History
DAVID TURNER examines the decline - and eventual cessation - of post-War Christmas Day and Boxing Day rail services, and the factors behind their withdrawal
In December 1950, children on British Railways’ long-distance trains received a surprise - a visit from Santa Claus.
A railway employee boarded trains in their everyday clothes, changed in the guard’s van, and then walked up and down the train distributing gifts (worth about ten shillings) to passengers who appeared to be under 12. They had to look as though they believed in Santa. Returning to the guard’s apartment, the employee changed back into regular clothes and then left the train, thus delivering magic to the children looking in vain at the next stop for where he was going.
Dubbed by one newspaper ‘the first state Santa Claus’, he visited all BR’s regions and travelled hundreds of miles.
A railway official stated that BR had asked Santa to visit travellers “as a gesture of goodwill at this time of year”.
The Railway Executive’s publicity committee reported in early 1951 that the entire scheme had cost £263, but that “notwithstanding some adverse press criticism, it had proven popular with passengers”. They recommended its continuation the following year.
BR evidently recognised that with so many people travelling before Christmas Day for various reasons, it had an opportunity to improve its public image at small cost.
However, this was a high point of post-war festive train travel. In the next 70 years, the nature and extent of Christmas train services changed because of varied factors (note that this article excludes London Transport).
Christmas before 1961
Around 1950, reliance on public transport for festive purposes was reflected in the service BR offered. It ran extra trains to accommodate large numbers travelling to and from where they were spending Christmas.
In 1949, BR announced 1,500 extra long-distance trains over the Christmas break (500 more than in the previous year), with duplicate and relief sections added to ordinary services.
Passengers could find out about what was running through the Regions’ Christmas timetable publications.
The London Midland Region’s 1950 Programme of Additional and Altered Express Trains running from London ran to 12 pages and covered Thursday December 21 to Wednesday December 27. It described how, for example, between 0040 on December 23 and 0512 on Christmas Eve, 13 extra trains were planned between London and Crewe, in addition to the regular timetable.
The Southern Region’s (Western Section) guide from 1952, covering December 24-29, showed normal weekday servic
