PASSENGER numbers on Severn Valley Railway fell last year - although company bosses said it could have set a record but for bridge repair works.

The company carried 242,207 people during 2004 - down from the 248,866 who travelled the previous year.

Arley's Victoria Bridge was closed during February and March for major repairs, preventing any prospect of the total of passengers using the line surpassing 250,000 in a year for the first time.

An estimated 7,500 to 8,000 fewer passengers were thought to have travelled in the five-week period when the iron bridge across the Severn was shut, south of Highley, for its £320,000 overhaul.

The 2004 passenger total was the second best in the line's 35-year history of steam train operation.

John Leach, SVR's marketing manager, said: "The notion that 2004 could be a record year never entered our thoughts because of the work on Victoria Bridge and the line closure resulting from it.

"It's evident, though, that if the line hadn't been severed for those five weeks, we'd probably now be celebrating 250,000 passengers for the first time."

The company expects to report a surplus of around £50,000 when its shareholders hold their annual meeting in May.

For the second successive year, revenue topped £4 million, at £4,010,000, almost identical to the figure for 2003.

Mr Leach said December was one of the busiest months ever recorded by SVR, with 43,719 people travelling on the railway's Santa trains and festive season specials. That figure was almost 1,300 up on the year before.

One the final two days of the holiday period - January 2 and 3 - 1,847 tickets were sold.

The latest annual figures continued what had been a generally upward trend over the past decade after it had struggled during the early 1990s.