By Renee Wood
Many Yarra Valley tourism operators have been suffering through closures over the past eighteen months, but now restrictions have eased and it’s full steam ahead for a summer filled with visitors.
The Yarra Valley Railway is one of those that has been closed for some time, all together over the past two years it’s been lockdown for longer than 12 months.
This Sunday marks a special occasion once again, with the captain welcoming passengers back on to the heritage Walker Railmotor, the first time in three months.
Secretary Brett Morton said the demand is high for visitor experiences.
“It’s surprising how keen people are to do things at the moment, so it’s important to have a presence and get things back up and running because people are looking to do as much as they possibly can,” he said.
A mix of metro and regional visitors are expected to embrace the opportunity, as domestic travel interests increase.
“We’re going to lose a lot of internationals but there’s obviously the flip side of that, which is that people in Australia can’t travel at the moment so they are looking to do things locally – therefore when the opportunity is there, the demand is quite strong.”
The railway’s a drawcard for many visitors as a bucket list item for the Yarra Valley region.
“Our scenery is spectacular, rolling mountains, we’ve got tunnels – it’s just a beautiful, a beautiful spot in the world.”
“The whole region is a hotspot for tourism, you only have to go to every cafe and winery on the weekends every car park is full, so we complement the other type of tourist attractions.”
Currently the service is capped at 25 per cent capacity for the first few rides but limits are expected to change in the coming weeks as more restrictions ease.
Once things are running at full capacity, the funds will help to continue fueling Australia’s biggest volunteer run project – the restoration of the rail corridor between Yarra Glen, and Tarrawarra.
“We need to get back and running and we’ve got a business to run, we need to keep the income ticking in and to maintain a presence with our customers.”
