AGM Trespass and events

The Annual General Meeting of K&ESR was well attended as usual. It is the second year we have been to Northiam Village Hall and it is a great location. It all went rather smoothly.One gentleman made some interesting points about Robertsbridge. He is very clearly single minded about the inevitable extension to Robertsbridge, but I feel it is worth me publicly making comment.

At K&ESR we are fully supporting this project to extend to Robertsbridge and are working with the Rother Valley Heritage Trust to achieve this.

Heritage Railways don’t make much (if any) money. As a charity that is not what we are about anyway. Spa Valley has just completed their extension to Eridge, and the Bluebell is going to East Grinstead. These are enormous investments to link with the main line, as will be the building of the Rother Valley Railway from Bodiam to Robertsbridge to link K&ESR. In cold hard commercial terms it is doubtful whether any of these investments would take place. Heritage railways do them as part of their mission to provide railway experiences for their members and vitally visitors.

RVR’s investment in track and infrastructure is one thing, but at K&ESR we have some significant infrastructural requirements to enable us to efficiently operate over a longer line. Some of them are in fact needed now, but they will be an essential part of running to Robertsbridge. Above all, over a longer line, Tenterden Town Station will need to be a high quality attraction in its own right to attract passengers from the Robertsbridge end of the line. We have plans for this but lack one vital ingredient - £s, or to be more precise £ms. It may be possible to obtain some grant assistance towards some of these projects but not all the projects and not the total of any projects. We have to find a way to achieve them without increasing our borrowings to an unacceptable level, as they are high enough already and are a considerable drain on our resources in terms of interest and repayments.
I am proud that despite this we have been able to invest in, and improve, our existing facilities but we are really only currently scratching the surface.

We have had some trespassing on the line by school students recently. It is disappointing that despite all that is taught about railway safety at school that young persons and indeed adults trespass on the railway, at danger to themselves. Even more disappointing from my perspective is that we know the offenders are students at Homewood School in Tenterden, indeed one young man dropped his ID card, at a place where some damage has taken place. I called the school and they have not bothered to call me back. So what message does that give? I will leave you, dear reader, to draw your own conclusion! The police are now dealing with the issue.

Since my last blog we have had some excellent events at K&ESR. The numbers attending our Thomas event were a little disappointing but otherwise we continue to have a good year in terms of passenger numbers as an increasing number of people recognise what a great value day out we offer. Hoppers was fanatstic and there was a great atmosphere during the folk festival. Halloween is next and we now have Santa Specials on sale, and tickets are selling well.


Next year we are adding some new events into our calendar which will include a World War One Weekend and a Sixties Weekend. Our Events Co-ordinator has worked up some interesting plans for these already.

Finally some news that in November we will be operating a special train on 11th November which will include the Cavell Van and what will become the latest vintage carriage to appear on the K&ESR – the Ashford Brake 3062. We will take the opportunity to bless the carriage too, following a short service of remembrance. All of that from 10.45 am.