Snowdon will start receiving its first rail passengers this week as life returns to Wales’ highest mountain.

Snowdonia National Park is reopening fully from Monday, July 6, and trains will start running on Snowdon Mountain Railway (SMR) on Friday, July 10.

By August the company hopes to be using all four trains and running up to 16 two-hour trips per day.

The line’s re-opening is a huge relief for an operation that is in survival mode after the three-month Covid-19 lockdown.

It has invested £1.2m on two new hybrid locomotives and needs income to make it through next winter.

“Since November last year we’ve not received a penny,” said commercial manager Vince Hughes.

“We now need to make enough money over the next three months to get us through to next March.

“We’re getting around 30 bookings-a-day, mostly for August. It’s only a trickle compared to last year, when we carried record numbers of passengers, but we hope numbers will increase.”

Vince Hughes, SMR's commercial manager
Vince Hughes, SMR's commercial manager

For the first few days the railway will be accessible only to local people and day trippers.

Cross-border visitors have booked for next weekend and more are expected once self-contained accommodation re-opens from July 13.

However difficulties enforcing distancing means Hafod Eryri, the summit building, is likely to remain closed for the rest of 2020.

For this reason trains will terminate at Clogwyn Station, three-quarters up the mountain, before returning after a 30-minute break.

As Snowdon’s footpaths will re-open next week, single tickets will also be available so that passengers can disembark, walk to the summit and return on a later service.

Mr Hughes expects business to pick up as confidence returns.

“We need to get the message out that outdoor visitor attractions are back open, not just here but right across North Wales,” he said.

“But we also need to reassure visitors that every step has been taken to ensure their safety.”

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As social distancing is impossible in SMR’s heritage carriages, they have been shunted to the sidings for the rest of 2020.

Instead the company’s diesel service will be in operation. To enable distancing, each of the four 60-seater carriages will operate at just under 50% capacity.

Plastic screens have been added between compartments, which will be open to family bubbles and social distancing couples. All contact surfaces will be cleaned between trips.

In the ticket office one-way systems and queue barriers will be in place. Extra signs have been ordered, staff will be wearing PPE and all visitors will be asked to use hand wash facilities.

Two extra staff have also been hired to create hygiene teams – they will be shutting station toilets every hour for a 10-minute deep clean.

Two new hybrid battery-diesel locomotives will start running on Snowdon when post-lockdown services resume on July 10
Two new hybrid battery-diesel locomotives will start running on Snowdon when post-lockdown services resume on July 10

All of which amounts to a huge cultural change for a railway which has operated since 1896, carrying some 12m passengers in that time.

Those who do book early will be among the first to ride carriages pulled by SMR’s new hybrid battery-diesel locomotives.

Built by Staffordshire-based Clayton Equipment, which specialises in tunnel, metro and mine locomotives, they have replaced two of SMR’s four Hunslet locos, now more than 30-years-old.

On the way up Snowdon the new hybrid locomotives will be driven by electric motors powered by traction batteries and diesel generators.

On the way down, an energy recovery system recharges the batteries ready for the next ascent.

Mr Hughes said the Clayton locomotives represented a considerable investment in reducing SMR’s carbon footprint.

“They are the future,” he said. “They are quieter, greener and more reliable.”

Eventually the other two Hunslet locomotives will also be replaced when finances permit.

SMR’s steam heritage services will return next year and so too will the passengers, said Mr Hughes

“Last year was our best ever season and this has been our worst,” he said.

“However 90% of the people who were forced to cancel have said they will be back in 2021.”