BRISTOL COAL-STONE HAUL RAISES £19,000 FOR CHARITY

Friday 15 Jun 2007

BRISTOL COAL-STONE HAUL RAISES £19,000 FOR CHARITY

Region & Route:: | Wales & Western: Wales & Borders; | Southern: Wessex; | Wales & Western; | Southern

A group of Network Rail employees have raised almost £19,000 in aid of the Railway Children charity through a special rail tour in and around the Bristol area. On 3 June, the 'Bristol Coal-Stone Haul' gave over 500 members of the public an opportunity to see parts of the railway that are rarely seen. The train visited Portbury, Tytherington Quarry, Severn Beach, Westerleigh Oil Terminal and the freight lines around Avonmouth. It also became the third train to use the new platform 4 at Bristol Parkway. Andy Spencer, the lead organiser of the event, said: "We'd like to thank everyone who came along for making it such a successful and memorable day. The real ale bar and raffle managed to push the money raised to £18,500. "I'd also like to thank all the industry partners without whose help the train would not have been possible - Network Rail, West Coast Railways, Serco, Bristol Port Company, Hanson, EWS, Cotswold Rail and the Class 50 Alliance." If people wish to learn more, or make a further donation to the charity, they can contact the Railway Children directly at www.railwaychildren.org.uk.

Notes to editors

The Haul was organised by four members of Network Rail's operations team in Bristol. They are also took part in this year's 'Three Peaks Challenge' in aid of the Railway Children Charity. This is a tough challenge which sees a climb of Snowdon, a 10 mile walk and climb of Scafell Pike and Ben Nevis, all in 32 hours. The tour was top and tailed by 50049 Defiance and two of Network Rail's Class 31's, 31105 & 31285 - the first and only time these locos will be used for passenger operation while in Network Rail ownership.

Contact information

Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Network Rail press office -Western route
MediaRelationsWestern@networkrail.co.uk

About Network Rail

We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.

Media centre