of an envelope around 20,000 tickets sold.

The SVR dont run any normal services during the Santa special season either, because the 30-minute service is to maximum line capacity, and no doubt will use all available motive power.

 

Formation;

45133 (BR Blue)
5906 TSO (Intercity Swallow)
6059 TSO (Virgin)
5960 TSO (Virgin)
9492 BSO (Green)
3354 FO (Green)
3402 FO (Green)
3425 FO (Green)
3521 FO (Blue/Grey)
9497 BSO (Intercity Swallow)
5866 TSO (Intercity Swallow)
6168 TSO (Intercity Swallow)
31454 (Intercity swallow)

Info from Thornaby Kingfisher

 

Declaring an interest - I am a volunteer & Director of the Weardale Railway.

In all honesty many of us wondered if a film issued in 2004 would have enough brand recognition to bring in our targetted number of 20,000 passengers. But tickets were selling before we had even launched the main media campaign - such is the power of the internet. So we are now having to schedule extra trains . It is a franchise operation (like 'Thomas') so the franchisee takes their cut of the revenue but it looks as if it will make a strong bottom line contribution, not withstanding a lot of one off costs in the start up year.

One point to bear in mind when comparing with Santa trains - is that the limiting time factor in a Santa operation is getting the children to meet Santa - on Polar the train ride to and from the North Pole is the story plus the music, singing and acting and hot chocolate and cookies on the train - plus a visit from Santa - one Santa passing through 10 coaches . This takes just over an hour then you can reload for the next train. Looking at the reaction to the first night of operation it seems to be going down well.

A footnote : Our American majority owner runs Polar on 4 (soon to be 5) US railways and we used the same ticket booking office facility in Colarado that they use - - the operators were given lessons in 'Geordie' english - seems to have worked !

 

Thanks for the info; as noted in an earlier post this will be an interesting operation to watch and compare to the "normal" Santa Opreration. Whilst not expecting confidential info such as profits etc (though would be nice to know if it does do so) a report on number of passengers carried / trains run and customer feedback might be worth following up. Please keep us updated.

 

i have to admit that I was very sceptical when I heard about this, and so am delighted to see that bookings are going so well. Let's hope that the feedback is positive so that future years can build on the success.

The sister company in Devon is also doing Polar Expresses, and I'm wondering whether that is looking just as encouraging. The catchment area feels to be a bit smaller, so it might struggle to repeat the Weardale's success?

 

Here is some typical feedback to our website :-

"We were aboard the Polar Express tonight withour Bebold family and would just like to say a massive THANK YOU. We had amagical journey and our chefs were fantastic, they made us laugh and sing.Thanks again you've made our childrens christmas."

You can follow other feedback on the Twitter site :- @polarexpressUK

Hav'nt any figures for Dartmoor - in recognition of the geography/population distribution fewer trains were scheduled there . Weardale Railway has 2.4 million within an hours drive - having said that we have some folk flying in from Bulgaria !

 

I think Weardale deserve to succeed with this having had the courage to take a significant risk. Also thanks for sharing some of the background which is really helpful.
Looking around the web its interesting that all USA Santa operations seem to follow the Polar Express theme and many seem to be sold out.
Looking at the very mixed first trip advisor reviews it looks like the Weardale operation needs some tweeking if its to succeed in the long term. One of the reviews is very helpful in this respect. Of course teething problems are inevitable in a new operation of this type.
The success of this sort of event which is more theatre than anything else depends on atmosphere above anything else. The US operations which are successful are the ones which have nailed this. It has reinforced our intent to build on the most successful part of our Santa operation which is a small piece of theatre. Probably its most appreciated by the parents and they buy the tickets!
The US in my experience is much better at this sort of thing than the UK. We have had some very boring US train rides become great fun because of the efforts by the staff who seem to delight in engaging with passengers and some very different experiences on UK heritage railways. Perhaps the Geordie's have the best chance of pulling it off

 

If you mean here:
Weardale Railway Reviews - Stanhope, Durham Attractions - TripAdvisor
there are only two about the Polar Express - one gave an "average" vote with lots of helpful suggestions, and the other said it was dreadful and overpriced.

