Shropshire Star

Bridgnorth’s Severn Valley Railway has had a record-breaking Easter with attendance figures up by almost 30 per cent.

See also:Perfect day for railway line

Over the four holiday days the railway had 7,300 passengers.

Its closest figure to that was in 2005 with 5,660.

The railway fully reopened on Good Friday following repair works to damage caused by floods in June last year, which have cost almost £3 million.

The reopening has been good news for businesses in the town which had previously reported a loss due to its closure.

John Leach, SVR’s marketing manager, said the record-breaking figures were despite the bad weather and Easter being early this year.He said: “It’s very important to us. Hopefully people will keep coming. We’re open for the next two weeks every day and we’ll be running weekends in April and will be running daily from May 3 through to the end of September.

“We’ve looked back at figures over the last four years and our overall record year was 2005 and we’re up by almost 30 per cent.

“We don’t expect it to be up 30 per cent throughout the year but it was nice to hear feedback from pubs saying that they were extremely busy over the weekend which was great news, especially considering latest reports and the current climate of the situation with pubs.”

A spokeswoman for the Shakespeare pub in Bridgnorth said they had been under pressure prior to the Easter weekend for a number of reasons.

She said: “With the combination of the smoking ban and the Severn Valley Railway being out of action we have definitely been affected.”