Funding boost to prepare rail attraction for future

The manager of a heritage railway has said a £250,000 funding boost from the National Lottery Heritage Fund will ensure the organisation is "ready to face" the next 20 years.

Malcolm Holmes, general manager of Great Central Railway - which maintains a double-track stretch of heritage railway in Leicestershire - told the BBC the organisation wanted to make its volunteer workforce "better represent" communities in the area.

He said the funding will be used to make it easier for people to join as a volunteer and the organisation would invest in training for them.

Holmes said the money will be used to "strengthen the organisation" for the future and enhance its "visitor experience".

Holmes said the funding could "potentially" be used to provide classic buses to connect stations.

"We've been very successful as a heritage railway for very many years as a really important part of Leicester and Leicestershire.

"But, to ensure that we remain the place that people in the county and the surrounding counties want to visit, we need to invest in our visitor experience in the future," Holmes said.

Great Central Railway is aiming to re-join the surviving sections of the railway between Loughborough and Nottingham - as part of a reunification project - to re-connect an 18-mile (29km) heritage railway across the East Midlands.

The Great Central Main Line was originally opened in 1899, as a Victorian high-speed railway between Sheffield and London, but it was closed as part of the Beeching railway cuts in the 1960s.

While two long sections of the line through the Midlands remained, 500m (1,640ft) of railway in Loughborough – which connected them together – was demolished.

Planning documents submitted as part of an approved application to reinstate about 500 metres of railway line stated "significant work" to reconnect the line has already taken place, with new bridges over the A60, the Midland Mainline and the full renovation of the canal bridge.

According to Great Central Railway's website, the organisation had raised £2.9m towards a £3.2m target to complete the next two stages of the project.

Holmes told the BBC the funding awarded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund would help the reunification project in "several ways", including changing the legal structure of the organisation to make it easier to create one operating company.

Holmes added he was "hugely grateful" for the funding which he said presented a "fantastic opportunity" to grow the business into the future.

Liz Bates, director for Midlands and East at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: "The National Lottery Heritage Fund is dedicated to supporting projects that connect people to their local heritage, and this funding will ensure that this historic railway line and its many characters and stories will continue to inspire and delight the communities of Leicestershire and beyond."

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