Hello Phil, we are sorry that you feel that you missed out on this occasion. We are currently running our low season timetable which has between two and three steam hauled trips per day accompanied by our scenic railcar covering the other three to four trips. Our timetables are published in advance of each weekend and show what are running. The cost of coal has rised significantly in the past year so we (alongside most other heritage railways) have had to cut down on our steam use, especially on these quiet weekends. Please keep an eye on our website for when we move to our mid and high season timetables where there will be more steam services running.

Hello Matthew, we are sorry that our gala did not live up to your expectations from previous visits. On the Saturday morning of the Gala we experienced the failure of our rostered Diesel locomotive D123. This resulted in a number of small alterations to the timetable to keep the service running and included the addition of a second DMU (Railcar) to cover some trips as well as combining of our C set/Suburban sets of coaches to help improve the capacity on our trains. Our team of dedicated volunteers worked around the clock to keep services running with as little delay as possible and we are working hard to find out where time could have been saved to make our service more efficient at future events. We hope that you can visit us again at a future event.

With reference to the post titled ‘Disgusting behaviour’, we feel a strong duty to reply to this post. Following email correspondence with the writer of the TripAdvisor post, we committed to thoroughly investigate for both clarity, ensuring all of our actions were correct, and to exonerate the GCR from the suggestion of racism. We have fully investigated these comments, and believe they are not a true reflection of the events that occurred. To aid our investigation we have CCTV at our Loughborough Station. This allows for multiple views of the station platform and of the approaches outside of the main entrance to the station. The train in question was the last Santa train on Christmas Eve. The time shown on the ticket was 3.50pm for departure. Our working timetable for Santa Trains has the actual departure 5 minutes after the time shown on the ticket, to allow a margin for late arrivals and essential checks that are required prior to despatching the train. As such the scheduled departure time was at 3.55pm. We can see from our CCTV that the car carrying the two persons noted in the post pulled up directly outside of Loughborough station on the day referred to. The car passenger door opened at 3:54:57pm. The first person alights the car (we believe this to be the daughter referred too) and goes over to the rail bridge to see if the train is still in the station. From here going back to the car briefly before entering the station at 3:55:11pm. This person proceeds through the Booking Hall and down the stairs to the platform, reaching this point at 3:55:30pm. Upon reaching the platform the first lady is approached by a member of the GCR staff. At this point the train can be seen clearly moving past them both as it exits the station. The other lady from the car (who we assume to be the complainant) reaches the bottom of the stairs at 3:56:26pm, by which time the train was already out of the station. There is a strict procedure regarding how trains are despatched, involving several people with very specific safety critical jobs. All procedures are in line with agreed practices and disciplines, similar to those on the National Network. At 3:54:49pm, the Station Master checks to see if anyone is coming down the stairs. Following this, final checks are made and the Guard gives a final approval to the driver to depart by whistle and a signal. We can see the locomotive crew acknowledge the signal at 3:55:07pm. Once the despatch has been confirmed, the only way to stop the train would be to effect an emergency stop. This would only ever happen in a true emergency, as stopping a train is not without risk to passengers. The train commences moving at 3:55:18pm. At this point the first person is still coming down the stairs and reaches the platform at 3:55:30pm. By this time the locomotive is already underneath the bridge. By 3.55:48pm the Locomotive, Tender and carriages have all exited the station. The second person (who we understand to be the complainant) is seen on CCTV entering the station at 3:55:52pm, reaching the platform at 3:56:26pm, i.e. over a minute after the train began moving. In reply, to the comments attributed to the Station Master. For clarity the person who approached the daughter was our Marketing Manager, who due to the extreme cold was wearing a heavy anorak complete with hood, whilst our Station Master was in full GCR period uniform and was positioned approximately half way along the platform at this time. At no point did anyone blow a whistle at this time, as we can confirm from above notes the train had already departed. We categorically deny that a whistle was blown in front of the daughter. It is difficult to confirm the exact words used in the discussion between our Marketing Manager and the daughter. However, we acknowledge the following: Daughter: “Can you stop the train!” Marketing Manager: “No, I’m sorry the train has already been despatched” Daughter: Can we catch the train at another station Marketing Manager: “This is the last train, all the stations are now closed. This is a return trip only” Marketing Manager: “Unfortunately, there are no Santa trains now until next year.” Furthermore we acknowledge that there was a conversation between our Marketing Manager and the Station Master. This occurred as the person identified as mother and daughter were leaving the station and had begun climbing the stairs to the road. Our Marketing Manager had walked down the platform towards the Station Master, who was standing approximately half way along the length of the platform. Their exchange was recollected as “You wouldn’t believe it, the very last train of the season and they missed it.” There were definitely no derogatory remarks or any laughter directed at either of the 2 persons who missed the train. We categorically deny any form of racism, and furthermore can find no evidence to substantiate this claim. Following the completion of our investigation, we have twice offered a meeting either in person or virtually to share our evidence with the writer. These requests have been declined. Whilst we would have liked to discuss this with them directly, we believe the only option is to now reply to the post on the TripAdvisor website. It is indeed unfortunate that the train was missed by such a small margin. However, we hope our explanation of events shows how this happened and that we were unable to stop the train. If this had happened at an earlier time, we would have certainly made arrangements for this party to join another train. However, this was the very last Santa Train to be run in 2022. We accept that this would have been a disappointing and frustrating outcome for the visitors concerned. However, we strongly refute the allegations that have been made and support our staff, whose motives have been called into question by such allegations. To aid clarity we have prepared a timeline of events. 3:50:00 - Time Shown on Ticket 3:54:49 - Station Master checks to see if anyone is coming down the stairs 3:54:57 - Car arrives outside Loughborough Station and first person exists 3:55:07 - Locomotive crew acknowledge Guard's signal to pull out of station 3:55:11 - First person enters the station booking hall 3:55:18 - Train begins to move 3:55:30 - First person reaches station platform 3:55:52 - Second person enters the station 3:56:14 - Train has fully departed the platform 3:56:26 - Second person arrives at the platform 3:37:37 - Guests depart, climbing the stairs to the booking hall 3:57:43 - Marketing Manager and Station Master begin discussion.