We hear the latest info from Gus Dunster and whats happening with the Severn Valley Railway landslip.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00So we're here at Severn Valley Railway, Kidderminster, and Gus, introduce yourself, what's your role here, name and role?
00:06Okay, so I'm Gus Dunster and I'm the Managing Director of the Severn Valley Railway.
00:09So Gus, we're here to just chat a little bit about the landslip we've had there.
00:14The first question I'd like to ask is how did you find out about the landslip?
00:18So we were advised by a member of the public who saw it and rang in and said they thought there was a problem on the line
00:24and we very quickly sent some of our track inspection guys out to have a look and they
00:29found obviously what we've all now seen the images of.
00:32And have you been to see it yourself and if so how did you feel when you saw it?
00:36So yeah I have, I went down there earlier this week with a group of our own engineers and some
00:40from Network Rail and even though I'd seen the images beforehand, when you actually get to see
00:45it in reality it does take your breath away slightly because obviously it's not what anybody wants to see.
00:51Yeah and where are we now in terms of knowing what will be needed to do to fix the problem?
00:56Well we're still at the stages of assessing the damage really and that's moved on to
01:02the point today where we've got some contractors on site who are drilling some boreholes through
01:07the railway formation and also into the ground adjacent to the railway to understand the ground
01:11conditions in the area. That'll tell us quite a bit about probably what caused the issue in the
01:17first place and also tell us some of the real critical information we're going to need to
01:21understand how best to repair it.
01:23Do you know how long it might take to fix and when we can expect to see trains on the line there again Gus?
01:30So we don't know yet how long it's going to be. I mean what I would say though you know this is not
01:34going to be a quick fix, it will be some months before the railway reopens again. We've got further
01:39discussions to have with some of the specialist engineers next week particularly once they've got
01:43the results of the ground survey works that I was talking about previously. So we're heading
01:47towards the point of you know knowing really you know how best to repair it and how long that will
01:52take and of course how much it will cost but we're not quite at that point yet.
01:56Have you got any ideas money-wise? Have you managed to put any figures on it or?
02:01Not really but you know it will be some hundreds of thousands of pounds there's no question about it.
02:06Yeah and given the big challenges the financial struggles that Severn Neat Valley have had in
02:11recent years, how heartbreaking is it to be hit by another another thing?
02:16Well of course it's really really disappointing and you know people on the railway have worked
02:20really really hard for the last 18 months to well really for two years actually since 2023 to
02:25stabilise the railway's finances and start to build it back up again and we saw some you know
02:30really encouraging signs last year. We were busy and we had a relatively good financial result at
02:35the end of the year so to be faced with something like this is is disappointing but there's no
02:41point being downbeat about it we've got to get on with it and do what the Severn Mallee Railway
02:44always does and that's you know dust ourselves off get on with it repair the railway and get
02:48ourselves back up and running again and that's what we're going to do.
02:51Yeah and how heartening has it been to see the public response?
02:55Well it's just amazing I mean we always say that a lot of people many many thousands of people have
03:00a special place in their heart for the Severn Mallee Railway but it's absolutely true you know
03:03we've been part of the of the local economy here and part of the tourism scene in the West Midlands
03:08and Worcestershire and Shropshire now for 60 years you know it's our 60th anniversary year this year
03:13but it's yeah but it's really really encouraging to see just the length at which people you know
03:18will go to to support us and without us doing anything very much yet in terms of fundraising
03:24you know we've received over £50,000 in donations towards the repair so
03:27you know I can't thank people enough who've donated to us because you know it shows very
03:32much how much they think of this railway and we we really really appreciate that.
03:37And I guess you your that appeal still goes out there for people to if they can to donate and
03:42support? Yeah absolutely I mean obviously we will we'll do a bit more of a structured appeal once
03:46we know exactly how much it's going to cost to repair but in the meantime if people do want to
03:51donate if you go on to our website www.svr.co.uk you will find a link on there to our resilience
03:57fund and you know please if you can make a donation we'd be really really appreciative.
04:01Yeah and is there any scope to get financial support from grant sources and government etc?
04:07I think in the 2007 one of course we were part of the European Union there was a few
04:12different avenues there what what options are open do you feel in at the minute Gus? So that's
04:17that's one of the other work streams that we've got when we go at the moment is to look at
04:20you know what what external funding and what grant opportunities there might be out there so
04:24you know I can't say definitively at the moment what if any will be available but we're certainly
04:29looking very closely at that you know we're speaking to local political stakeholders stakeholders
04:34to MPs and other other people because you know if there is any funding that we would be eligible for
04:38of course you know we would like to make sure we access that. Yeah and reflecting back on 2007
04:44when we had the landslides there how does this compare kind of you know damage wise cost wise
04:50and so on to that? Well I mean 2007 was you know a complete catastrophe catastrophe and if you
04:56remember the the line was affected in many many places and in fact actually the only operational
05:00section of line we were left with was Killerminster to Bewdley which is the first three and a half
05:04miles so we had many many more locations affected in 2007. The root cause if you like was the same
05:12it was you know extremely heavy rainfall over a very short period of time but also if you remember
05:17there was a distinct difference in that a lot of the issues in 2007 were caused by the original
05:23Victorian drainage systems on the railway becoming completely overwhelmed. This particular failure
05:29was not a failure of drainage you know it's it looks to be you know something to do with the
05:33level of water in the brook underneath the bridge there and the effect that's had on the retaining
05:39wall but we don't know that definitively yet but it certainly wasn't a drainage issue. Either way
05:44though whichever way you look at it it is climate change related because what we are seeing in the
05:48country of course is more and more of these storm events where we get many many weeks worth of
05:53rainfall in a 20 12 or 24 hour period and you know those those are really difficult to deal with
05:59with infrastructure of this age. So we've got we've been down on the site today as Shropshire Star
06:04chatting to Chris Bond there's guys there from Network Rail just explain to us that relationship
06:09with Network Rail what are they getting out of it how come they're along helping? Well so we we have
06:14in place with Network Rail a partnership and collaboration agreement. We're currently the
06:20only heritage railway that's got a collaboration and partnership agreement formally with Network Rail
06:24and we do things for each other for mutual benefit so we provide them with training facilities in a
06:30safe but live railway environment so that their technicians and engineers can can be safely
06:35trained on railway infrastructure without the pressures that they have on their own infrastructure
06:39of course because the national network is very busy. They also have western region and great
06:44western mechanical signalling to maintain in places like the Worcester area for example and of course
06:49we can help them with training new engineers on that type of equipment because that's all we have
06:53on the SVR is that type of is that type of signalling. We're also doing work with them
06:58you know they're training new drone operators and things like that again using the SVR.
