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Swanage Railway General Discussion

Discussion in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' started by Rumpole, Oct 10, 2012.

  1. oliversbest

    oliversbest Member

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    running before walking!!. We have been walking for about 40yrs now!!..and Mogul did we even bother stopping the eastern Bypass route(along the railway) if transport by car is so much more efficient. If the SR does not have the ability or will to operate into Wareham in the foreseeable future and provide the amenity service that you can all read about in early editions of the Swanage Railway News at the Montague Library then it should say so very publicly. We may be pleasing the enthusiasts but
    missing the wider audience. Lets have some of that Can Do spirit and stop talking roadblocks (railblocks!) The DMUs were at Eastleigh for over four years. No pre-emptive virtual training done? No on site familiarisation? One is tempted to thinkwe have more appetite for the past than the present. and to add to it all someone misspelled my address and several copies of SRN have been apparently been returned to sender
     
  2. DcB

    DcB Well-Known Member

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    So I presume the 3rd party will be West Coast Railway who provided the service in 2017 and have booked some timeslots to Wareham.

    I presume West Coast Railways will charge for training and overseeing the operation, till SR gets it's own licence, from the experience gained in 2017?
    https://www.swanagerailway.co.uk/ne...ains-delays-second-year-wareham-service-trial
    The 121 with 65 seats I guess is for offpeak working, and the longer 3 car 117 normally used, which in peak times should make a small profit, especially when SR gets it's own licence and no longer needs a 3rd party operator?
    Not having a return date for the 117 must be frustrating, especially with the ferry situation.

    Has the 121 "bubble car" been seen undergoing engineering and training runs? Getting reliability and safety will be important before tickets can be sold.
     
    Last edited: Aug 3, 2019
  3. Big Al

    Big Al Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Moderator

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    So a problem caused by the failure of a ferry and an extended repair period is suddenly a problem for the Swanage Railway. I thought that the ferry was primarily transport for road vehicles so it's not obvious how the railway can help.

    I know that I've simplified the problem but this is the fundamental difficulty so hasn't quite a lot got to happen away from the SR for them to be able to help in a meaningful way?
     
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  4. 35B

    35B Nat Pres stalwart

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    It has, and it may well not be possible. Without sharing the stance of @oliversbest on the degree to which the railway ought to be doing this, I still find myself disappointed that so little is apparently being done to support travel into Purbeck following the ferry breakdown given the public money that has been spent on restoring the connection.

    That is not to suggest that it is for the SR to own, or that the bubble car is the answer. There is a mainline TOC with trains and staff that can access the SR, there may be other options. Yet it seems that the collective response is little more than “oh dear”.


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  5. Jamessquared

    Jamessquared Nat Pres stalwart

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    But almost invariably public transport, particularly away from metropolitan areas, is subsidised. Who should pay?

    Tom
     
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  6. DcB

    DcB Well-Known Member

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    SWR make a profit but perhaps overbid in the franchise payments, so are saying the franchise might make a loss. They might give it up unless the Government reduce the franchise payments.
    https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/south-western-railway-owners-consider-16402446

    They could divert the London to Weymouth trains to Corfe midweek and passengers, then take SR non mainline certified trains, to help take some traffic off the busy roads and buses. But there may be complications, especiallty with timetables, and it may not make a profit for SWR, the Government with other commitments, may not pay if it does make a loss.
    If the 117 had been returned in 2018 things might be better, but refurbishments seem to always take than planned?
     
    Last edited: Aug 3, 2019
  7. free2grice

    free2grice Part of the furniture Friend

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    That'll really please the passengers bound for Weymouth. :mad: :rolleyes: <BJ>
     
  8. 35B

    35B Nat Pres stalwart

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    A very good question - and if operational subsidy is necessary but unavailable, then that also undermines the case for this operation. But if the argument is that subsidy is wrong here, then that calls into question any form of public transport subsidy.


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  9. Jamessquared

    Jamessquared Nat Pres stalwart

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    I’m not saying subsidy is inevitably wrong, just asking who should pay - particularly in a climate of austerity; and where what seems to be proposed is a rapid starting of a service as a contingency against a failure elsewhere; when budgets will already have been set long previous.

    Seems to me that there has been a failure of the chain ferry, and somehow that is being seen as the Swanage Railway’s problem to resolve.

    Tom
     
  10. DcB

    DcB Well-Known Member

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    What austerity?, all the money is going to Brexit planning (badly but discssuon under another thread).
    Wuth the 117 the Wareham service should make a small profit.
    Not sure if the buses are subsidised, probably are?
     
