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*February 2021: The railway announced it planned to restart its public services with regular excursion services from 12 April and other facilities opening when permitted, with previous COVID-19 safe measures continuing.
*In March 2021 the SVR's bid for a second Culture Recovery Grant failed.
*2021 events restarted, but with restricted numbers and fixed bookable itineraries. Although legal restrictions were raised from July, *On 15 August the SVR continued previous arrangements including for hosted its Autumn galas and first observation saloon experience since before the beginning of the pandemic. Footplate Experiences restarted the following month.<ref name=blsep21>[[Christmas serviceshttps://www.svrlive.com/blsep21 Branch Lines, September 2021]]. </ref>
*Local 'hop on hop off' services were announced on 12 August, initially to restart midweek only in place of excursion trains from 7 September.<ref name=blaug21>[https://www.svrlive.com/blaug21 Branch Lines, August 2021]</ref> This soon changed with the announcement on 17 August that from 7 September all regular services and the Autumn Galas would revert to a more traditional operation, either with full-day freedom-of-the-line tickets or on journeys between selected stations with passengers able to choose their itineraries, rather than travelling on designated trains. The Railway would, however, continue to offer a small number of private bookable compartments, where passengers are guaranteed exclusive use of a compartment on a single train, throughout the day.
2020 [[SVR Passenger numbers|passenger numbers]] dropped significantly from 239,723 to 59.950. Sales income reduced by £5.25m and, even after donations and grants, it lost £460,559 in that financial year. Its debt was nearly £2,000,000.<ref name=report20>SVR(H) annual report and financial statements for the period ended 3 January 2021</ref>
In 2021 its February half-term, Easter and services to early April were all lost, with later reopenings for its museums and pubs. It had restricted passenger numbers until 7 September.Its expected loss in 2021 was projected to exceed that of 2020, and it was applying for further Cultural Recovery Fund monies.<ref name=blsep21/>
Repayment of the CBILS loan is due to start in October 2021 at £28,000 per month<ref name="report20"/>.
