A £26,500 grant from the Government has been awarded to the Sittingbourne and Kemsley Light Railway to help with the impact of coronavirus.
The Culture Recovery Fund helps a wide variety of railways and other companies in the heritage sector to recover from the covid pandemic lockdown, which saw businesses closed.
The money will go towards improving Sittingbourne Viaduct station, which has been a project for many years due to vandalism and arson attacks after the closure of the Sittingbourne Paper Mill.
The money will now help the railway to progress with planning work, which now sees the introduction of Project Sittingbourne.
Fencing between the station site and the skatepark / former mill has been installed at the cost of nearly £10,000.
The railway has noticed a stairway at Sittingbourne Viaduct station is a pinch point for passengers, which makes social distancing difficult during these covid-19 times. A second entrance is hoped to give long term benefits of providing disabled access, with the railway working with neighbours to make this happen.
A lack of toilet facilities is another issue that the railway has found, so it is hoped that the money will be used to provide toilet facilities like the ones found at Kemsley Down.
These improvements must be made by the end of March 2021, so visitors should expect to see work starting soon.
The SKLR follows a variety of railways in announcing grants, such as the Severn Valley Railway, Keighley and Worth Valley Railway and the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway.
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Wow, Now the Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway itself has been Awarded An Astounding Amount…
Especially to help this Special Narrow-Gauge Heritage Railway Attrction forever survive and Continue it’s Role in Combating the Pesky Pandemic,
This Kentish ”Transportation Destination” is An ”Egaerly-Must-Visit” Place; I Myself Most Definitely Hope to Visit ‘in-person’ Someday.
Also, What A Catchy name for An Aimful Goal of A Project… ”Project Sittingbourne”.
The S&KLR is also Quite Unusual, As this is Quite A High-Level Narrow-Gauge Railway… Especially with the Starting Point of the S&KLR is Located on A Viaduct.
A Congratulative Well Done to the Stunning S&KLR by the way and Good Luck to them on their so called ”Project Sittingbourne”.