07:03So the quid pro quo for that is that sometimes when we ask them to assist us with
07:07technical assistance and you know specialist investigations they can help us with that
07:16and we spoke to them last week when we first became aware of this issue and they said right
07:20you know we'll send some of our specialist engineers down who've got experience of dealing
07:23with earthworks failures on their network and they've they've you know experienced several
07:28issues themselves recently in the networking and around here and they are very willing to come and
07:33have a look and share their experience with us and that's really great yeah that will help us
07:36no end in terms of getting this repaired. So we were chatting to Chris earlier and he was saying
07:40that there's quite a few bridges 30 plus on the line he was saying that the bridge inspections
07:47have gone from five years to annual inspections now this bridge was inspected three days before
07:53does that is that is it just one of those things or does that kind of concern you or?
07:58Well no it doesn't concern me first of all I'm really pleased that our you know structures
08:02inspection regime you know is working you know so we it was really really good that you know
08:07if there is such a good thing in these circumstances that we could go straight to the inspection
08:11last undertaken on this bridge which fortunately was only a few days ago and say well at the point
08:17of an inspection by qualified you know engineers the bridge was showing no signs of defects at all
08:24I think it's ever so easy sometimes in today's world to think oh well you know infrastructure
08:28inspections you know put those to one side but I would say you know you do that at your peril it's
08:33really really important as rainfall and heavy rainfall becomes prevalent in this country that
08:39you know all railways heritage railways and the national network we have to really make sure that
08:42we do keep on top of our structures and make sure we inspect them regularly so that's that's a really
08:47important piece of our maintenance. So you're hoping to hoping let me say to get have it open
08:53for the some of the summer season you know obviously it depends on what goes on you're
08:57not ruling that out you've got some events coming up so you've had to kind of get in touch with
09:01people and say well you'll be setting up from Kidderminster are people have been happy to do
09:05that or have you had cancellations and so on? We haven't really had too many cancellations the
09:10the in February half term our main event is the visit of Paddington Bay to the engine house which
09:15you know is really to appeal to our family visitors we sold that out some people had
09:20booked to come from Bridge North we've contacted all of those people and given them some alternatives
09:25of you know how they can make a railway journey to Highley and still visit Paddington Bay
09:29and the vast majority are going to do that I think we've had a very small handful of people
09:35who've said well they can't actually make it but a very very very small number so we're really
09:38pleased that you know people are you know still you know going to come and support the railway
09:44because of course one of the other ways you can support us to recover is to continue to use the
09:48railway you know we've still got 12 miles out of 16 that people can travel on we're opening it in
09:52February half term and we're looking to welcome as many people as possible. Yeah I guess we should
09:57stress that actually 12 miles still out of the 16 like you say and it's still thoughts in the
10:04area as potentially what might happen at Bridge North while the full track's not open like there
10:08might be might be see some trains still steaming huffing and puffing. So Bridge North station of
10:13course is a grade two listed you know building in its own right it's got a lovely just recently
10:19refurbished bar there the Railwayman's Arms which is very popular we've got a nice you know
10:24Great Western Railway tea room there refreshment room and of course a gift shop and we also want
10:29to again you know try and cater for people who may just turn up at Bridge North station not knowing
10:33the railway's not not yet able to operate from there so we are looking at making arrangements
10:38to have a small steam locomotive in steam there when we can and if we can arrange it in time
10:44yeah we'll be looking to offer footplate rides to people on that steam locomotive
10:47if we can so there's a bit more detail to come on that yeah and we have got some
10:50suitable steam locomotives at Bridge North we've got one in particular that's probably suitable for
10:55for doing footplate rides over a short distance in and around the station there
10:59so we are hoping that where possible we will have some live steam at Bridge North for people to see
11:04and one thing that I hadn't really considered is obviously once the track something like this
11:08happens if all your trains are at one end so we've there'll be a bit of video I myself got
11:16caught just behind a what I think was one of the coal engines being transported over so
11:20yeah so that's something else you're having to contend with so because we're in our current
11:25winter maintenance period so we the railway closed on the 5th of January not due to reopen as I've
11:30said till the 15th of February and we do a myriad of maintenance tasks during that five week period
11:35one of which is a lot of the you know annual maintenance tasks on our steam loco fleet
11:40and our main steam loco maintenance facility as you know is down at Bridge North so all our
11:44steam locomotives were down at Bridge North obviously when the landslip happened so in order
11:50to make sure that we've got a steam locomotive here at the south end of the line to operate
11:54the half term services we're in the process today and tomorrow of moving 75069 one of our steam
12:01locomotives down from Bridge North to here by road and you've seen the tender arrive this morning and
12:06the rest of the loco will arrive tomorrow morning. Great so well we wish you all the best Chris and
12:11with getting our beloved line back open and thank you for all your hard work on behalf of Shropshire.
12:16You're welcome, thank you very much.