Purchase and Reopening
The line was purchased by Pilot Developments (later Epping Ongar Railway Ltd.) in 1998. The Ongar Railway Preservation Society entered a £325,000 offer for the line, but Pilot Developments convinced London Underground to accept their slightly higher offer after the bidding deadline. Independent politician Martin Bell described the deal as "the most controversial land deal in the constituency for years", alleging a conflict of interest with local politicians. The line, under the running group (Epping Ongar Railway Volunteer Society), reopened on Sunday 10 October 2004, providing an hourly service between Ongar and North Weald. The line was shortly after extended to Coopersale, although no boarding or alighting facilities as yet exist there.
On Sunday 9 October 2005 the line celebrated its one-year-running anniversary, with a large number of people visiting on the day.
In early 2006 between 22 January and 9 April the line was shut down for engineering works. This involved general station maintenance, rolling stock maintenance and track maintenance. Ongar station remained closed for engineering works and general maintenance and reopened on Sunday 28 May 2006 to passengers, although initially without the use of the station buildings.
The Easter weekend of 2007 saw the railway's largest number of visitors on a single day since reopening, on both the Sunday and Monday. The Teddy Bears' Picnic, Anniversary of Reopening and Halloween events are also popular.
At the end of 2007, as a result of the awarding of planning permission for the Ongar residential development (see below), the railway was sold to a new private owner who was committed to bring steam back to the line.
Read more about this topic: Epping Ongar Railway
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