Landslip 'likely to cause months of disruption' for Severn Valley Railway

The landslip happened on the northern end of the line, near Astbury, between Hampton Loade and Bridgnorth.

The severity of the situation is still being assessed, along with potential causes, and what work needs to be done to fix the problem.

As a result the Severn Valley Railway (SVR) will still be running services from Kidderminster on the unaffected part of the line, but will not be operating services from Bridgnorth.

The move will be a blow to the town, with the railway providing significant tourist numbers for the local economy.

The issues with the landslip are also likely to result in a large repair bill - with the public having already donated £11,000 to the railway's resilience fund within just 24 hours of the news being made public.

The SVR thanked its supporters for their backing, saying it was "incredibly grateful" to all those who had donated.

The railway has had a team of specialist engineers examining the scene on Thursday to make an initial assessment of the situation and discuss the possible causes and solutions with the Severn Valley's own in-house engineers.

The organisation said it hopes to have a solution drawn up within the next few days.

But, it has warned that the situation is likely to take 'months not weeks' to repair.

An initial statement from the railway had said: "The damage happened around 300 metres north of an area known as Sterns on the Shropshire section of the line.

"Although the Sterns area has suffered previous landslips with considerable remedial work already carried out, the location of this failure is not one the railway previously had concerns about."

The SVR’s head of infrastructure Chris Bond visited the site to make a preliminary inspection and said: "We’ve suffered a significant embankment failure and damage to approximately 30 metres of the track and track bed. The area remains in a dangerous state and further slippage may occur so we are warning people to stay well away.

"We will seek further guidance from specialist contractors, but it’s already clear this will be a major infrastructure repair project that will take considerable time and money."

SVR managing director Jonathan ‘Gus’ Dunster explained more about the impact of the situation on the railway's services, saying: "We’re due to reopen on 15 February for half-term and the start of our 2025 season, but clearly services between Bridgnorth and Hampton Loade cannot run.

"We want to reassure passengers who’ve pre-booked tickets that we’ll be in touch soon by email, and they don’t need to phone us. We’ll get this sorted out as quickly as we possibly can.

"There is of course, a further impact on us as a heritage line, and that’s the cost we now face to bring our full line back into operation.

"Things were just beginning to stabilise for the SVR, following several years of financial struggles, and this is the last thing we needed.

"Inevitably, we’re going to have to find the funds to pay for this essential repair, and would welcome all the help that we can get. If you would like to assist, we would be extremely grateful, and you can donate to the SVR Resilience Fund at svr.co.uk."