Spa Valley Railway, West Station, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN2 5QY
Telephone: 01892 537715
Email: enquiriesatspavalleyrailway.co.uk
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Imagine – It’s the summer of 2009; next summer. You’re standing on Groombridge Station, enjoying the sun and the country station atmosphere. The birdsong and the breeze rustling the leaves are pierced by a distant whistle and the sound of a steam engine working hard. Wires sing and signal arms lift as the road is set for the “up” train. You look towards the cutting just in time to see and hear “Spartan” snorting up the bank with its smart train of green carriages. Meanwhile, from Tunbridge Wells, the Jinty is just pulling into the platform with a train of passengers who’ve enjoyed their morning in the Pantiles and a good lunch and a stroll at High Rocks. More get on, having been at Groombridge Place. To the clatter of more signals being cleared, the Guard waves the train out of the station and into the loop. She is bound for Eridge – along the only steam railway in Britain running for a mile alongside an operational main line. This isn’t a summer daydream – it’s on the cards for next year.

The Spa Valley Railway occupies a unique and enviable position in the heritage railway sector, in that we offer a truly viable transport service to visitors. The SVR will link the tourist attractions of Tunbridge Wells and Groombridge with a fast, comfortable main line railway which connects to London in under an hour.

15m overseas visitors came to London in 2006, coupled with nearly 11m UK residents making at least an overnight stay in the Capital. Tourist spending in London totalled £12.9bn last year (source: ONS). By giving non-car-using visitors to London the chance of a day out in the beautiful countryside of the High Weald and the spa town of Tunbridge Wells, the SVR is well-placed to deliver a significant boost to the local economy.

We are pursuing arrangements for joint-ticketing with Southern and our local tourism partners, with a view to providing a combined “Day Out in the Weald” ticket from London stations.

We see ourselves as the mortar between the bricks of local tourist destinations, offering an exciting and fun way of getting to them from the Capital. Air-conditioned travel on Southern’s new express trains from London Bridge and a steam train ride through the beautiful Weald landscape certainly beats trying to placate the children in a traffic jam on the M25!

The current position

Since opening in December 1996, we have established ourselves as the biggest single tourist destination in Tunbridge Wells, attracting over 30,000 visitors in 2006. We have worked hard to complete the operational railway to the junction with Network Rail at Birchden, and to develop the “visitor experience”. We have never thought it sufficient to expect people to just turn up and pay for a train ride – the competition locally is too strong for that to be successful in the long term. Consequently, we have established a good relationship with Groombridge Place, offering joint tickets, events and publicity. The High Rocks Inn paid for and built a new halt for us, and we suggest walking itineraries from all our stations. There are also the attractions of Tunbridge Wells town, the Pantiles and the Chalybeate spring to entertain visitors.

We run highly successful special events throughout the year, such as Santa Specials, Locomotive Galas and Thomas the Tank Engine weekends. This helps us to reinvest in our infrastructure and develop new projects, but falls short of being able to fund major new works such as the Eridge Extension. The whole enterprise is only viable through our use of volunteer labour. For example, we are fortunate to be able to draw on the skills of engineers, craftsmen and senior rail professionals, whose expertise and enthusiasm is priceless to a project such as this.

How we plan to realise our potential

The nature of the Eridge Extension - a mile of running parallel to a 75mph mainline railway on a formation leased to us by Network Rail - presents us with a unique challenge.

In order to return our trains to Eridge, we need to:

The above requirements have been costed at a total of £500,000, with the project scheduled for delivery at Easter 2008. Network Rail have committed themselves to the project – it is now up to us to fulfil our part of the bargain. As we approach the completion, we will aggressively market our product through the relevant tourism channels in London and the South-East in order to maximise potential customer awareness and revenue. To put this potential into context, the Bluebell Railway attracted 418,000 visitors last year, yet serves no centres of population or genuine transport purpose.

The Spa Valley Railway can tap directly into an enormous new market, and play its part in delivering a varied and interesting day out to London visitors who wish to sample rural England and its towns and villages without having to hire a car or endure a long bus journey. Of course, travellers can already access much of the country around London by rail, but the variety and quality of attractions available straight off the Spa Valley steam train is unique. Integrating them all with us and Southern to form a combined family and tourist day out presents a very powerful product to a market with a healthy appetite for new ideas.

This is not only a bold step for the Spa Valley, it’s a significant “first” in both the tourism and heritage railway industries.

Why should I contribute?

This is it – after 23 years of closure, rebirth and extension, we are finally on the cusp of placing the last piece in our jigsaw. We are, after all, the Tunbridge Wells and Eridge Railway Preservation Society, and here we stand as the people able to make our line just that. Make no mistake – this represents a major local and national news story, because nothing like this has ever been done before! Ask yourself, what do you want from your railway? Are you content with 30,000 visitors a year, and struggling to make ends meet to fund overhauls and improvements? Or do you want to be part of something much, much bigger, with the railway finally doing what we set out to achieve in 1985?  Please dig as deep as you can to make the dream a reality. Your Committee and the working membership are absolutely committed to this project – If you can help us financially, we’ll give you a Spa Valley Railway that holds no equal in the heritage world.

“We’ll never get half a million!”

Oh yes we will! Here’s how:

Invensys (formerly Westinghouse) have pledged to undertake the remedial work necessary at Forge Farm level crossing (right) at cost, saving us £250,000.

Network Rail have committed management time and other resources up to the value of £25,000 - in their view more than enough to fulfil their obligations as the infrastructure provider.

We are applying to the relevant national bodies for grant aid.

Local and national businesses are being approached with sponsorship deals, and various fundraising initiatives are being arranged.

The Railway has a membership of around 670. Through their generosity, an internal appeal last year raised over £30,000 in short time, which has enabled us to progress as far as we have. We are now closer than ever to realising our dream. The key Network Rail found under the mat has been placed in the lock on Birchden gates. Now it’s up to us to open them. 

Please download and fill out the Standing Order form and return to: 

Eridge Appeal, Tunbridge Wells and Eridge RPS, West Station, Tunbridge Wells , TN2 5QY .

All photography by D. Staines unless otherwise stated.

Eridge Project Requirements
Latest News on the Eridge Project
Read the Steam Railway Magazine Article "Great Eridge-pectations" outlining the project

 

Last Updated 29th October 2007. ©M. Dives