  11. michaelh

    michaelh Part of the furniture

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    Back in the 1990's, I had to visit Poole every month for work reasons and I always stayed at the Sandbanks Hotel. During the summer months I invariably drove there via Swanage and visited the railway and then caught the ferry. I was on the ferry during the late afternoon and my recollection is that the other users were pretty much all families returning from their day out at Studland - I can't see a DMU service being much use to them.
     
  12. DcB

    DcB Well-Known Member

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    The DMU would benefit Corfe and Swanage more.
    Ideally longterm it is possible electric/battery technolgy will make the train railcars more environmentally freindly than road traffic, so worth progressing.
     
  13. martin1656

    martin1656 Nat Pres stalwart Friend

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    The unanswered question though really should be, is there a financial case for SWR to operate a service in the peak summer time timetable onto Swanage metals, most lilily terminating at Corfe, for instance, would a Waterloo to Corfe service calling at Woking , Basingstoke Eastleigh Southampton , Bournemouth Wareham and Corfe pay its way just one round trip, with the unit doing Corfe to Eastleigh, or Bournemouth runs in between if it could be advertised enough from the London end, possibly with special fares, to attract the holiday maker/ day out market.?
     
  14. seawright

    seawright New Member

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  15. DcB

    DcB Well-Known Member

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    SWR seem to be struggling to keep it's normal midweek trains and profits.
    I expect when the SR railcars are in service SWR will have joint tickets and promotions from Waterloo, Bournemouth etc.
     
  16. Mogul

    Mogul Member

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    Is 2020 foreseeable enough?

    When we learned that the DMUs would be delayed we immediately commissioned Boeing to repurpose an old 707 flight simulator to become a DMU simulator. They put aside their work on the 737Max and the hardware side of the project (creation of a simulated DMU cab & controls) has been completed. Unfortunately software cost and schedule overruns means that the simulator will not now be commissioned in Harmans Cross village hall until 2022 at a cost of about £2M. We now plan to install a coin slot so that rides can be sold to children at 50p each to recoup the costs.

    The past is the primary product that generates £3M turnover and underpins the creation and survival of the railway. Without this Swanage station would be a shopping complex and much of the route a road. Without this vital product in tip top health the SR as we know it WILL cease to exist and
    probably become a bland ordinary modern branch. Dorset will lose its largest tourist attraction which puts approximately £14M in to the local economy.

    The 121 and 117 work together in tandem making a 4 car set. I believe any single vehicle can be taken out to leave a working set of 3.

    Not yet. Application pending.......
     
    Last edited: Aug 3, 2019
  17. Mogul

    Mogul Member

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    There are two important points.

    1/ The six weeks of the Summer holidays is literally make or break for the SR. A very large portion of the annual turnover is collected during this period. The railway operates at maximum capacity in terms of bums on seats, length of trains, motive power, diagram paths, staff & volunteer availability. All this results in a very slender proffit if one is made at all. The summer service can not simply be swept aside to facilitate external operators without causing irreparable damage to the SR.

    2/ The impact of the ferry unavailability is largely perceptual not actual. The ferry carries 50 cars in 20m and is dwarfed by the capacity of the roads. In reality unless you are Knowle Beach Cafe (which will undoubtedly be suffering) the ferry makes little difference except in peoples minds. Running extra rail services (even if it were possible) wont really change much.
     
  18. oliversbest

    oliversbest Member

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    SWR service to Swanage today 4 coaches if I am not mistaken.
    billions of tonnes of Greenland ice fall into ocean in ONE day
    Purbeck needs those DMUs up and running ASAP!!
    ...and would someone cut the grass behind Corfe down platform ..as they say in Kansas its as high as......
     
  19. michaelh

    michaelh Part of the furniture

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    The first time the West Somerset Railway nearly went bankrupt was because they were trying to run a public transport service.
     
  20. oliversbest

    oliversbest Member

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    Therefore Michaelh one should be asking MPs and politicians why they continue to subsidise the car industry and at great cost to the environment. What is that old saying. about knowing the cost of everything and the value of nothing. Those early SRP pioneers recognised the cost to Purbeck of the loss of their railway and unlimited access to road transport and the very fact of the popularity of the area even given its (by modern measurement) restrictions proves them right. As for droll replies to my suggestion of computer assisted training I am sure much younger and more tech savvy persons than myself could test that theory.
     

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