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a reality?
Ironbridge Gorge to Bridgnorth – Could the reinstatement of the original Severn Valley Railway become a reality?
With more than 85 plans being put forward for funding under Stage 3 of the Government’s Restoring Your Railway Fund, Great Western Star looks at one of these schemes that could reinstate more of a famous old railway, bring visitors to a World Heritage Site, and take thousands of cars off some of the very crowded roads in the immediate vicinity. We also take an opportunity to talk to one of the key personnel involved in the project.
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One of the most well-known, well-loved, and respected tourist attractions in the UK must be the Ironbridge Gorge with its many integrated, yet independent sites. It was created a World Heritage Site in 1986 – one of the first in the UK to achieve this prestigious status and, today the 10 Ironbridge Gorge Museums receive more than 545,000 visitors per year, with around 70,000 of these being visits from schools. In addition, many more pay a visit to Darby’s iconic bridge and the town, taking the total visitor number to more than a million. What may seem strange to many people is that, despite these visitor numbers, you can no longer get to it by rail.
However, this may all change if plans being floated under the Restoring Your Railway Scheme come to fruition by being chosen as one to be supported by Government funding. With the heritage sites becoming ever more popular and the only way to get down into the Gorge being by road, some alternative is needed. There is already a small, preserved railway – The Telford & Horsehay Steam Railway – which has always had dreams of getting down into the Gorge – dreams that have been held up by the removal of the railway bridge during the building of some of Telford’s (the new town, not the engineer) various road schemes. However, there are hopes that this could change in the future. The railway line that came down from the GWR main line for Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury is still in place, having been used until a few years ago to take coal to the Ironbridge/Buildwas Power Station. In addition, various bits of the Buildwas to Bridgnorth still exist, albeit that some are in private hands.
The Railway Background*
In 1847, the original scheme for the Severn Valley Railway – approximately 40 miles in length – was conceived to join Hartlebury to Shrews-
Footnote *”Steam Nostalgia” by Sir Gerald Nabarro
bury. The Severn Valley Railway Company was incorporated in 1853 and the line opened to both passenger and freight traffic in 1862, with the railway being operated by the West Midland Railway. However, this did not last long for the West Midland Railway was statutorily dissolved just a year later with the Great Western Railway accepting all obligations and rights before formally absorbing the Severn Valley Railway Company by exchange of stock in 1872. Just six years later, the Kidderminster loop was opened, thus creating a network from Shrewsbury, Bridgnorth, Bewdley to Hartlebury and to Kidderminster (the last two were on the GW Worcester-Stourbridge Junction-Wolverhampton main line. During both the 1923 and 1947 grouping and nationalisation, the situation stayed the same.
On the 9th of September 1963, the final passenger train ran while freight officially ended on the 30th of November of the same year. The line remained open, however, to deal with coal traffic for colliery and power station mineral trains – the former for the NCB colliery at Highley and the latter for the two power stations at Buildwas and Stourport-on-Severn. In 1965, the Severn Valley Railway Company was formed by steam locomotive enthusiasts in Kidderminster with the aim of saving the line and in 1966, a decision was made to raise £25,000 to purchase 4½ miles of line from Bridgnorth to Erdington and Hampton Loade. They made a deposit of £2,500 in February 1967. In that same year, perhaps in anticipation of a positive future, Collett 0-6-0 No 3205 and four ex-GWR coaches arrived at Bridgnorth for preservation.
The following year, a Shrewsbury Planning Enquiry found in favour of the operation of the 4½ miles from Bridgnorth to Hampton Loade and, in 1969, Ministerial Consent was given for the operation of the line, subject to two Light Railway Orders that were finally given in 1969 and 1970. In anticipation of these being granted, the Society formed in 1965 was dissolved in December 1969 and a Company Limited by Guarantee formed in 1967, called The Severn Valley Railway Company Limited took over the membership and assets of the Company.
