Heritage railway launches £1.5m 'survival' appeal

Severn Valley Railway runs trains along a 16-mile (25.7km) route between Bridgnorth and Kidderminster

A heritage railway is appealing for £1.5m, for what it describes as a Survival Fund amid rising costs and falling visitor numbers.

The Severn Valley Railway, which runs trains between Bridgnorth and Kidderminster, said its electricity bill alone had more than doubled to nearly £500,000 in the last 12 months.

It also said visitor numbers had dropped by a third in that time.

In February, bosses announced redundancies and other cost-cutting measures such as running temporarily reduced services.

Jonathan Dunster said the appeal was necessary to the survival of the railway

Chris Walton, the interim chairman of SVR (Holdings) Plc, the railway's operating company, said: "Costs across the railway have spiralled, including utilities, coal, diesel, steel, copper, catering supplies and interest rates."

He said the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, post-Brexit supply chain issues and the cost-of-living crisis had all played a part in that, and they were issues beyond the railway's control.

It is not the first time the line has faced financial pressures in recent years.

In December 2021 it was awarded nearly £1m by the government following "huge losses" during the pandemic.

At the time it was awarded money by the government's Culture Recovery Fund, it reported losses of about £500,000 a month during lockdown.

It also received £400,000 from another appeal earlier in 2020, and £1.3m to repair the Falling Sands Viaduct at Kidderminster, much of it from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Jonathan Dunster, the railway's interim managing director, said it had traditionally relied on having a cash reserve to help it through the winter months when it was closed to the public.

"That option has been taken away by the combined financial challenges of the past three years," he said.

Severn Valley Railway warned it could be at risk unless there was an urgent injection of cash.

It has already taken a number of cost-cutting measures, including recruitment freezes for non-essential roles, voluntary and compulsory redundancies and fewer trains in the first few months of the season.

Mr Dunster said the aim of the £1.5m Survival Fund would be to help the railway through 2023 and enable it to start 2024 with a sufficient reserve to get back on its feet.

"We would not be making this appeal if it wasn't completely necessary for the survival of the railway," he said.