Bumper passenger numbers at Severn Valley Railway
Dec 29 2009 by Gregg Evans, Birmingham Mail
BOSSES at a popular Midland tourist attraction are on track for a fine festive season after 35,000 passengers travelled on the Severn Valley Railway’s Santa dspecials.
The seasonal boost on the diesel and steam-powered services helped push the railway closer to breaking the record for its busiest-ever year with post-Christmas services running until Sunday.
The 16-mile Kidderminster to Bridgnorth former Great Western Railway line has only previously broken the 250,000 barrier once in its 40-year history, when just over 252,000 people travelled on the line in 2005. But, as of Boxing Day, the railway needed just 7,000 more passengers to smash the quarter of a million figure for the year.
Marketing manager, John Leach, said the attraction was in with a “fighting chance” but admitted that it was very much in the hands of the weather.
He said: “If we’re into frosty, sunny days, or there’s a covering of snow throughout the Severn Valley, then there’s no finer place to view it than from the snug warmth of a railway carriage in a steam-hauled train.
“On the other hand, if we get heavy falls of snow, that could make it difficult for passengers to reach us.
“But we’ve got to be optimistic.
“To be within sight of an all-time passenger record at the end of a year of recession, can’t be so bad can it?” This year caps a remarkable turnaround in fortunes for the attraction.
It was badly damaged by floods which affected large parts of the Midlands in the summer of 2007.
Bungalows along the route were evacuated after engineers discovered the embankment was an “avalanche in waiting”.
A £2.5 million project to rescue the flood-struck tourist attraction was immediately launched but one piece of the track, at the station in Highley, took £250,000 of investment to resurrect.
The railway is now running to a revised timetable because of engineering repairs.
But there are still six steam-hauled trains travelling in each direction each day.
On all days the first train from Bridgnorth departs at 10.13am and from Kidderminster at 10.25am.
A spokesman for Severn Valley Railway said: “We won’t know until Thursday where we stand.
“But there is still a good chance of us getting there.”
