FURTHER trials of regular passenger train services between Swanage and the mainline rail network have temporarily hit the buffers.

Swanage Railway's planned 90-day trial service, linking the seaside town to Wareham, has been delayed until Easter 2019.

Volunteers at the heritage line had been aiming to run a selected service this year, but the ongoing restoration of the railway's two 1960-built heritage diesel trains will take longer than planned.

Last summer, Swanage Railway's first timetabled trains ran along the full 10-mile route as part of a trial.

The original line from Swanage to Wareham was closed by British Rail and ripped up in seven weeks, in 1972.

Volunteers rebuilt the 5.5-mile (8.8km) stretch from Swanage to Norden over 30 years and have been running it as a tourist attraction since the 1990s.

After work was completed on the section of the track from Norden to Wareham to connect it to the mainline, a trial service - using West Coast Railways rolling stock - began last June and ran for 60 days.

Swanage Railway project director Mark Woolley said: "We are committed to operating the second year of our trial train service to Wareham using our two heritage diesel multiple units which have diesel engines under the floor so there is no need to use a diesel locomotive at each end of a set of carriages as we did with our trial service to Wareham during the summer of 2017.

"The extensive overhaul, refurbishment and upgrade to exacting main line standards of our two former British Railways diesel multiple units by several specialist contractors has been very challenging work because of the heritage nature of the trains."

The two trains are due to be delivered to Swanage Railway this summer, after which they will be intensively tested.

The drivers and guards operating the two trains into Wareham will also complete their training on the new units.