Severn Valley Railway postpones popular experience days to conserve coal supplies

It comes as the railway announced some changes needed to be made to its operations on Sunday, in order to conserve stocks of coal.

The SVR, in common with other railways across the country, is facing challenges in sourcing new supplies, made worse by the conflict in Eastern Europe.

As a result, all footplate experiences until the end of May have been postponed until a later date and the railway has informed all passengers who will be affected by these changes.

Helen Smith, Managing Director, said: “We are having to making some difficult decisions in order to conserve our existing supply of coal, and we need to do all we can to make our existing supply last longer.

"We are working hard to secure new supplies, which will ease the situation.

“We are having to postpone some of our footplate experiences as an initial measure and have contacted all those that are impacted at this moment in time.

"The Severn Valley Railway is looking at further measures to conserve and prolong our existing coal supplies which include using a mixture of coal and other materials, including e-coal and Ovoid.

“This issue has come at a very difficult time for everyone in the heritage railway industry as we are all recovering from the financial challenges brought on by the pandemic.”

“Keeping the SVR running public services is our top priority, and the measures we’re now introducing will help secure heritage rail travel in the coming months for our passengers.”

All other events, including the SVR’s Open House Weekend, Spring Steam Gala and Spring Diesel Festival will currently proceed as planned.

Tickets can be booked at svr.co.uk or by calling the team on 01562 757900.