Good evening ladies and gentlemen; I am the Robert Knight mentioned in some of the posts on this site and I would like to take this opportunity to update you on our progress. On the 28th of this month we will have an EGM where a committee of the society will be elected; you are all welcome to attend and vote and all I ask is that you join the society. www.bftr.co.uk for more details.
Many of you reading this will have been a part of a brand new venture so you will know that we don't have all the answers to the questions you have raised but we do have a lot of answers. We don't have a huge amount of money yet and please, if any of you do have a spare £250K, come and talk to us.
By the end of January we will have an official society committee to compliment the official railway company directors and I am preparing a presentation that will explain exactly how the two organisations will work in harmony with each other.
The volunteers we have cover all aspects of the skills that any society needs but we would love to have more skills so please offer to help us.
Network Rail are supporting us but of course in 2017 we must work with legal departments, health and safety, environmental protection that maybe in the 1960's weren't so high on the agenda. We will achieve the standards we need to and we will prosper.
It is too early, unfortunately, to talk about where the stations will be; we need all our focus on raising money (society) and line clearance (company).
I live in Blaenau Ffestiniog, I agree it does rain a lot but I also know that the residents of Blaenau would love this to be successful; they have seen how well Antur Stiniog have done and anything that brings people into Blaenau will be welcome. Maybe new business will start to service the new tourists.
Some of you have described yourselves as nay-sayers; well if you believe the saying that there is no such thing as bad publicity then you cant be. There will be problems in this project; sometimes it will feel like we are taking two steps forward and three back but you can help us change that.
Come along to the volunteer weekends, join the society (£20 per annum) and you will be helping make a difference and one day the BFTR will be as good as the WHR or the FR and you can say that, in part, that you helped build a successful railway.
Thank you
Robert