The West Somerset Railway is a wonderful local institution. It pulls in the punters by the trainload. But now this volunteer-run charity is seriously threatened because of over-zealous interpretation of a European directive on rail safety. The Health and Safety Executive, a branch of our Government, has looked at the directive from Brussels and decided that the same standards of safety should apply to heritage lines as they do for all major passenger services. Nothing wrong with that at all. West Somerset is very keen on safety and has a super safety recvord. But the Health and Safety Executive have taken the spirit of equality to ridiculous lengths. They have decreed that heritage services like West Somerset will have to pay for the services of the Railway Inspectorate, a facility previously done for virtually nothing in the case of heritage railways.

The Railway Inspectorate is staffed by people keen on keeping lines like ours ticking over succesfully. They have never charged the full commercial rate. But soon they may be forced to, and its not cheap. They already charge railway operaters like Sir Richard Branson £200 an hour. OUCH.

This is a totally silly situation. And for once it isn't the fault of bureaucrats in Brussels, it is enturely down to a bunch of ultra-careful civil servants in London who are desperately keen to do things by the rule book.

However, if these charges come in our railway will lose out badly. I am not prepared to see that happen. Please CONTACT ME if you want to help my campaign. I have already demanded a meeting with relevant Ministers and the more ammunition that comes in the better I can fight this case.

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• http://ukhrail.uel.ac.uk/ The Heritage Railway Association
• http://www.west-somerset-railway.co.uk/ West Somerset Railway
• http://www.wsr.org.uk/ Unofficial site for West Somerset Railway
• http://www.hse.gov.uk/railways/ Railway Inspectorate