Bridgnorth Cliff Railway wall repairs reach £750k

The Bridgnorth Cliff Railway has been closed for 10 months

Repair work to protect Bridgnorth Cliff Railway has cost about £750,000, the town council has said.

The railway, which connects high town to low town closed temporarily in December 2022, but has remained shut since.

Initially only expected to involve 7.5m of a retaining wall, Bridgnorth Town Council said repair work had been expanded to cover 65.5m.

The work is expected to be completed this month.

The council has yet to reveal how the bill would be met, but said it would provide more details at a community meeting on 16 November.

Speaking in March, the railway's owner said he would not be able to pay the expected cost of repairs to the adjoining wall.

The funicular railway, one of the oldest and steepest in the UK, has operated for more than 100 years and transports people 34m (111ft) down the cliffside.

Bridgnorth Cliff Railway is one of the country's oldest and steepest inland funicular railways

At a meeting on Wednesday, the council said it updated the local community on the progress and defended the length of the closure, saying works had required the involvement of specialist teams.

Speaking to BBC Radio Shropshire, Clare Turner, town clerk of Bridgnorth Town Council, said: "It actually hasn't taken as long as we thought it would, which is a good thing.

"It's been 10 months since it was identified and during that time we've worked with lots and lots of contractors, structural engineers and other specialists, including our legal advisers, to make sure it's safe.

"We have done a large section of the wall, which is currently behind the scaffolding, and during this time we've been in legal conversations with the operator, making sure we have the right information and making sure it was safe for everybody.

"This was a big emergency and it would have been a massive risk to life if, for whatever reason, the state of collapse was to happen."