VISITORS are to be charged entry to York's National Railway Museum - only two months after admission prices were scrapped by the Government.

The temporary charges are to be made during a two-week Thomas the Tank Engine event in February, it emerged today.

The charges were revealed in an internal document passed to the Evening Press.

The admission fees of up to £6 will apply even to children and OAPs, who got in to last year's Thomas event for free.

The move has been attacked by a railway enthusiast, who warned it could hit tourist numbers.

John Rathmell, who runs the Clearstory Railway Museum from his Malton Avenue home, in Heworth, York, said: "People have already paid their admission price in their taxes. They're expecting the museum to be free, and they won't be happy to find they're being charged."

The Government has agreed to the admissions move only days after Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell hailed the abolition of charges for national museums as "a red letter day for our cultural heritage".

Museums are to receive Government compensation for the loss of admission charges, but Graham Stratfold, the NRM's head of visitor services, told the Evening Press that the February charges were unavoidable.

He said: "We still wish to run Thomas the Tank Engine events, but it's not viable without a charge. It costs £250,000 to hold one, which includes running costs and an improved range of activities, and that's money that we need to recover.

"Although we will receive compensation for the anticipated loss of adult income, it hasn't compensated for the increased amount of people coming in, and the extra cleaning, maintenance and staff required to cope with it.

"In our first weekend of free admissions, we were up 120 per cent compared to last year."

Tory shadow leisure spokesman and Ryedale MP John Greenway said the museum's trustees had been pushed into a corner by a lack of Government forethought.

He said: "I'm not at all surprised if trustees have come to this decision. I think they've acted wisely.

"If any criticism should be levelled, it's because the Government haven't thought it through."

The only people excluded from the new charges will be under two-year-olds and members of the Friends of the Museum.

Mr Stratfold said it was felt to be discriminatory to reintroduce charges just for adults simply because they were the last to be freed from admission charges.

He added that running the event in just one gallery of the museum had been considered, but was not practical, as Thomas the Tank Engine usually attracted 6,000 visitors a day.

"Realistically I anticipate that some visitors will be unhappy with it, but I believe we won't get too much of it as people are used to paying for a Thomas event, and compared to other preserved railways we're one of the cheapest Thomas events in the region."

The Day Out With Thomas will be held between February 9-24, with prices of £6 for adults, £5 for over-60s and concessions and £3 for children aged two to 17.

This year's Thomas event proved such a runaway success, with huge crowds of visitors and long queues outside, that the museum entry turnstile had to be closed for three quarters of an hour.

Updated: 12:19 Thursday, December 06, 2001