A special steam train that had been due to run from Ipswich to Lincoln at the end of August has been postponed until next April after passengers said they would prefer to travel when there were not so many fears about the pandemic.

The train, pulled by steam locomotive Mayflower, had already been postponed from Easter Saturday because of the lockdown and it was hoped to run over the August Bank Holiday weekend, but that would have required special social distancing measures to be brought in and operators Steam Dreams have decided to postpone it again until the spring.

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Passengers with tickets will be transferred to the new date on April 3 unless they ask for another option – all those who had booked should have received a letter by now.

Mayflower is owned by Steam Dreams chairman David Buck who was born and educated in Ipswich – he gained his love of trains as a schoolboy trainspotter standing on Ipswich station in the 1950s.