The last BR passenger services were withdrawn from Bewdley to Kidderminster and Bewdley to Stourport-on-Severn and Hartlebury in 1963 and then, on 23rd May 1970, the Severn Valley Railway was re-born at Bridgnorth with steam-operated scheduled services by volunteer unpaid preservationists. This proved extremely
GWR Panniers 9624 and 4665 prepare to depart Bridgnorth with the last BR train on 8 September 1963 (Sellick Collection)
successful with 65,000 passenger journeys operated in the seven months at a trading profit of £3,093 for the 15 months to 31st December.
The following year, at the Annual General Meeting a motion was passed by an overwhelming majority to purchase the remaining 10 miles southward to Kidderminster (for a later link with British Rail) for approximately £75,000 to create what was then the longest steam-operated railway line in Britain and to create a public company to finance the operation. The new public liability company to be called the Severn Valley Railway (Holdings) Ltd and then, after the dissolution of the guarantee company, to be renamed the Severn Valley Railway Company Limited – duly incorporated on 15 March 1972.
The Original Line
The promoters of the original line saw the route as the shortest from the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton main line at Hartlebury to Shrewsbury as the fastest route through the West Midlands – it was certainly more direct than the London, Oxford, Banbury, Birmingham, Wolverhampton and then on to Shrewsbury. However, these wonderful dreams never materialised as it took 15 years to go from conception to reality (1847 to 1862), three Acts of Parliament to keep it afloat and innumerable crises of finance, management, and operation, as well as many landslips along the line.
Eventually all was done apart from the Victoria Bridge across the River Severn which was begun on the 24th of November 1859 and completed in 1862.
When the contractors Peto, Brassey and Betts began construction, a completion date of October 1860 was announced. However, during construction, several unstable areas of ground were discovered, while landslips also took place on completed areas of the line, the most significant north of Highley resulted in a change to the line’s route. Contemporary newspaper reports also suggest wet weather and tunnel collapses in 1860 contributed to the delay. The foundation stone for Victoria Bridge at Arley was laid on 24 November 1859 by Henry Orlando Bridgeman.
During 1860, while construction of the line was still in progress, the Severn Valley Railway changed hands twice in two days. On 14 June 1860, an act of Parliament confirmed a 999-year lease of the Company to the OW&W who agreed to run the line. However, just two days later, another Act authorised a three-way amalgamation of the OW&W with the Newport, Abergavenny & Hereford Railway, and the Worcester & Hereford Railway to form the West Midlands Railway. This company was formed on 1 July 1860.
In February 1861, positioning of the four cast iron ribs of Victoria Bridge began. While work on the bridge was still in progress, the first steam working on the line took place between Stourport and Bewdley on 5 May 1861, watched by large crowds which had gathered for the occasion. Victoria Bridge was completed 5 days later. Station buildings were completed and signalling equipment installed in autumn of 1861.
The official first train, with 22 carriages left Worcester (Shrub Hill) at 11.30am on Friday 31st January 1862 with about 100 people on board and a further 400 joined by the time that the train reached Bridgnorth. After refreshments, the train proceeded to Shrewsbury, arriving at two o’clock. On that evening, a great celebration was held at Bridgnorth for all who had bought return tickets for the opening Day. A second celebration was held at Bewdley on the 4th of February.
However, despite all the hopes of everyone involved, The Severn Valley Railway missed the peak of 19th century demand for railways and was also too late to capture the through traffic of the Midlands. It thus declined over 100 years into a tourist line, even a third-rate branch railway, attracting little freight and few passengers, apart that is from the coal traffic referred to ear-
Railways in the Severn Gorge area in the 19th century
lier for Highley and the two power stations. Like many other railways, it did see a change in fortunes during WWII, with additional military traffic to the admiralty base at Ditton Priors. However, with the return of peace, the line became increasingly dependent upon tourism and with the growth in popularity of the private motor car, closure became inevitable, with the last BR trains running in 1963.
