West Coast Wilderness Railway ready to take passengers again

All aboard. Wilderness railway ready to accept passengers after five month stand down.

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TASMANIA’S premier wilderness railway experience is almost back on track after a five-month COVID-19-enforced stand down.

The West Coast Wilderness Railway which carries passengers between Queenstown and Strahan has this week been taking local tourism and government representatives for preview trips as it prepares to restart visitor journeys on September 22.

The railway was forced to suspend operations in April.

“In the months since the suspension, the railway has maintained its core staff of year-round employees despite not qualifying for JobKeeper subsidies due to government ownership,” general manager Anthony Brown said.

Black narrow gauge steam engine puffs clouds of steam as it passes another train in a station. Vertical format, copy space. NOTE: Taken with permission of the West Coast Wilderness Railway in almost darkness and drizzling rain.

“The team have completed a number of projects, such as the scheduled and unscheduled maintenance on the track and rolling stock, station improvements across four remote stations along the line, upgraded on board audio and visual delivery and an augmented reality experience.

“The shutdown has been hard on the team and we are very excited to be able to get back to doing what we do best.

“We’re really proud of the effort the entire team have put in over the last six months and especially in the last few weeks to get us ready.”

The West Coast Wilderness Railway will run journeys from Queenstown from Tuesday.

Trips from Strahan will not resume until January when the planned track replacement project, delayed due to the pandemic, is completed.