Swanage Railway volunteers delighted with £1.47m government grant (From Dorset Echo)

Swanage Railway volunteers delighted with £1.47m government grant

3:00pm Monday 11th February 2013 in News

VOLUNTEERS at Swanage Railway are delighted after scooping a £1.47m government grant to re-introduce a regular service in Purbeck.

The cash boost puts them on track to complete the link from Swanage and Corfe Castle to the main line at Wareham – a long-held ambition since British Rail axed the service in 1972.

The grant, from the Coastal Communities Fund will give an important transport, tourism and employment boost to Purbeck – creating about 10 direct jobs and another 40 indirect jobs in the area.

It was announced by Secretary of State at the Department of Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles during a visit to Ramsgate in Kent today.

The £1.47m grant has been awarded to the volunteer-run Swanage Railway Company – which is owned and controlled by the volunteer-run Swanage Railway Trust charity – with the first regular trains running between Wareham, Corfe Castle and Swanage by the spring of 2015.

Swanage Railway Company chairman Peter Sills, who rode on the last British Rail train from Swanage to Wareham in January 1972 as a teenager, said they were delighted.