However, as we all know, the Severn Valley Railway and its supporters had other ideas, and this has led to the creation over the last 50 years of a vibrant and flourishing (COVID permitting!) railway.
Table 1 Principal Stations on the SVR and their distances from Shrewsbury
• Shrewsbury • Berrington (4¼ miles), now a private house • Cressage (8¼ miles), now a private house • Buildwas (12¼ miles), demolished • Ironbridge (13¾ miles), demolished, now a car park • Coalport (15¾ miles), now a private house • Linley (18¼ miles), now a private house • Bridgnorth (22½ miles) • Eardington (24¾ miles) • Hampton Loade (27 miles) • Highley (29¼ miles) • Arley (31½ miles) • Bewdley (35¼ miles) • Stourport (37¾ miles), demolished, now part of a housing estate • Hartlebury (40¾ miles)
Kidderminster, reached via The Loop, was 38¾ miles from Shrewsbury.
Restoring Your Railway and its Implications for the Severn Gorge
As mentioned at the start of this article, a group has now been brought together to push the case for an extremely ambitious programme which, if it were to come about, could completely transform the Ironbridge Gorge area, with huge developments in housing, business, and transport – the biggest transformation since the 17th and 18th centuries. It is true to say that previously, proposals for developing any rail infrastructure in the Ironbridge Gorge have focused solely upon moving as many people as possible, as quickly and as painlessly as possible up and down the narrow twisty roads that remain from times gone by. On busy days in summer, the problems of simply moving vehicles, let alone parking, are now becoming impossible and an alternative solution is urgently needed.
Circumstances have changed, however, leading to a once in a lifetime opportunity to really transform mobility in the Gorge. What has changed? This would appear to be one occasion when the removal of a major piece of infrastructure could work to everyone’s benefit. The item in question is the Buildwas (often called the Ironbridge) Power Station.
Ironbridge was selected to be the site of a large, modern “super-station” by the West Midlands Joint Electricity Authority, in February 1927. The land had been identified earlier by Walsall Borough as being suitable for power generation, in 1924. The close proximity of the River Severn and several railway lines provided excellent access to both cooling water and a source for the delivery of coal. The flat land of the site, formed by fluvial processes at the end of the last ice-age, was ideal for the construction of a large turbine hall.
Construction of the first Ironbridge Power Station (later to become known as Ironbridge A) began in 1929, and the first phase was completed in 1932. The station officially opened on 13 October 1932. The full generating capacity of Ironbridge A, however, was not realised until major expansions and the commissioning of extra boilers and generating sets had been completed in 1939. This gave the A Station a total generating output of 200 megawatts (MW).
Parliamentary approval for Ironbridge B Power Station was sought and granted in 1962. Construction began in 1963, with the aim to begin generating electricity in the station in 1967. Due to construction delays, some limited industrial action and the implementation of improvements that had been pioneered during the construction of similar stations using the new 500 MW generating units, Ironbridge B did not begin feeding power into the National Grid until
(left) Ironbridge A Power Station (1962)
(Below) Ironbridge Power Station (2019)
11 June 1969. Full capacity was not reached until the second 500 MW unit began generating in February 1970.] There were 2 × 17.5 MW auxiliary gas turbines on the site, these had been commissioned in August 1967. Ironbridge A was decommissioned in 1981. Ironbridge B Power Station was commissioned in 1981 and stopped generating electricity on 20 November 2015 when it reached its 20,000 hours limit of generation under a European Union Directive. Decommissioning continued into 2017 with the main phase of the 27-month demolition process began at 11.00 on the 6th of December, 2019, commencing with the four cooling towers
Until June 2010, approximately 3000 – 6000 tonnes of coal were delivered to the power station every day, via a branch line railway through Madeley, Ironbridge and Coalbrookdale, crossing the River Severn via the Grade 2* listed Albert Edward Bridge. The railway branch joins the Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury line at Madeley Junction.
