Lottery grant bid appeal pays off for GCR
What £12.3 million of funding means for our preserved railways. By Thomas Bright
A U-TURN by the National Lottery Heritage Fund means the Great Central Railway has now been awarded a £250,000 grant.
The NLHF turned down the Loughborough-based line’s bid in the original round of its Heritage Emergency Fund (SR510) – but the line made an appeal, and the grant was confirmed in October.
Describing it as “a great lifeline”, GCR managing director Michael Gough said that it “gives us the wherewithal to carry on until April” and means the railway “will not have to plead with outside sources.”
The railway “wasn’t given the opportunity” to bid for funding from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, he added
RAILWAYS ACROSS England have benefited from £12.3 million to help them survive into 2021.
The money, which forms part of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and Arts Council England’s £1.57bn Culture Recovery Fund, could not have been better timed, as railways not only head into the low season when income traditionally is minimal and expenditure usually high, but forced closure under new nationwide lockdown rules for England (see pages 10-11) has placed additional pressure on already stretched finances.
In the days before Covid-19, such sums would have been the primary catalyst for exciting railway projects, such as extensions, restorations or vital infrastructure works. This time though, the remit is much less enticing.
The DCMS/Arts Council England grants are purely intended to cover operating costs until March 2021, including staff wages, rent and utilities, redundancy pay-outs and essential maintenance. Furthermore, the individual sums are based on railways’ calculations as to what funding they will require to endure the winter, so the amounts listed (right) are ‘up to’, rather than outright.
Success and survival
It also explains why bigger organisations have received the biggest sums, because their overhead costs are so high.
Take the Severn Valley Railway, for example. In total, it has received £1,206,000 in grants (£906k from DCMS, £250k from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and £50k from Wyre Forest District Council), plus an additional £900k from its Covid-19 ‘Fight Back Fund’. But why has its fundraising been so successful?
SVR Charitable Trust director Shelagh Paterson says: “We got to work quickly, contacting our entire network of donors, supporters and members. As well as asking for donations and share purchases for our ‘Fight Back Fund’, we incorporated new ways of supporting such as ‘adopt an engine’ and our online shop.
“We’re careful not to over-ask our supporters for help, and we focus on both individuals and grant-giving bodies. We’ve made sure our communications have been strong across all the different platforms, including television and radio, direct mail, and
WE’RE CAREFUL NOT TO OVER-ASK OUR SUPPORTERS FOR HELP
social media, as well as utilising videography. We’ve also used staff who wouldn’t normally be involved in these activities to help raise funds, and we have a solid history and reputation for investing funds wisely.”
Despite that success, these grants won’t be transformative for their recipients. The money is mainly there to keep them
standing still, to help them endure the forthcoming winter until the spring when, hopefully, Covid restrictions might ease.
One railway for whom its DCMS grant has been a lifeline, however, is the South Tynedale Railway, which says its £84,300 award is “crucial” to turning its fortunes around at a time when the line has endured financial difficulties, culminating in the line’s operating company – STR Ltd – going into administration in September (SR511).
The DCMS grant means the railway “is not in danger at the present time,” David Granath, the STR Preservation Society’s chair of trustees, told Steam Railway.
He added: “The grant is crucial as it gives us a fighting chance to establish a viable business model for 2021 when we hope to start running trains again, although much will depend upon whether we have successfully countered coronavirus by next spring. Here’s hoping that we have.”
“We plan to spend the money on engineering, finance and marketing support, as well as improvements to our carriages and bringing our crews up to speed after what will have been a long shutdown.”
Winners and losers
While the £12.3 million is very welcome, spare a thought for those railways that missed out.
Take the Bure Valley Railway, for example. The 15in gauge Norfolk line has lost an estimated £750,000 in revenue and missed out on insurance settlements, the initial NLHF Heritage Emergency Fund and the latest round of DCMS/Arts Council grants “because they told us we weren’t heritage,” says managing director Andrew Barnes.
“I’m not bitter towards any railway that got a grant – good luck to them because they deserve it – but these grants have created winners and losers, and unfortunately we’re one of the losers.”
Barnes says that, in order to comfortably survive until next Easter when the BVR hopes to reopen, “a grant of, say, £150,000 would have been perfect, as it would have covered our staff wages and winter maintenance work, but even £50,000 would have taken the pressure off.”
The Bure Valley’s situation demonstrates just how vital these grants are for railways’ survival. Those that are not eligible or are yet to receive them face an uncertain winter, particularly with the threat of an extended lockdown placing their lucrative Santa special seasons in jeopardy.
This is not the end of the story however, for there are more grants on the horizon – the next round of which is expected to be announced by the time this issue goes on sale, so as you read this, yet more railways will have benefited from government support. Even so, every railway still needs our support if they are to survive and flourish. We’re not out of the woods yet.