Steam gala

A great success - congratulations and thanks to everyone who helped in any way.
Provisional figures are 3641 visitors who paid on entry plus about 300 who bought on line. This puts us about on budget - an excellent result when you consider the weather and the Toddington field condition!
Colin Fewell

Tripadvisor - Certificate of excellence

We have just received the following.
Colin Fewell

2014 Winner Celebrate Your Certificate of Excellence! TripAdvisor is delighted to award Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway with a 2014 Certificate of Excellence. This prestigious award recognises businesses that consistently earn top ratings from TripAdvisor travellers. Showcase it to guests and staff with pride! Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway Promote Your Award Your Certificate of Excellence should arrive within the next 6 weeks* – but you can start promoting your accomplishment today! Visit the Management Centre to get a free Certificate of Excellence badge for your website and to access additional tools to spotlight your achievement!

Free classic bus service into Cheltenham from the racecourse station on May 31st

On Saturday 31st May, there will be a VINTAGE BUS RUNNING DAY in Cheltenham, as part of the retirement celebrations for Ian Manning, the MD for Stagecoach West who is retiring.

There is going to be a fleet of 20 classic buses running on local routes around Cheltenham, Gloucester and Tewkesbury.

In particular, there will also be a FREE bus service from Racecourse Station to the town centre.

Details are at 

http://www.stagecoachbus.com/uploads/stagecoach711_running_day_tt_web.pdf

Colin Fewell

 

Tripadvisor

Have a look at the comments about our railway. We are now rated by Tripadvisor number 2 in Cheltenham (number 1 is a cinema!!) and number 10 in the Cotswolds
Colin Fewell

Wartime weekend

Numbers were down as expected this weekend - did you see the mud in the field at Toddington? Visitor numbers were about 1560 including pre purchased tickets which was about 20% down on 2013. Even having said that, the event was a tremendous success with loads of congratulatory e mails and cards (see Tripadvisor) and we still made a handsome amount for the railway. So thanks to everyone who braved the conditions - it was worth it!
Colin

Bridges to Broadway Contract Award

GREAT NEWS BUT WE STILL NEED YOUR HELP!


The Board have authorised the award of the contract for all five bridge to George Law. We are still short of the target funds but we are almost at the £400k mark and funds are still coming in. We did not want to wait any longer as the contractor will need summer weather to efficiently carry out foundation works. Also the award of the contract for all five bridges allows him the optimum flexibility in his work and hence the lowest cost to us. If you have been holding back to see how the fund raising progresses, now is the time to dip your hand in your pocket and make a share purchase as we do still need those funds to cover the work.


The contractor hopes to finish the job in around 6 months -depending on weather and available road outages - so we need your early support to top up the funds - do so soon while the tax benefits are available - they expire in September!


We want to express our thanks to John Balderstone for producing a very comprehensive tender specification which has allowed tenders for this highest value GWSR contract ever to be viewed with confidence and minor issues easily resolved. He has already obtained permissions for some of the road closures so work will start very quickly.


Alan Bielby

Wartime event

Many thanks to everyone who trudged through the mud this weekend to make this event such a success. Numbers of visitors were down but frankly with the appalling weather this was to be expected. Lots of positive comments from people - we are clearly setting a high standard for this kind of event.
Colin Fewell