Coal was delivered variously by DBS, Freightliner and Fastline. After the trains were emptied, they were usually stabled at Warrington Arpley Yard. From 2014 until closure, an additional three trains per day were worked by GB Railfreight from Liverpool dock with biomass chips, which were the main source of feedstock for the power station by then.
Scheduled passenger services on the branch line were stopped in the 1960s, and so the line was kept open primarily for the transportation
Albert Edward Bridge (James Fisher Testing Services)
of coal to the power station. A steam locomotivehauled special passenger train, organised by railtour company ‘Vintage Trains’, visited the branch line on 3rd November 2007. The tour was entitled Pannier to Ironbridge, and was hauled by former Great Western Railway 0-6-0 Pannier tank No. 9466, which ran a return trip between Tyseley, near Birmingham, and Ironbridge.
The cooling towers became an iconic part of the landscape in the Gorge and were painted pink! Sadly, it was agreed that they should be demolished with the rest of the power station buildings – apart from the electricity sub-stations - and this took place during 2019 with very mixed feelings amongst the viewers and residents.
Power Station Site Developments
It was the acquisition of the site in June 2018 by the Harworth Group that was to open up a much wider opportunity than could ever have been foreseen by those looking solely at the transport scene. The 350-acre site comprises the former power station, former social club (redundant sports pitches, timber pavilion and golf course), borrow pits, Pulverised Fuel Ash (PFA) landfill waste tips and a rail siding, which was historically used to transport coal to the site.
Harworth’s masterplan, submitted for outline planning at the end of 2019, shows a mixeduse scheme for 1,000 new homes in addition to a range of commercial, leisure and community uses including a park and ride facility, a school and public open space. Before development of these areas, a period of activity will start to remove the existing minerals from the site. These include 1.9 million tonnes of saleable sand and gravel from the 106 acres of greenfield area of the site. Talks are also ongoing with Network Rail to bring the existing rail sidings on the site back into operation in addition to strengthening the rail bridge that crosses the river. The site is bounded by Buildwas Road and the River Seven to the north and east. To the west the site is bounded by Much Wenlock Road and agricultural land. The site’s southern boundary runs contiguously with Bangham Woods, an ancient woodland and SSSI.
Harworth see this as a long-term development, likely to take between 10 and 15 years to fully develop.
An aerial view of the site where the four bases of the former cooling towers can be clearly seen. The 205m high chimney is the UK’s fifth highest chimney but is also subject to demolition.
Restoring Your Railway – Official Application – February 2021
As outlined earlier, this area of great significance already offers much to both the local community in and around the Ironbridge Gorge, but it also brings large numbers of people from all around the world to this World Heritage Site. The removal of the power station and the clearing of the associated land offers a unique opportunity to take a much wider view of the site and what could be done, not only to develop the area but it could also offer major advantages, including greatly improved transport infrastructure to an area that is physically confined by the narrowness of the Gorge and the very narrow roads down the sides of the Gorge. The proposals also offer an opportunity for further housing and business developments as well as even more recreational facilities.
In preparing this application, which has been headed up by the Ironbridge Railway Trust (Registered Charity 1129039), a great deal of support has been garnered from local MPs and councillors and many other organisations. In view of the importance of this proposed development, Great Western Star has been granted the opportunity to talk to many of those involved to understand exactly what is being put forward.
Great Western Star talks to David Flavell, Vice-Chairman of the Ironbridge Railway Trust
Great Western Star: Mr Flavell, can you tell us something about the Trust, please?
David Flavell: The IRT is a Registered Charity that was formed in November 2005. It is a Company limited by Guarantee, incorporated in 2007 and which gained charitable status in 2009. It was formed with the sole intention of promoting sustainable transport into the World Heritage site by advocating the reinstatement of the old GWR (Severn Valley) Hartlebury to Shrewsbury via Bridgnorth line through the Ironbridge Gorge. This could only happen as and when the Ironbridge Gorge Power Station became available and was cleared.
GWS: Why was this project chosen, as it might seem to many to be the impossible dream?
