Monday 30 May 2016

Cotswold Festival of steam

I'm sure all volunteers will want to join me in congratulating everyone involved with this year's gala. Not just the extremely hard working steam department but also all the other departments who came together to make this such a successful weekend. It was enjoyable and highly professional. Lots of good comments from visitors and what's more, a record number of people attended. Have a look at Tripadvisor to see some of the comments.
Colin Fewell

Monday 23 May 2016

Another record broken

We all expected this past weekend to be disappointing from a  visitor numbers point of view. After all, the weather was poor and the roundabout at the racecourse was to be closed. However, this real ale weekend turned out to be a record with 1254 people travelling on our trains - an increase of 4% on last year's record. Interestingly, if you want a quiet(!!) drink, then Sunday is your best bet - every year, numbers on a Sunday are about 40% of the total. Thanks to Andy for his organisation
Colin Fewell

Saturday 21 May 2016

Broadway - the last mile share issue reaches £500,000

Dear Supporters of the GWSR,

I am pleased to tell you that the Railway's share issue has, as of yesterday 20th May, reached the £500,000 mark!

Although receipt from applications for shares has, as we expected, slowed down, £500,000 represents a terrific achievement in the 6 weeks since the share issue launch event with Pete Waterman on 6th April!

Next stop the half way point, £625,000.

The £500,000 thus far received should be enough to keep our main work teams, that's the Broadway Station team, Permanent Way and Civil Engineering, working for the rest of 2016 but, as I have to remind everyone, we still need £750,000 to finish the job!

If you have the share issue document at home and have yet to apply for shares, may I suggest now might be the time to apply so that we can keep the momentum going?

Everything else seems to be going well at the Railway this season, and we have the Steam Gala to look forward to next weekend - fingers crossed for good weather!

Best wishes,

Chris

Chris Bristow
GWSR PLC Finance Director


Friday 6 May 2016

BBC Midlands Today feature and Broadway Share issue update

Dear GWSR Supporters,

The BBC Midlands Today news team heard how well the share issue is going and wanted to do another news item on the railway specifically about the share issue. Filming was done all morning on Wednesday 4th May and the feature was right at the end of the 6.30pm Midlands Today News that evening.

They did a superb job of editing hours of material into a really well focussed 2 or 3 minute program - if you missed it you can catch up with it on BBC iplayer - it's worth the effort!

As of today's post, I'm pleased to tell you that the share issue has, including one or two small donations to the GWRT, reached £453,000.

Yes that's £453,000 in 4 and a bit weeks! However, the rate is beginning to slow down as we knew it would, so if you've got the share issue document and haven't got round yet to applying for some shares now might be the time.

Remember - it's gone fantastically well so far but we still need £800,000!

That's all for today. Have a nice weekend,

Chris

Chris Bristow
GWSR PLC Finance Director