West Somerset Railway General Discussion

To be honest, an EGM is a formal company meeting and the outcome of any rule change would have to be formally notified; and the notification of the meeting has to go to potentially thousands of shareholders in advance. So there is no practical possibility of confidentiality in any case. All seems a bit of storm in a tea cup to me. If a company on the Stock Exchange called an EGM, it would hardly be kept secret, would it?

Tom

 

I know nothing about the WSR except what I have gleaned on here other than 1 visit back in the 70's.
But
One comment I have noted was that there is a problem with a bridge, was it Monkey Bridge or something?
Bridges are expensive things to repair or replace.

 

It's called "attention to detail"- privacy caveats where they are needed and removed when going public. Slack admin and not very professional.

 

In which case, why the protective marking? Having worked with them, the biggest problem I remember was their overuse and the sloppiness that followed.


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I am confused.

Why are WSRplc bothering with a (presumably quite costly) independent review of the track when apparently at least some working members 'know' that what is wrong (and it is 'just' some trackwork).

Indeed, why has the 'Red' status needed suspending if the ailments leading to this requirement are apparently already known?

Steven

 

Signalman’s evening view.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will spot the two love birds in this picture.

Out this evening as ‘travelling signalman’ for a Murder Mystery / Quantock Belle train. Seven GWR signal boxes in one evening!

 

How do you get seven in one evening? Don't you mean four, but three of them "done" twice?

Tom

 

Correct.

Glad you can still do maths at the weekend.

Robin

 

I love it when people prove my point.

 

Meanwhile, back at the Railway...

 

I hope Steve (Bean-counter) will post further on the EGM announcement...

This kind of thing would never be countenanced by the well informed and well educated members of the Ffestiniog and Talyllyn, neither the IOWSR which has always had a good set up.

1. The WSR PLC appears to need to get in someone to assess it's permanent way, and presumably this will not be freely given, and whoever is in charge currently of the WSR permanent way might feel a bit 'miffed'.

2. The WSR PLC board appears to be unable currently to get it's act together; and seeks extraordinarily to get extra time to do the next set of accounts.

I have my own view on all this, as will no doubt many others.

Cheers,
Julian

 

So do I. And find (1) presumptive and (2) exceedingly harsh. These are volunteers, some or all with day jobs to do, dealing with an organisation that has both to run normally and faces an existential threat, requiring major change.

They deserve some credit and slack for what they are taking on just now, even if you have reservations about aspects of how they are doing it.


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There are plenty of reasonable explanations for getting an external expert in to assess the permanent way without it being a conspiracy.
- ORR don't accept the current records for a paperwork reason
- The board think the p-way is a lot better than the ORR (or someone else) believes and need to make sure before announcing the good news
- The board think the p-way is a lot worse and need to make sure before announcing the bad news
- Records have been lost somewhere in the last tens of years

 

Brilliant picture

 

The Four Fifty Partnership who have had a seat on the board since January 2019, are an accounting business. If they have had insufficient time in which to do the arithmetic or as directors, have presided over a situation where this has been allowed to happen then it's all rather strange.

 

The Four Fifty Partnership’s role for the plc board, according to Companies House, is as Company Secretary - not as a Director.

 

I read yesterday, what seems to be detrimental news, about West Somerset as far as Hinckley Point is concerned. That involved muddy waters. It spoke of thousands of dead fish.
The WSRailway seems also, too often, to have a lot of muddy waters and some dead ducks. The Taunton Shuttle may well be a dead duck, also the Minehead commuter service - at present. The 'red' upgrade may well be an attempt to bring more traffic to the line - charters. shuttles etc. which the PLC board consider could be a great help towards future solvency.

 

Yes

 

I don't see why obtaining independent advice on something is seen as problematic - particularly in a safety-critical area, and on which the board is proposing a major investment. An advantage for the board of getting an external opinion is firstly that they get an independent view of what actually has to be done, free of vested interests; and by making it impartial, it removes any tendency to try to set engineering priorities using non-engineering criteria.

Complacency and "we've always done it this way" are risks to any organisation; I don't see anything wrong with getting an independent assessment on something as critical - and costly - as the maintenance of the infrastructure.

Tom