The Mid Norfolk Railway has announced that it has been awarded a £190,000 grant from the Government as part of the Culture Recovery Fund.
The successful bid by the MNR is one of the first round of grants, with more to be announced soon.
The Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden MP said: “As a nation it is essential that we preserve our heritage and celebrate and learn from our past. This massive support package will protect our shared heritage for future generations, save jobs and help us prepare for a cultural bounce back post Covid.”
Charlie Robinson, the Chairman of the railway said: “The Mid-Norfolk Railway is thrilled to have been successful in our bid and we are extremely grateful to the Government and the Heritage Lottery Fund. The grant will make a really important contribution to the Railway's plans to reopen to the public in a manner that is compliant with the ongoing Covid -19.
This money that the MNR has received will be used for a number of projects. More than half of the money will be used to immediately start a full restoration of a Mark 1 corridor carriage. This is important for the railway, as once restored, it will join the other coaches and means that the railway will be able to run trains that are long enough to be COVID Compliant.
The money will also be spent to hire in machinery to complete essential track maintenance work that will make sure staff and volunteers will be socially distanced.
Finally, the remainder of the money will be spent on IT equipment and will allow homeworking, advertising and consultancy advice regarding the 2021 reopening of the railway.
George Saville, the Railways General Manager explained further when he said, “All the heritage railways are different, as we have seen some have been able to run public trains this year and other like ourselves have not. This has been because the nature of some of our stations and our rolling stock has meant we have felt we could not run a service that would be compliant with Government CV-19 precautions and also be economically viable. This grant will allow us to meet those requirements and once again be able to run a public service.”
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The Mid Norfolk Railway aren’t the only ones though… As most other fellow Heritage Railways have also been Granted Astonishing Amounts each.
Let’s Hope it’ll help this Marvellous ex-Cross Country Heritage Railway fully Recover and Back Up and Running into 2021.
Well I’ll Be… the Marvellous Mid Norfolk Railway have now also been thankfully Granted such A Marvellous Amount… Especially to help the MNR itself Back on Track to Eventual Recovery.
It’s So Thankfully Grateful, that every Heritage Railway (especially the MNR itself) is being forever saved, thanks to the Cultural Recovery Fund, let alone Notional Lottery too.