Current Projects
Railway at The Wildlife Park, Cricket St Thomas
TIR Ltd recently completed a Contract to refurbish the railway at The Wildlife Park, Cricket St Thomas. TIR passed the rolling stock work to The Hunslet Engine Co. while TIR managed the customer liaison and track refurbishment. The work has involved taking the Train to the Hunslet Engine Company's works at Tamworth for a total rebuild including replacement of the life-expired power unit and drive train on the locomotive and a back-to-metal refurbishment of the carriages which had suffered significant corrosion. The train is now owned by HECo. and is hired to the Wildlife Park on a 5 year package including maintenance.
The track is 900 metres long and approximately 300 metres have been completely renewed including re-grading of the formation. On the remainder, 50% of the sleepers have been replaced along with some of the rails and the whole line has been re-ballasted and re-aligned to give a smooth ride. TIR Ltd has also provided driver training and is working with the operator to make their Safety Management Systems compliant with ROGS 2006.
GOCO Cooperative
TIR is providing on-going business planning and technical support to GOCO's which is the UK's first Cooperatively owned Train Operating Company. TIR is working to develop GOCO's Industry and Political profile and internal systems including developing an SMS.
Following work undertaken by TIR, GOCO announced that the first route on which it is bidding for Track Access will be from Yeovil through Swindon and Oxford to Birmingham. More information including a Share-issue Prospectus can be found at www.goco.coop.
Glyn Valley Railway Trust
In August 2008 TIR secured against a competitive tender, a Contract to undertake a detailed evaluation of the potential options for the development of the Glyn Valley Tramway. The work will involve a detailed evaluation of all the options including assessment of economic viability and technical and environmental issues. The preliminary outcomes were presented to the local community at a public consultation in Chirk and Glyn Ceiriog on 28th February 2009 and were received enthusiastically by the local community.
The work will culminate in a Public Exhibition in Autumn 2009 of the outcomes of the Study will become the basis of a public planning application later in the year. This project is partly funded through the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and funding provided by the Welsh Assembly Government. It is also funded by Wrexham County Borough Council.
A detailed Study has been presented to the Trust and funding bodies and TIR have secured a follow-on Contract to deliver the documentation required to support a Planning Application which was submitted in November 2010. Determination of the application is due in the first quarter of 2011. For more information go to: www.glynvalleytramway.co.uk.
UPDATE 10/10/11: Planning Application is due to go before Committee in November. We have been dealing with a long list of additional matters raised by the Planning Authority, which were not unexpected in view of the scope and complexity of the application. To date no formal objections have been raised.
Traws-Train
TIR has recently been engaged to take forward an exciting community regeneration project centred on re-opening of the mothballed branch from Blaenau Ffestiniog to Trawsfynyd. For more information and regular updates see our blog.
UPDATE 10/10/11: This project is currently suspended pending a review of the aims and objectives and how the project is to be taken forward. TIR tabled a number of proposals with stakeholders and Network Rail which were favourably received but pending the review no further progress is possible. TIR continues to work with parties involved to explore ways to progress the project. Antur Stiniog continues to make good progress with their proposals for a Velo-Rail over part of the route and further information can be found at www.anturstiniog.com.
Littlehampton Railway
Please visit the Littlehampton Railway website for more information.
