Severn Valley Railway concerns

I read your article about the changes planned on the SVR with considerable concern.

Interim managing director Jonathan Dunster’s cutbacks in services, as outlined, seem to me half‑baked.

How are they going to increase passenger numbers by running a skeleton service of only four full‑time trips with just one steam locomotive?

Does Mr Dunster really think families are going to hang about on platforms for hours before a train comes along?

Surely it would be better, if cost‑cutting is the exercise, to shut the railway during the working week and open at weekends, running at least three full‑length trips in each direction on Saturdays and Sundays, while having other events such as model railway exhibitions, themed events and art exhibitions to go with it.

The public come to see steam locomotives working. I do not believe they will turn up to see just one on its own on a 16½‑mile line. Two should be the minimum at weekends.

We live in challenging times, but this plan strikes me as completely mad. The SVR might as well not bother to open at all, except for special events.

Heritage railways are in a ‘Catch‑22’ situation. They need revenue from the public but, with costs rising, they’re struggling to afford coal, pay wages and make a profit.

You asked the question about the SVR going back to being a mostly volunteer‑run railway. Jonathan Dunster’s reply was arrogant. If the SVR can’t do that he didn’t explain how it is that other railways can.

Cutting services back to the bone is, I believe, only going to make the SVR’s situation worse and if this plan is implemented, I reckon by midsummer the SVR will have to think again. Michael Badham, Carmarthen, West Wales