Network Rail has suspended West Coast Railways from operating anywhere on the national rail network following a serious SPAD (signal passed at danger) event earlier this year.
On March 7, the 1635 West Coast Railways ‘Cathedrals Express’ (Bristol Temple Meads-Southend East) - formed of 34067 Tangmere, its Mk 2 support coach and 12 passenger vehicles (a mix of Mk 1/Mk 2 coaches) - passed signal SN45 at danger and overran by 700 yards. The signal is located at Wootton Bassett Junction on the Great Western Main Line. The incident occurred around one minute after a First Great Western service train cleared the junction. The suspension is effective until May 15th and will continue unless WCR management can convince Network Rail that sufficient steps have been taken to prevent a further breach of safety rules.
West Coast Railways run frequent charter excursions along the Settle to Carlisle line - many of them steam hauled.
See more at: http://www.railmagazine.com/news/network/2015/04/02/west-coast-railways-operating-licence-suspended
For details of future steam hauled excursions see
http://www.uksteam.info/tours/trs15.htm
Important update
West Coast Railways has issued a statement concerning this situation and reassures customers that all its scheduled tours will go ahead under licence of a different operator. For details see http://www.westcoastrailways.co.uk/