Llangollen Railway secures future

THE Llangollen Railway Trust (LRT) says thanks to donations from well-wishers, grants and a significant legacy, cashflowwise the trust is secure through to 2023.

“That is not to say we can relax – cashflow will always be very important,” said LRT Pete Edwards, chairman.

“We have no debt – it will remain that way – and creditors will continue to be paid within a few days of receipt of invoice. September trading was around 10% over budget and, whilst the initial enthusiasm after reopening has calmed, we are very pleased with the continuing support we are receiving from out visitors.”

Finance

Meanwhile, LRT has been advised by the administrators’ lawyers that the £30,000 placed in a separate bank account by the directors of the PLC trading arm, intended to cover sales of tickets, experiences, etc in advance, will have to be made available to the general body of creditors.

Phil Freeth, finance director, said: “The directors of the PLC didn’t do anything wrong – it is common practice to use advance sales and customer deposits to fund working capital. One of the issues was that the funds were only put into the separate account, very late in the day, from an overdrawn account. The directors of the new board of the LRT have therefore created a sales in advance account, cash backed from an account substantially in credit, with immediate effect.

“This will cover advance sales at one time and hopefully this early step will prevent any similar recurrence should the Trust fall into financial difficulties in future.”

PETER NEVE Class 08 No. 13265 brought a train of ballast wagons into the Corwen station loop on October 11, to allow the loco to run round. The empty wagons were then taken back to Bonwm where they were due to be filled with stone from the ballast mound for eventual depositing in the station loop at Corwen, to level up the track and point work.