Staff at the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway have blamed rising fuel costs for a round of redundancies.

Four full-time staff from the tourist steam railway's 45 are to leave their posts, mainly in maintenance work. About 100 volunteers and casual staff will remain.

General manager Danny Martin blamed rising diesel costs, adding coal prices had risen by 12 per cent in the last five weeks.

He said visitor numbers could also drop off as family cars cost more to run.

"It's not something that has been taken lightly," he said. "This is to protect the future of the railway. Every business does that, particularly at the current time when financial life is hard."