DF: The potential of this site was recognised over ten years ago by a small group of volunteers with experience in tourism, railways, and architecture. This group formed The Trust and, at their own expense, they have gone on to develop proposals of their own for the redevelopment of the power station site, which they believe will bring benefit to the community and the economy of the local district, while recognising the sensitivity of the area.
GWS: So, what has been the effect of the decision on the power station?
DF: Much research has been undertaken over the last 12 years, but progress has been inhibited by a lack of clarity on the fate of the power station site. However, since its future has now become clearer, we consider there are enormous opportunities, including our proposals to use the old Severn Valley Branch line to improve access for tourists and visitors, thus providing significant employment and enhanced economic opportunities for Ironbridge. In addition, by reducing the need for everyone to arrive by road, it will make significant improvements to the environment.
GWS: How does the IRT see the development of the overall area, after all, it is the Harworth Group who have bought the site?
DF: IRT welcomes the Harworth Group plc’s application as a key opportunity for the comprehensive regeneration of the former Power Station site bringing benefits to Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin, and the West Midlands. IRT also welcomes Harworth’s stated aims and objectives, their vision, and their design principles, particularly ‘Celebrating Heritage’, ‘Promoting Tourism’, ‘Working with Business and Industry” and ‘Transport’.
The Trust believes the site’s availability presents an ideal opportunity to create a mixeduse development of the highest calibre which should include housing, hotels (with conference facilities and an extension of the existing golf course with driving range), a leisure retail village, and a range of R+D high-tech commercial premises.
Tourism, leisure, and the quality of the local heritage are at the very heart of this River Severn corridor, so its future prosperity is of local, regional, national, and international importance. Modern day visitors also need complimentary facilities if their continued interest is to be
A postcard of Ironbridge Station from circa 1904. Note the works to the station extension roof, no roof slates, and only tiling battens visible.
harnessed to safeguard the financial future of the region at large.
Our own suggested design concept circa 2015 was to improve the area in a sustainable way that enables future economic growth for local inhabitants and those in the surrounding towns.
GWS: That sounds incredibly good, but the Gorge cries out for improvements in the transport facilities as the Gorge cannot cope with the Summer traffic at present and there is nowhere to park any more cars. What do you propose?
DF: The current public transport and tourist accommodation needs enhancement to match high visitor expectations as well as environmental and conservation agendas. Making the attractions (and any future development) accessible without adverse effects to the environment is key to a successful development which conserves and develops the sensitive environment of the Ironbridge Gorge. Reinstating the old Severn Valley Branch line as a community railway, allowing the operation of heritage trains and modern heavy rail compatible PPM units, is of fundamental importance to this concept. This would also provide the opportunity to explore the economic feasibility of extending back to Bridgnorth.
GWS: Do you see this as purely a passenger line?
DF: Retaining and upgrading the power station freight line for passenger use, (given a connection to the national network which already exists), could also create a major new transport artery which should encourage a modal shift away from road to accommodate both existing and future demand.
The Ironbridge Railway Trust considers that a mixed redevelopment proposal for the power station site would greatly aid the financial viability of re-establishing rail services by developing the site to be a “destination of national importance” as well as affording the opportunity to create a park and ride facility for rail access to the Gorge. The effects on congestion in the area would be a significant improvement.
GWS: How do you see the existing Telford Steam Railway fitting into your plans?
DF: Future redevelopment could also accommodate the termination of the Telford Steam Railway’s future service proposals, (or any through traffic to Buildwas Abbey), by the creation of shared station facilities to include those necessary for a main line connection as well as the reintroduction of rail transportation through the Gorge. Indeed, such proposals would not only enhance TSR’s existing arrangements but, coupled with the requirements for re-introducing rail travel along the Gorge, all these possibilities could also lead to the establishment of railway engineering workshops etc., thus creating jobs and apprenticeships in an historical environment.
GWS: So how do you see the overall scheme?
