Severn Valley Railway 2019 Autumn Gala 19th-22nd September

Rather more than a couple of thousand each

 

I was a bit surprised to find that, when ordering the WTT from the website, I was required to tick which four of the four days I wanted....?

 

It's mid-September, so must be time for the annual "Knock the SVR for charging for a WTT"...

Something that raises significant income for the event. When 4000 people attend, even if only 10% of people buy one that's £2000 earned. Anyone prepared to donate that so they give them out for free?
Those asking for a slimmed down version, clearly hasn't organised a gala. When you've got one of the biggest events of the year to organise, is your time best spent organising the whole event or producing multiple versions of the same thing for all the niche customers attending?
Printing costs will be much reduced, as bulk order they can just ask for however many copies and get it done. Instead of splitting it into X Full, Y Half, Z mini versions.
And issuing an electronic copy is opening up for copies being posted elsewhere. Best to protect your revenue streams than risk losing them. Waiting a couple of days for it to arrive in the post is no big deal, if that's reason for not attending you have bigger issues than the Royal Mail.

My only complaint is that the Le / ECS moves aren't "greyed" out (or highlighted grey) as per SVR live, marking out which trains are for public use and which aren't. Not everyone knows the various codes, and when altering your plans last minute as you travel has been known to cause confusion / missed connections.

 

Limitations of online booking system. The same product will appear no matter which day you select (spoken from experience).

 

https://www.svr.co.uk/pdf/Special Events/autumn_steam_gala_brochure_2019_DIGITAL_svr_mproj_29.pdf

More information here...

 

I am sure this conversation takes place each year!

It has been a fiver for years now, given the steep inflation on everything else steam related this now must be considered a bargain given the amount of information it provides.

No other railway comes anywhere close to the number of trains that run over an SVR autumn gala - so therefore it will always be a significant document which comes at a cost.

If all you want are loco allocations then these are traditionally available for free on Hampton Loade platform on the day. Not as useful if you want to plan in advance granted, but a useful reference on the day.

Personally I like the element of surprise and the challenge of working it all out!

 

Actually you need to select all four days. Until you have, the "click to book tickets" button doesn't appear. The problem is that it's treated as a ticket (which it's not) rather than as a commodity.

 

While I fully appreciate the time taken to just write and produce a timetable for this event, having done similar for an event at my own (much smaller) railway this year, is there not an argument in favour of a slimmed down version being printed? In terms of this year, I imagine a vast majority of the people attending the event who have purchased it, won't get past the first 7 pages of the WTT. Having counted the remaining pages, there's enough there for nearly an additional 4 copies of a slimmed down, just the timetable version! Regardless of the cost saving, the amount of paper saved by doing that would surely be a benefit!

The SVR will know how many copies of the full WTT it requires to cover crews, staff etc with a few spare, and likewise they will know roughly how many people buy a WTT each year, so an investigation into the potential saving of printing a set number of full versions and a higher number of "just the timetable" versions and then publishing the findings would surely put this part of the argument to bed! Though I'd be surprised if they'd hadn't actually done the research already!

That said I think the answer here is to conduct a non-binding opinion poll and let the people decide...just need a snappy slogan and a big, red train...

 

You've put your finger on it.

The people who want the WTT for free are the same people who turn up, enjoy the spectacle - but don't buy a ticket and are unwilling to pay a penny towards it

 

Tickets and WTT arrived this morning. Outline plan drafted (which will no doubt change!), bring it on!!

 

Apologies for duplicate post...

 

I hope that you're not suggesting that Gricerdon and myself are freeloaders. Both of us have made comments about the WTT but I can assure you that both of us will be travelling on the trains at the gala.

The reason that I am getting impatient is that I am abroad from this weekend to Friday 20th and so am eager to study the WTT before I visit the gala on the Saturday. <BJ>

 

And like I have said. I do not begrudge paying the fiver. I would just sooner it be available online rather than by snail mail. SVR manage to do it online for their diesel gala so why not the steam gala?

 

Now, I also don't begrudge about paying £5.00 for the WTT. But I do have a couple of minor disagreements with the way it is sometimes produced. In comparison to last years ASG timetable. However I am more looking forward to next weekend. It will sure to be a show

 

I received my working timetable today.

 

Then there's the inevitable failure or two that makes a working timetable about as much use as a copy of the Beano...

 

Yes busy planning my day now and as usual spoilt for choice. Do I max out Bulleid mileage or go for choice? I can now also buy XC tickets in advance before they rise in price again.

 

I normally go for locomotives that are the visitors or I haven't seen before (or not put a lot of focus on) or I focus on locomotives that are more towards the end of their boiler tickets (1501, 1450, 2857, 43106). I believe all have a couple of months, to a couple of years left on the clock). But we all have a loco we are looking forward too at some sort of gala or so.

I have a couple of locomotives in focus.... 6960 mainly.

 

I just thought I randomly post a image of one of the visiting locomotives (76017) on its home-line (Mid Hants) to whet appetites for the gala. - 76017 is perhaps one of my true favourite Standard class locomotives. Fantastic machine for definite.

 

It would be good to see 76017 and 43106 stabled next to eachother. <BJ>