The Festive Express runs 10 dates from Aylsham in December 2026, with a 30-minute steam ride, Santa's grotto and a present. No price is published yet.
The Festive Express is Broadland’s Santa train, and unlike almost everything else in the district’s Christmas diary, it already has 2026 dates.
The Bure Valley Railway has published ten Festive Express dates from Aylsham Station: Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 December, Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 December, then Saturday 19 to Thursday 24 December. The railway describes pre-booking as essential.
What it does not publish anywhere on its website is a price. The 2026 fare table covers ordinary travel only, and the Festive Express, the Noël Night Train and the Mince Pie Special all send you to the booking system without a figure on the page. If the price matters to your planning, you will have to go through to tickets.burevalleyrailway.co.uk and start a booking to see it.
What the ticket includes
The railway lists four things in the Festive Express ticket, and says there are no hidden costs:
- A 30-minute steam train journey from Aylsham to Brampton and back, with a chance to watch the locomotive run round the train before the return leg
- A visit to Santa’s grotto, after children are welcomed to Santa’s sleigh
- A personalised present for every child
- A Christmas snack box of homemade treats, collected from the Whistlestop Café and eaten there or in your carriage
Photographs in the grotto are explicitly welcome, which is worth knowing because some Santa experiences charge for them.
Aylsham Station has free parking, toilets and baby changing. There are no facilities at Brampton. The railway warns that space for buggies on the trains is limited and recommends collapsible pushchairs.
The other two festive services
The Festive Express is the one with Santa, but it is not the only December train, and the dates barely overlap.
The Noël Night Train runs on Friday 4, Friday 11, Thursday 17 and Friday 18 December. It is a 60-minute evening journey through the countryside with the festive lights on at Aylsham Station. The railway’s description of it mentions no grotto and no present, so read it as an evening out rather than a children’s trip.
The Mince Pie Special runs from Sunday 27 December 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027, which is the week most families are looking for something to do. The railway puts the journey at 45 minutes each way over the full line, and every passenger gets a warm mince pie from the Whistlestop Café on the return to Aylsham. Pre-booking is advised rather than essential, and the railway tells you to check the timetable for departure times.
The Mince Pie Special is also the dog-friendly one. Dogs travel on the ordinary trains for a small charge, and the railway’s own fare table puts that at £3 single, £4 return.
What ordinary tickets cost, for comparison
The railway’s 2026 fares, for standard travel rather than the festive services:
| Ticket | Single | Return/Rover |
|---|---|---|
| Adult, 16 and over | £15.00 | £25.00 |
| Child, 4 to 15 | £7.50 | £12.50 |
| Child under 4 | Free | Free |
| Family, 2 adults + 2 children | - | £60.00 |
| Family, 2 adults + 1 child | - | £50.00 |
| Family, 1 adult + 2 children | - | £40.00 |
| Dog | £3.00 | £4.00 |
The Return/Rover is unlimited travel all day. Under-fours go free, up to two per fare-paying adult, and must travel in the same compartment as an adult without their own seat.
Do not read those figures across to the Festive Express. A Santa train with a present and food included is priced separately everywhere it runs, and the railway has not said what it is charging.
Booking, and one dead link to ignore
Book through tickets.burevalleyrailway.co.uk. If a search result sends you to burevalley.vticket.co.uk, that domain no longer resolves at all: the railway has moved ticketing and the old address is dead. Ignore it.
The other thing worth doing early is checking dates against the school term. Nineteen to 24 December is the run most people want, and it is the only stretch of weekdays in the whole Festive Express programme.
Getting there
Aylsham Station is on Norwich Road, Aylsham NR11 6BW, with a large free car park. Wroxham Station, NR12 8UU, also has a large free car park, but the Festive Express and the Noël Night Train both leave from Aylsham.
If the station car park is full, Broadland District Council’s two Aylsham car parks are free: Burgh Road with 57 spaces and The Buttsland with 58. Neither allows overnight parking. Our parking in Broadland page has the details, and Broadland roadworks and travel is worth a look before a booked time slot.
The railway is also one of the days out on our things to do in Broadland page.
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