‘Vital’ Severn Valley Railway £500,000 revamp halts trains

Friday 14th January 2011, 11:29AM GMT.

Construction work under way at Severn Valley Railway's Arley Station

A £500,000 improvement scheme on the Severn Valley Railway has brought services to a halt for the next month.

Platforms are being taken down and rebuilt to allow new drainage at Arley station. Waterproofing work is also taking place at the Bewdley station’s viaduct.

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The railway, which receives thousands of visitors each year, will restore partial services on February 12, but the line will not completely operate again until March 20.

The work has been branded “vital”.

Officials admit the heritage railway will lose income during the shutdown.

In Bewdley, signalling equipment and tracks are being removed from the top of the 10-arch viaduct in Station Road. Contractors will then dig down through the top of the structure to the brickwork of the arches and lay waterproof material.

A layer of concrete will be placed at the top of the structure and tracks and signalling equipment can then be replaced.

Timber sleepers, dating back to when the track was laid by the Great Western Railway prior to 1948, are also to be replaced.

The platforms at Arley will be rebuilt using sympathetic building materials and techniques.

Infrastructure services manager Philip Sowden said: “These works simply have to be done. It is a major project.”

View more: Severn Valley Railway news.