Sullivan Mine and Railway Historical Society reports customer surge in 2022

The Sullivan Mine and Railway Historical Society says business is returning to pre-pandemic levels.

At their recent annual general meeting, they announced Kimberley’s Underground Rail had 8,400 passengers between May 21 and September 4 in 2020, exceeding the 6300 passengers through the same time in 2021.

President Mick Henningson says a major factor for passenger growth was the new tour path which included a stop at the railway powerhouse.

“Anyone that wants can blow the horn in that area, there’s no neighbors around to complain, then we walk people over the the power house,” Henningson says. “The real highlight is we start up the old compressor, the rand compressor. That’s quite a sight to see something that large and that old start up.”

Henningson hopes improved accessibility for scooter users will bring in more passengers in 2023.

“We want to have our two stations so it’s seamless to get a scooter onboard,” he says. “We can do it, but it’s difficult because we need our ramp to be wider in that area, so our initiative is to make our train completely friendly to scooters as well as it is to wheelchairs now.”

The local tourist attraction is set to reopen around the end of April.

– Mick Henningson, Sullivan Mine and Railway Historical Society president