Nice to know the phone staff have been trained to understand "Geordie", but the website could also be translated from the American English:
https://www.weardale-railway.com/Polar_Express/index.html

Richard

 

The West Coast Railway Heritage Park hold the only Polar Express event in Canada - it proves very popular even though it is held 45 miles away from the main population center of Vancouver . The clue is to bring the story to life for the kids Home

 

The challenge with this sort of new event is balancing the financial risks - spend too much getting it just right and you end up out of pocket if ticket sales take time to build (as people gradually add it to their traditions), spend too little so its a bit rough around the edges and the reviews might kill next years event before it starts. Looks like they've got a few things to work on (no toilets on an hour trip designed for kids is a bit of foot shot!) but it will be interesting to see if they can pull it off - in any event it looks like they have the "franchise" wrapped up (along with their Dartmoor operation) so other lines won't be following any time soon. To some extent Santa Specials are more free form so give more scope for lines to work to their strengths - this Polar Express is going to rely heavily on the "actors" to make it a success.

 

Merlin : You got it very right in your last sentence. "The clue is to bring the story to life for the kids" I would also add that perhaps the adults need to see it through the eyes of their kids . As a volunteer and Director of WR I have looked through the feedback- which is overwhelmingly positive. Where it isn't, most of the problem seems to lie with a few of our recruited temporary staff (you need five per coach) - for some of them this their first ever job and it looks as if some of then need more training and support. This is all in the first few days of operation and I am confident these wrinkles will be ironed out in the next day or two (we only had time for one practise run - coaches arrived Wed , rehearsal run Thur, first run Fri ). I note even on railways in the US there is some negative feed back on P Ex - but it does seem to be from the adult point of view - they just did not get to believe. Here is one piece of feedback from WR facebook which sums it all up :-
B A
Just wanted to thank youall for the most amazing Christmas experience. We all thoroughly enjoyed thePolar Express. ALL the staff were fantastic, accommodating, friendly, attentiveand thoughtful, all the way from the car park attendants and ticketing staff tothe conductor, chefs, elves, Hobo, and of course Santa, you have all done theWeardale Railway proud. Our children were amazed and we have some precious memoriesto cherish from tonight. Every little detail was well thought out, from the dancing, singing. Hot chocolate,listening to the story to the North Pole, singing carols(with lots of laughterand silliness ) ad ringing bells as well as the way the station looked inbeautiful lights,Photos to come! WE BELIEVE.

 

Further to the last post here is the local (Darlington) Daily Paper review : "Polar Express in Weardale delights passengers young and old"

Polar Express delights passengers young and old (From The Northern Echo)

 

The review you mention is also repeated word for word on Trip Advisor and I have to say I was suspicious that it was genuine as its the only contribution made to trip advisor by that person and its just a bit OTT. However I do think that the potential to get that sort of review repeated is there if you can get the experience right. I accept how hard it is to do that starting from scratch.

I hope you pull it off because the potential is so significant. You are able to charge a premium price and give overall better value because you provide entertainment for the whole period rather than the 30 seconds Santa takes to thrust a present over on some traditional UK Santa trains.

Can I ask do you give a silver bell as the child present as the sole gift and does it ring? If so that must make present purchase a dream compared with our operation.
Good Luck with the rest of the season.

 

Polar Express, Weardale Railway 2012. - YouTube

Take your point on Trip Advisor, all I can say is that it appeared first on our Facebook group which is moderated and some time later it appeared ,as you say on Trip Advisor - Your point on the difference to a conventional Santa operation is spot on and yes the bell does tinkle - at least mine does, I got it at the press launch in October !

 

Bit dubious about Trip Advisor as this is a 4* review!

(Weardale Railway Reviews - Stanhope, Durham Attractions - TripAdvisor)

Will

"“"waste of money !!"”"*19 Nov 2012*frighing

we visited the railway on the 17th november, my daughter 4 and me and my husband, it cost us £55 and that wasnt first class!! amd for that we got to queue in the cold for 45 minutes, a luke warm chocolate drink and a cookie, a bell and not forgetting some fairy lights on a old building.
After getting our tickets we then told we could not go on platform for another 50 mins( the email says to be there an hour before ) the shop had nothing set up. evntually got on platform to be told we had to go straight on to train( not a steam train either which was a big disappoinent) so could look round, had to wait 30 mins before train left, in that time as children do she needed the toilet to be told there is none on board so had a mad dash to platform one.*
we never had any dancing waiters or elves only saw hobo once and santa didnt even ask my daughter any questions just gave bell and left.
luckly we were on the north pole side but it wasnt worth it, im sure they could but something on both sides.
so basically waste of time and money, !!"