A £1.5 million Survival Fund has been launched by the Severn Valley Railway to try and help it overcome its current financial crisis and enable the implementation of longer-term plans for the future.
Without the money, the SVR warns that a viable future for the railway is at risk unless there is an urgent injection of money.
The SVR is appealing for supporters to step in and donate, and has written to more than 25,000 shareholders, members and donors to explain the predicament. The Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, post-Brexit supply chain issues and the cost-of-living crisis have all had an adverse effect324 that the line’s annual electricity bill had risen from £180,000 to almost £500,000.