Blues Train faces tough journey towards October restart

THE Blues Train will be back on the track later this year but is a long way from getting up to full steam, and its founder is urging people to show their support by jumping on board.

The popular railway-based music event between Queenscliff and Drysdale was last in operation on March 14, 2020, and has been in hiatus since then.

The recent significant easing of coronavirus restrictions compared to the heights of last year has provided some light at the end of the tunnel, and The Blues Train Revival Concert Series was announced last week, with regular trains to begin operation in October.

The Blues Train has generated no income since March but has had monthly expenses of about $12,000, and founder and proprietor Hugo T. Armstrong launched a GoFundMe campaign in August 2020 to keep his business afloat.

The campaign has raised more than $44,000 of its $70,000 target to date.

“I have been overwhelmed by the support of the community for this product that a group of us started 26 years ago, never envisaging the highs and the lows of the past 13 months,” Mr Armstrong said.

“On the night we closed in March 2020, I said to the staff ‘This will be a case of first to leave, last to come back!’ – it now appears that was a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“It will be impossible to thank everybody individually, however a massive thankyou to all the people who have supported us.

“The challenge is not over yet as we have faced significant financial losses and with the winding up of JobKeeper, we will need ongoing support to get right through until October when The Blues Train product starts to run again.”

He said the end of the federal government’s JobKeeper wage subsidy on March 28 “slightly forced my hand” in announcing the return of The Blues Train services, and the business now faced a “very precarious six-month buildup”.

The Blues Train Revival Concert Series is being supported by the Borough of Queenscliffe and the Melbourne Arts Centre.

Ticket presales began on Wednesday last week to travel credit voucher holders, gift voucher holders, GoFundMe campaign donors and VIP members, with tickets to go on general sale on May 4.

Mr Armstrong said he was heartened by the response to the presales so far.

“We’re calling all of the travel credit voucher holders one by one, and they’re overwhelmed that we’re even ringing them,” he said.

Mr Armstrong said there had never been a better time to book a trip on The Blues Train, especially for those looking to tick off an item on their “post-COVID bucket list”.