diff --git a/bin/cylc-restart b/bin/cylc-restart
index dec50c042b5..71e86093bc2 100755
--- a/bin/cylc-restart
+++ b/bin/cylc-restart
@@ -309,7 +309,6 @@ determine what happened to them while the suite was down."""
         taskstates = {}
         task_point_strings = []
         for line in task_lines:
-
             if re.match( '^class', line ):
                 # class variables
                 [ left, right ] = line.split( ' : ' )
@@ -339,9 +338,13 @@ determine what happened to them while the suite was down."""
                 id = new_id
             tasknames[name] = True
             if 'status=submitting,' in state:
-                # backward compabitility for state dumps generated prior to #787
+                # backward compatibility for state dumps generated prior to #787
                 state = state.replace('status=submitting,',
                                       'status=ready,', 1)
+            if 'status=runahead,' in state:
+                # backward compatibility for pre-cylc-6 state dumps.
+                state = state.replace(
+                    'status=runahead,', 'status=waiting,', 1)
             try:
                 task_state(state)
             except Exception as e:
diff --git a/tests/restart/back-comp-restart/state b/tests/restart/back-comp-restart/state
index 7abb9a12f59..12f2a263fa1 100644
--- a/tests/restart/back-comp-restart/state
+++ b/tests/restart/back-comp-restart/state
@@ -11,5 +11,6 @@ baz.2014050200 : status=succeeded, spawned=true
 baz.2014050206 : status=waiting, spawned=false
 foo.2014050200 : status=succeeded, spawned=true
 foo.2014050206 : status=waiting, spawned=false
-qux.2014050206 : status=running, spawned=false
+qux.2014050206 : status=running, spawned=true
+qux.2014050212 : status=runahead, spawned=false
 wibble.2014050206 : status=waiting, spawned=false