VOLUNTEERS on the West Somerset Railway have launched a campaign and petition in a bid to ensure the freehold of the heritage line is sold to the not-for-profit company that has run it for almost 40 years.

The One Railway Group (ORG) website only went live last Friday but within days the online version of the petition had secured around 200 votes.

The pressure group wants Somerset County Council - which currently owns the freehold - to sell it to the West Somerset Railway plc, rather than the rival bidder the West Somerset Railway Association, a limited company with charitable status originally set up to support the operating company.

The ORG believes the WSR plc has shown by its record that it is best placed to continue to develop the railway's success to the benefit of the wider economy of West Somerset.

It says that during the WSR plc's management, the heritage line - Britain's longest - has become nationally and internationally recognised for its success.

"For the freehold to be offered to any other organisation would, in our view, be hugely detrimental and very high risk to the continued success of the railway."

The launch of the new group, whose members include both shareholders in the WSR plc and members of the WSRA but which is independent of both, comes at a time when the two rival bidders for the freehold are at loggerheads.

In the wake of the county council's decision last week to dispose of the 22-mile line - subject to the necessary consents and Secretary of State approval - the WSR plc warned that selling to the WSRA could lead to the closure of the railway.

Under the existing light railway order, power to run the trains lies only with the existing operating company or the county council.

So if the freehold was sold to any other third party unnamed in the order - such as the WSRA - the railway would have to close until statutory powers were obtained by the new owner.

And, crucially, any objection to a new order - a highly likely consequence - would spark a public inquiry, incurring costs for the WSRA, which would have to fund the process, rumoured to be in the region of £1 million.

Jeff Price, one of eight people behind the launch of the ORG, said the aim of the group was to give the railway volunteers a voice.

He said many working volunteers had become frustrated by the WSRA's actions, with the majority knowing nothing about the move to buy the freehold until the organisation's annual meeting last July.

"We are moving to a point where the county council needs to have input from the various groups on the railway - there are more volunteers who are not WSRA members than are."

Mr Price said the ORG believed that the WSR plc was the only organisation which could sensibly hold the freehold of the railway, having managed and developed it over many years to its position as a leading heritage railway.

He said he hoped that the WSRA would recognise that it had helped facilitate the sale - the WSR plc had previously been in discussions with the county council without success - but that the new owner should be the existing operating company.

"I would hope that we could look forward to all organisations working together to ensure that the WSR continues to be the best railway in Somerset."

Mr Price, a volunteer fireman who has been involved with the WSR since 2000, said the ORG was very pleased with the response to the petition.

"The number of signatures is growing steadily and we hope that continues."

The petition can be signed online at http://www.wsror.com">www.wsror.com, with a paper-based version available from Michael Rowe on 01643 862182 or from stations along the line.