Bid for funding to re-link Ironbridge to Bridgnorth by rail

AMONG the list of 85 schemes competing for investment under the Department for Transport’s third and final round of the Restoring Your Railway fund is a widely-supported bid to restore closed northern sections of the original GWR Severn Valley branch between Ironbridge and Bridgnorth.

The Ironbridge Railway Trust’s bid for feasibility study funding has been sponsored by MPs Lucy Allan, Phillip Dunne, Mark Garnier and Daniel Kawczynski, whose constituencies cover the railway corridor.

It is supported by Shropshire Council, the Marches Strategic Rail Group of local authorities, Worcestershire County Council and Wyre Forest District Council.

Building on the one-off opportunity presented by the redevelopment of the closed Ironbridge Power Station site, the trust envisages re-opening a community railway from there to the Iron Bridge and across the World Heritage Site to Bridgnorth, where it would link with the modern-day Severn Valley Railway (SVR).

Opporunity

The proposals would complement plans by the Telford Steam Railway to expand its services on to the Ironbridge-Coalbrookdale-Madeley Junction line, as outlined in issue 255.

Trust chairman Peter Lyons 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.”

The reopened route would offer new public transport capacity and a testbed for modern ‘green’ rail technology, as well as heritage trains forming part of historic attractions of the gorge and the valley.

The line between Buildwas and Bridgnorth was closed by BR in 1963.

SVR general manager Helen Smith said: “The SVR has not entered into any discussions about operational engagement with the proposed project at this very early stage.

“We await the outcome of the current funding bid with interest and look forward to understanding more about how the project might proceed.”