DF: We feel that the topography of the Gorge would much more easily accommodate the type of mixed development that we have outlined above. In addition, a mixed-use development could take advantage of the existing landscape features and be more visually acceptable.
IRT’s own indicative conceptual masterplan, prepared by Peter J. Lyons RIBA Dip LA., Chartered Architect and Landscape Consultant representing Garrett McKee Architects Ltd., shows the benefits which can be provided by the creation of a mixed development at Buildwas Power Station. Future local planning requirements for the site need, therefore, to not only reflect the essence of this proposal but also, of equal importance, the alternative sustainable transport initiative it could generate. Circa 2015
A mixed site could yield over 1500 houses depending upon density, between 500,000ft2 and 750,000ft2 of R&D and about 210,000ft2 of leisure retail, together with hotel and conference facilities. A first analysis using the industry standard TRCIS software and the current mode shares for transport in Telford for a development of this size suggests that between 4000 and 6000 new single road trips could occur per day. Without rail, this will place a major strain on the road network. Conversion of the existing freight line could reduce the impact in line with the National Policy Planning Framework para 32 on sustainable transport, making a development much more attractive.
GWS: You have mentioned employment. How do you see this project affecting employment – not just in the Gorge but also throughout Shropshire:
DF: Shropshire is one of the most sparsely populated local authorities in the country, with less than 1 person per hectare (compared to 4
per hectare for the rest of England). But, against this environment, it is more time consuming to travel to and from work. It is a small business economy and there are a high number of self-employed people in the county. There is also more “outward” commuting than “inward” commuting.
The 2015 population estimate was 311,400. Car dependency is high, with only 15.8% of households not in car ownership (compared with 24.7% in the West Midlands). Some 70.5% of the working population commute by car, and in 2011, only 3.3% of workers used public transport.
We believe that the economic benefits of a mixed-use development could equate to an estimated significant increase in the number of available jobs in the Gorge, for instance: • Research and development – circa 4000 to 5000 • Hotels/hospitality – 500 to 600 • Leisure retail – 300 to 600 • Railway (services/engineering) – 150
Restoring Your Railway in more detail
GWS: David can we now look in more detail at your application. To start with, who is the promoter, do you have the support of the local MPs and what is the track layout that you are promoting?
DF: As Vice-Chairman of the Ironbridge Railway Trust, I am the lead promoter and I am delighted to say that we have the full support of the key four local MPS – Lucy Allan (Telford), Philip Dunne (Ludlow), Mark Garnier (Wyre Forest) and Daniel Kawczyski (Shrewsbury & Atcham). The stretch of line under consideration is from Ironbridge Power Station through Ironbridge to Bridgnorth, a distance of 10 miles. Within this length, we are proposing six stations – Ironbridge Parkway (park and ride), Ironbridge & Broseley (for the Iron Bridge), Jackfield (for the Tile Museum) Blists Hill (for the Victorian Town), Coalport (for the China Museum) and Linley (for Apley Hall).
GWS; Apart from the fact that the Government
is running this Restore Your Railway Scheme, why do you believe that now is the time to push for this scheme?
DF: Ironbridge Railway Trust’s (IRT) proposal offers a one-off opportunity for transformative visitor economy growth in the UNESCO Ironbridge World Heritage Site and the Severn Valley heritage corridor across Shropshire and Worcestershire, helped by a re-opened railway providing sustainable, green connectivity otherwise unavailable on the highway network within its Gorge and rural geography. Its unique quality draws upon Harworth Group’s ability to generate a destination Masterplan for the former Ironbridge Power Station site, currently at outline planning application stage. This helps rail re-instatement from the Power Station to the heart of Ironbridge, next to the Iron Bridge itself, the World Heritage Site museums of Jackfield, Blists Hill Victorian Town and Coalport, and thence to Bridgnorth and the existing Severn Valley Railway to Kidderminster (National Rail) in Worcestershire.
