Funding Secured for Bewdley Tunnel (Nick Ralls)
I am pleased to announce that funding has been secured to allow the work to commence this January on Bewdley tunnel. The project has been confirmed by a loan from the railway's bank, HSBC, and support from the SVR Guarantee Company.This work, costing £250,000 in total, will replace life expired drainage through the tunnel and see new ballast, sleepers and rail installed. Working in the confined tunnel space will not make the project easy and the work will be completed by a contractor and our in house Permanent Way and Signals & Telecomms teams.For further updates on the project please see Underground Lines on this site.
Safety Update (Nick Ralls)At a meeting of the Heritage Railway Association on the 16th November 2011 David Keay from the Office of Rail Regulation talked to all attendees about the considerable number of safety incidents at heritage railways over the last twelve months.
David said, very firmly, that we are at a watershed.Heritage Railways as a whole, need to improve on the current safety record.If we do not then there will be further scrutiny and ultimately further legislation to contend with from Government.
We all have a duty to maintain a safe working environment at the Severn Valley Railway and we must all look to continuously improve the safety record of the departments we work in.If you require assistance with any element of safety improvement, then please to do contact me at the Bewdley Office.