Torbay Express 2016

These things happen on occasion unfortunately. They are mechanical beings and the fall out just has to be dealt with in the best possible way for the punters. As has been pointed out many times before on here these charters are not run for enthusiasts however much we like to think maybe they are. The general public today got their Torbay trip albeit with different traction than advertised.

 

... but surely the general public booked because it was steam. There are plenty of diesel trips between Bristol and Paignton, which are much cheaper.

 

More likely that 46100 works a Torbay Express in the future than 66093...

 

It would be unfair to the general public to say that they didn't mind that it wasn't steam. There was a lot of disappointment. I heard one father describe having to tell his children upon arrival at Temple Meads as 'heartbreaking'. That is not to say that they could not get enjoyment out of the day, but not having steam was a significant disappointment. Whilst the terms and conditions are being complied with, most people travelled because to not do so would mean losing significant amounts of money.

 

What I meant in my post about the event not being repeated was from the customers point of view on a special occasion. Yes, I have no doubt that 46100 will return. The special birthday or anniversary will not. We have to stop viewing through our myopic prism of rail enthusiasts and see the human impact on paying customers as in post 205 above.

We can carry on doing the same things and getting the same result or we can think outside the box (forgive the pun) and look at alternative ways of delivering. This may prove more costly but reputation is a stake.

 

I've been on the NWCE without diesel assistance. The move to and from Llandudno did not present a problem then. The loco marshalled it's own stock at Holyhead.

See it can be done!

 

So how do you propose to stop locos failing the ftr exam?

 

Just a thought. Why does the FTR not take place 2 days before the tour giving time to address any issues that may arise? Had that happened here, Tornado could have reached Bristol during Saturday and everyone would have been happy. Or, with an extra day, the issue which caused the FTR failure, could have been repaired.

 

Hatherton Hall at post 210 has beaten me to it one suggestion. It's a start. If the FTR was done sooner a faults found then as he says, repairs can be made or an alternative loco found as could have been the case this weekend. Maybe a bit of blue sky thinking is needed all round.

 

Without knowing the rules regarding FTR exams, it's all guesswork I'm afraid.

 

Maybe you need to get realistic, you can't just wave a wand and get a replacement loco, a support crew will have to be put together, the TOC will need a crew and a path to get it to the trains start point. Perhaps you could join a loco owning society, volunteer for support crew duties and see what it's like at the business end. If we take this week's example, Tornado's support crew had probably been up since silly o'clock in the morning travelling considerable distances to Stewarts Lane, can you really expect them to then lose another nights sleep travelling to Bristol to do the Torbay?

 

You can think inside the box as long as you like. Meanwhile experiences like this will lead to a haemorrhage of paying customers leaving main line steam uneconomic. Big Al at post 211 makes a valid point an a joined up industry. A root and vine review, probably best led by outsiders with no baggage such as "we do it this way because we have always done it this way." The system needs external review and FULL stakeholder involvement as to how to make improvements. Sorry but that probably means two things. 1. Doing things differently - scary to many. 2. Tours may cost a little more.

 

...or possibly people like yourself, with all the 'bright ideas' getting out of the armchair, joining an organisation and actually making a difference.


No? I didn't think so.....

As for doing the FTR earlier, who's to say that a fault won't manifest itself between the FTR and the run, as indeed it did with 34046 (52) on July 15th?

 

Quite agree. Used to be called a 'Root and Branch' review and best done by outsiders with access to all the appropriate people - with a short time scale to complete the review. As far as pricing goes, its a very difficult situation for promoters. Personally I think they are too low but there's been a recession and we're probably going to see another one so that rather dictates the disposable income we have to spend on our 'non-essentials'. Costs are rising and reality will bite sooner than later I think. I'm not making a fuss about yesterday despite losing £140 as we don't do diesels and didn't travel. However before we left we heard many very derogatory comments from a lot of seriously unhappy people at BTM yesterday. It was an absolutely full train and they're not the typical London destination travellers who don't care if it;s Steam for Show or even diesel only.

Comments were made about the appalling lack of information on Social Media or Websites when they found out the failure was known about at 1900 hrs on Saturday. TBEL give little thought to passengers many of who had driven for hours to get there. I spoke to a party who'd left home at 0400 to get there and they'd checked TBEL's site and Faceache/Twitter the night before and were appalled at there being nothing on them about the FTR failure. They'd have stayed at home as would many others. An 0800 start off BTM is impossible to get to other than by driving and they must know that. As I said in an earlier post, there was no-one senior from Pathfinder/TBEL on the platform before 0730 ish. Promoters must get that it just isn't good enough to apologise when it's too late for people to do anything. Cynical some would call it.

 

One voice is meaningless. But if someone wants to pay my consultancy fees to cover my loss of income, then yes I would be happy to take up a role bringing change. This is not a job for a volunteer in one organisation. It is folly to ever consider it such. It needs a pan industry review at a higher level. And that will cost for the management of it. There you will get lots of bright ideas and change - something many do not want.

 

Ah, consultants. To be fair it has to be said that the consultancy and the rail industries haven't historically made the happiest of marriages...why would it be any different in this case?

 

Consultants in this context can be roughly translated as parasites. Pay us lots of money and we will come up with the same recommendations as any reasonably intelligent twelve year old could do.