In using the station proposed by Harworth, the project can support and be supported by Harworth and Telford & Wrekin Council’s Restoring Your Railway (RYR) bid for passenger services between the Power Station and the Wolverhampton-Shrewsbury National Rail route on the freight line to Madeley Junction (Telford), together with the ambitions of the Telford Steam Railway.
GWS: If this application is successful and is built, what level of service would you look to offer?
DF: For this restored railway to work and to take the visitors off the road as they look to visit the Ironbridge museum sites, we believe that it would require: 1. One train per hour (tph) Ironbridge
Parkway-Ironbridge-Coalport- Bridgnorth-
Kidderminster 2. Three tph Ironbridge Parkway-Ironbridge-
Coalport
This would provide a 4 tph World Heritage Site shuttle service but obviously we would look to tailor this to meet the needs of a full year/seasonal and residential, employment and visitor demand.
GWS: What is the state of the route/trackbed?
DF: The 10-mile stretch remains largely intact, and we would look to reinstate this in three stages: • Stage 1 – Ironbridge Parkway - Ironbridge – 2 miles single track; new station within the
Power Station site (as per Harworth); temporary platform at Ironbridge & Broseley. • Stage 2 – Ironbridge - Coalport – 2 miles single track with permanent 2 platform station at Ironbridge & Broseley and passing loop; single-platform stations at Jackfield (Tile Museum), Blists Hill (Victorian Town); re-use of the existing 2-platform Coalport Station (China Museum).
• Stage 3 - Coalport - Bridgnorth – 6 miles single track with passing loop(s); re-use of the existing single platform Linley Station (Apley
Hall); re-connection to the Severn Valley Railway at Bridgnorth. As I said earlier, we have the full support of those MPs whose constituencies’ economies, communities and environments would benefit from the proposal, and Shropshire Council, Worcestershire County Council, Wyre Forest District Council, and the Ironbridge Gorge Museums Trust. Furthermore, the Power Station – Coalport route is safeguarded for use as a transport corridor under Policy C2 of the Telford & Wrekin Local Plan 2011-2031.
GWS: Obviously, there would be some considerable cost requirements for a scheme of this nature. How do you see that?
DF: At this stage, IRT’s Strategic Outline Business Case Budget and Funding is based upon a total cost of £58,000 made up as follows:
Total Cost £58,000 100% Ironbridge Railway Trust £4,500 7.8% Shropshire Council £5,000 8.6% Worcestershire County Council £5,000 8.6% DfT £43,500 75%
GWS: What do you see as the major benefits to the area if this scheme goes ahead?
DF: Building on the one-off opportunity of the re-development of Ironbridge Power Station, the Trust envisages re-opening a community railway from the Power Station to the Iron Bridge, across the World Heritage Site to Bridgnorth, and from there connecting to the successful Severn Valley Railway.
Along with other organisations’ ambitions for expanding the Telford Steam Railway and passenger services on the Ironbridge-Coalbrookdale-Madeley line, the scheme could sustainably unlock growth in the visitor economy that could not otherwise be accommodated on the roads of the Gorge or the rural Severn Valley.
The re-opened route would offer new public transport capacity, a test bed for modern, green rail technology, as well as heritage trains forming part of historic attractions of the Gorge and the Severn Valley. At this point I would like to add two comments by people involved in this Bid, as I believe they strengthen our case:
Peter Lyons, Chairman of the Ironbridge Railway Trust said: “The Restoring Your Railway fund is a real opportunity for the Trust and its stakeholders to assess the potential for rail public transport to grow the Ironbridge and Severn Valley Corridor’s tourism and visitor economy, while protecting precious historic and natural environments which highway-based growth could damage.”
Councillor Eric Carter, a member of Telford and Wrekin Council and Chairman of The Marches Strategic Railway Group said: “An Ideas Fund study will provide us with key evidence of the value and feasibility of the Trust’s exciting proposal to support the attractions of Ironbridge, the Severn Valley and our market towns and beautiful countryside which make Shropshire and neighbouring Worcestershire the country’s principal inland tourist counties.”
