A company which organises charter train tours is preparing to take hundreds of passengers from the Aire Valley over the Settle & Carlisle line after its last bid to travel on the famous track was scuppered by a landslide.

Green Express Railtours had been hoping to run its 13-coach train over the line on August 1 as part of a scenic circular tour but - just hours before the train left - Yorkshire organisers were told there had been a landslide in Cumbria which had closed the track.

That excursion to the Edinburgh Jazz Festival went ahead but the train had to return on the East Coast line.

The Settle & Carlisle line has been closed to locomotive-hauled passenger trains since the landslide but on Saturday the Huddersfield-based company's charter service will be the first allowed to travel along it since the closure.

The Aire Valley Edinburgh Express, which can take more than 600 passengers, will take travellers up the East Coast line, giving them five hours in the Scottish city before returning along the Settle & Carlisle line.

Charter train promoter Nick Harvey said: "We're going to be the first train allowed back."

The train sets off from Skipton at 6.40am, picking up at Keighley, Steeton, Bingley and Shipley, before leaving Leeds at 7.38am. Seats are priced at £31 standard or £46 first class and must be booked in advance by calling (01484) 422920.

Meanwhile the company is looking for any local folk or jazz band willing to help get passengers into the festival spirit by playing a set in the train's bar in exchange for their passage to Edinburgh.

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