A RALLYING call to West Somerset Railway staff and supporters came this week from chairman Jonathan Jones-Pratt who said that “if we all stick together” he was confident the organisation would survive the emergency .

Mr Jones-Pratt said that the railway would be closed until June at the minimum and would protect its assets with a “care and maintenance” regime carried out by staff and volunteers.

He said that there were plans to check the entire line, stations and sheds: “We are all aware of the importance of protecting our assets and will develop the plan further in the coming days and weeks. This may involve volunteers coming to help but only if absolutely necessary.”

Mr Jones-Pratt said that the WSR hoped to be involved in the Government’s staff retention scheme which paid 80 per cent of staffing costs: “But at this time the company is unable to offer to top up the residual 20 per cent of gross pay – a decision taken with some difficulty but in the hope that we can preserve the business for the future.

“In short, we need to save as much money as possible and wish to avoid entering into loan arrangements even if they were available to WSR. We do care very much about the staff and wish to keep them together for when we are through this national emergency.”

He added: “It is vital that we all stick together – we will need each other when we are able to reignite our railway again. As a board we are confident we will ride through this and I promise that all our decisions will be made in the best interests of the railway.

“We face an extremely challenging time and I hope that now, more than ever, we can build on the positive. We now need to ensure that the WSR is placed into a safe care and maintenance position to allow it to be safeguarded and ensure its resilience.

“That may mean pretty difficult decisions for 2020 but we need to ensure that that when the time is appropriate we can reignite both safely and effectively.”