A number of things have happened recently, which mean that I need to advise you all what the current situation is with respect to this stretch of former railway line.
As you will know, it is a long held ambition of those who founded our railway to reopen as much as possible of the old line between Cheltenham and Stratford-On-Avon. When we reopened the railway to Broadway, we announced a period of consolidation but made clear that we would not do anything that would in any way inhibit any future further extension to the north.
This section of the old line is owned by Railway Paths Limited (RPL), which is in effect a subsidiary of Sustrans the national cycling charity. This section of line was one of a number of such redundant railway lines which were transferred to RPL by the Department for Transport (DfT) some years ago, with the intent that they be turned into cycle routes.
We were contacted by RPL earlier this year, and at a subsequent meeting were told that RPL had decided that it had no wish to convert this redundant railway line into a cycleway and had resolved to dispose of it. It had decided that the obvious party to approach about this was GWSR and offer it.
There is apparently a clause in the transfer Agreement with the DfT to the effect that if RPL wants to dispose of any redundant railway line to a third party, it has to seek the prior consent of the DfT. RPL applied for permission to transfer this redundant railway line to GWSR and the application was refused.
The reason for the refusal is that it is now the policy of the DfT that heritage railways are unable to give a sufficiently strong covenant to secure the continuing maintenance of road bridges which cross these redundant lines, and therefore consideration will only be given to transferring ownership to a body such as a local authority which by definition has the necessary resources.
We have written to the DfT to establish if this policy is indeed correct and have asked if it can be waived in our case. We await a reply.
Some of you may be aware that on 5th July, there was a debate in the House of Lords instigated by Lord Richard Faulkner (who opened our extension to Broadway) on the subject of the Historical Railway Estate. If you wish to read the Hansard report of the debate please enter the following link into your browser
Historical Railways Estate - Monday 5 July 2021 - Hansard - UK Parliament
During that debate, as a result of prior correspondence we had had with Lord Nigel Jones he asked on our behalf for confirmation that no legacy structures on the abandoned route were under threat of demolition. In reply, Baroness Vere, Minister for Roads Buses and Places has confirmed that there is currently no intention to infill or demolish the bridges on that route.
She said that any transfer of the route would potentially have to be on the basis that a local authority would accept overall legal responsibility for the line and would then lease it to a heritage railway, whilst at the same time entering into an appropriate agreement to secure the cost of future maintenance.
There are a number of bridges on the section of abandoned railway line between Broadway and Honeybourne. All are in a poor condition as is evidenced by the fact that the three road overbridges are heavily propped. RPL has confirmed that they have done no more than basic maintenance in the time that they have owned the line and are not in a position financially to do any more work to them. Thus, any party which accepts a transfer of this section of line would also be accepting a considerable financial exposure for necessary future repairs.
For ourselves, all this comes at the worst possible time as we have just gone through a period of nearly eighteen months without any meaningful income. Our first responsibility is the security and viability of our current business.
The matters I have outlined above may well feature in the railway press, and it is important that you are aware of our position before it appears in print.
I will update you further when we know more but wanted you to have all the facts as we now have them.
Richard Johnson
Chairman
GWSR Plc