Severn Valley Railway issues statement after being fined by the Office of Rail and Road

It admitted that failures in its safety management system three-and-a-half years ago contributed to an employee falling from the roof of a carriage on which he was working and sustaining significant injuries as a result. 

The SVR’s managing director, Jonathan ‘Gus’ Dunster, said: 

"Now proceedings have been completed, we have the first opportunity to express publicly to the person affected and their family how sorry we are that this accident happened. We accepted the findings of the judge outlined in court.  

"The Severn Valley Railway fully acknowledges that shortcomings in our safety management system existed when the accident happened in February 2021.  

"In the three-and-a-half years since the incident happened, we have put in place a raft of measures to try and prevent anything like this happening again. An established health and safety department is now driving safety improvements across the railway and there has been a universal step change in safety culture at the SVR, transforming the way our paid staff and volunteers work. 

"As part of our continual improvement process, we regularly review our internal policies and procedures, and are providing a significantly greater level of training and supervision for our paid staff and volunteers. 

"Although the SVR is seen primarily by many people as a heritage attraction, we are first and foremost an operational railway, and must abide by the same regulations and safety standards as the main line railway. 

"We were encouraged that the District Judge acknowledged the important role played by heritage railways in general, and the SVR in particular, to education, the community and the regional economy. He stressed that he wanted the fine to be appropriate in relation to the incident but not to damage our ability to continue our work and our ongoing recovery."