Sustainability goals and a desire to reduce environmental impact are behind the Kent & East Sussex Railway’s (K&ESR) latest station upgrade, made possible by a UK Government-funded grant from Ashford Borough Council.
The award-winning heritage railway has received a Rural Energy Transition grant of £14,740 from the council to help with the cost of installing solar panels at Tenterden Town Station. This follows a successful application to the Government’s Rural England Prosperity Fund.
An array of panels has been installed on the roof of the 2012 extension to the Carriage & Wagon Shed. Their design and location have been selected to ensure that they do not detract from the authenticity and setting of the station buildings themselves.
The electricity generated by the solar panels will provide power to the Carriage and Wagon workshop – where preservation projects and maintenance of the railway’s heritage rolling stock takes place – as well as the visitor buffet and the station’s historic signal box. Any excess electricity will be fed back to the National Grid. The railway believes that the investment in the solar panels will be repaid within the next 18 months, subsequently reducing their electricity bills by about £7,000 per annum.
Commenting on the solar energy initiative, K&ESR Chairman Derrick Bilsby said: “We are very grateful to Ashford Borough Council for this Government-funded grant, which has enabled us to use green technology to reduce both our energy costs and our carbon footprint. Every heritage business is facing these dual challenges at the moment, and we are no exception particularly as there is still no viable alternative to coal for running steam trains.
“We couple our passion for keeping authentic transport heritage alive and accessible to visitors with a desire to operate in as sustainable a way as possible, with consideration for the environment around us.
“This project – to harness renewable energy – is just one of many initiatives that we are undertaking to reduce our environmental impact. These include our work with local wildlife groups and specialists in habitat management, which helps us to ensure that we maintain the line in a way that also encourages biodiversity and vital flora and fauna to thrive, both along the line and at our stations.”
The K&ESR is custodian to a 10.5 mile nature corridor which supports a significant number of endangered species – from nightingales and yellow hammers to bats and the rare ruderal bumble bee – all identified in a two-year nature survey conducted with the Kent Wildlife Trust’s consultancy arm and the Bumble Bee Conservation Trust.
The railway’s forestry and environment team has also planted some 3,000 trees on railway land in recent years, including a number of disease-resistant elms. Its most recent work has been to regenerate a pond at Rolvenden which is already attracting increased wildlife visitors, including goldfinches.
Image credit: Kent & East Sussex Railway