Polar Express back on track after Sunday cancellations

The hugely popular festive attraction, run by Telford Steam Railway, was hit by problems on Sundayafter a train broke down.

The issue was compounded as it was actually the railway's reserve locomotive being used for the service, with its primary engine also suffering problems last Friday.

It meant that three trips had to be cancelled with the railway apologising and offering refunds, or for people to have their ticket moved to next year.

A replacement locomotive was being brought in on Monday to allow the service to restart today.

Ben Hopkinson, a volunteer at the railway and one of its event managers, said volunteers had worked to try and get the service back up and running on Sunday, but it was not possible.

He said the extreme cold weather had affected both trains, with the attraction never having previously suffered such issues.

He said that the Sunday incident had seen the diesel loco fail shortly before 3pm.

He said: "The volunteers tried their very hardest and the passengers that were on site, because the train was still on the platform, we were able to do a stationary show, and although the train was not moving they still got to experience the same magic.

"All the reviews we had from that were happy, it was not the same experience but they still enjoyed the show.

"Unfortunately that could not be carried on for our other shows due to the health and safety risk."

He added: "Every single customer has been contacted via e-mail and either refunded or can have their ticket moved to next year."

He added: "We ourselves are more disappointed than you would think, this is the first time in six years we have had to cancel a show due to our fault."

The attraction has thousands of visitors every year, and will be running sold out shows from today until December 23.

The service works with a steam engine on the front and the diesel locomotive on the back.

Mr Hopkinson said: "These issues were mainly down to the cold weather. The locos are not used to this long spell of cold weather."

He added that volunteers were working on getting the two trains back up and running, while the temporary replacement is brought in.

The attraction, which carries more than 20,000 passengers over its festive run, is based on the popular 2004 film featuring Tom Hanks.