Severn Valley Railway's new chairman pledges to 'maintain direction' for beloved attraction

Chris Walton took over as chairman of SVR Holdings PLC, the not-for profit company that looks after the operations of Severn Valley Railway, on March 31 after previous chair Mike Ball stepped down.

Mr Walton has been a volunteer at SVR since 1969 and has worked as stationmaster at Bridgnorth for 33 years but says he “is not train-obsessed” having come from a background in business.

The former chartered management accountant, who has held held senior management roles across several leading automotive companies, said: “I joined SVR when I was 17, quite by accident. I had an interest in model railways and got involved with a group renovating an old 8F engine and that was moved to SVR and I went with it,” said the 71-year-old. “But I’m certainly not a trainspotter or anything like that.”

He said SVR has had to make some difficult decisions since the pandemic but there will be no change of direction as the railway tries to get back to where it was before Covid struck.

“It’s not a case of change of direction, it’s 'maintain direction',” he said, adding that despite it being a heritage line, SVR had to “operate in a way that makes business sense”.

“It is about doing what we do best and capitalising on that to put us where we were before Covid.”

In 2019 the railway saw 240,000 passengers that year but that plummeted to fewer than 60,000 by 2020.

The railway had hoped passenger numbers would bounce back but that did not happen, which has led to the heritage line taking some cost-cutting measures.

“We are looking to return to 2019 levels but we are under immense cost pressures,” said Mr Walton.

He added that while Covid loans helped keep SVR afloat during the pandemic, the not-for-profit business was now having to pay those back.

Mr Walton continued: “We have taken some difficult decisions earlier in the year. We had had to cut back on the number of days we operate and cut back on the number of trains because we have to fill the seats that we run, because running empty seats costs us money.

"We also did have to let some people go where we had no work for them, but in other areas we are making efforts to retain people.”

As an accountant he has worked for a number of leading auto companies, including Jaguar Land Rover, and while he has fond memories of his time as Bridgnorth stationmaster, a role he carried out for 33 years until 2015, he is drawing from his experience at both the railway and from his personal career.

“The high points at Bridgnorth were always the special events that all had to be planned in advance and delivered with the minimum amount of fuss,” he said. “It was about creating a good day out for both the volunteers and the visitors.

“My role in SVR and my professional life have run in parallel and have fed off each other.

“SVR started out as a four-mile stretch of track. At that time, I would never have imagined what it would become.”

The full line of the Severn Valley Railway now stretches over 16 miles from Kidderminster to Bridgnorth, but full line running had to be suspended earlier this year as infrastructure improvements wer being made.

Running along the full 16-mile track returned earlier this month when the railway held its annual open day.

SVR’s Open House Weekend took place at the beginning of April, and Mr Walton said the popularity of the event “bodes well” for the future.

“The open weekend was successful as there were a lot of people travelling to the railway who had been looking forward to that day for some time, so hopefully it bodes well.”

But he added that visitors could not just turn up and expect to get on a train in the current circumstance - they are advised to check SVR’s website.

“We will review our operations in May and if the situation allows we will get some extra trains on the timetable but in the meantime people need to check the website as to when we are running,” he said. “The important thing for us is that we give value for money so people have a good day and enjoy it.”