West Somerset Railway General Discussion

I read the news article, and the comments thereafter, and some of the the comments were downright disgusting, she's a head teacher of two outstanding schools, yet some people were calling for her to be sacked, on the strength of what, the reply from the West Somerset Railway PLC ,and they in turn claimed it was the WSRA, who were to blame and when Andy laid out the true facts, you can see there was discrepancies , so on balance she was right to question this , she clearly is right about the bullying attitude on the railway as her own family were subjected it it, by supporters of the PLC, if the chairman feels slighted, what about this poor woman, her husband was forced to leave the railway, without due process, and now she has to face the possibility of legal action, If thats not a clear case of bullying , what is,
I hope if it comes to it, her union, who do have very deep pockets and can afford the best legal team, support her 100 per cent.

 

Talk about being focussed on the wrong things! The line's apparently circling the drain (only in part because of COVID), and this is what's being paid attention to?

All I can do, given the oceans that have flowed over the dam over the last couple of years, is sadly shake my head. Best of luck to everyone in Somerset, you all are going to need it.

Noel

 

Interesting to see the picture @Robin Moira White posted of her doing a token exchange on the Swanage as part of the work to recertify the staff.

What is the WSR doing towards reopening, indeed was in in a position to reopen in March had Covid 19 not intervened?

 

''Minehead Station Shop to re-open for one day on 18 July!!''.

 

Alternatively, on the same day the good folk of the Minehead area could go to Woody Bay and ride on a steam train.
Just saying....

 

Why do I get the feeling this could all go wrong? Edit, yes,Question 6 could lead to some interesting answers regarding your visit.

 

You could have plenty of fun with some of the answers...!

6. What is the main reason for you coming to visit the railway? A ride behind the 7F and a visit to the SDJR museum at Washford, perhaps?

It does seem a very odd way to do it, letting you write your own answers rather than picking from a list. Not going to make analysing it particularly easy either.

 

Point 10 could get some very unwanted responses.

 

Because you've just suggested it to a wide audience?

It's hard not to think back to the SVR conducting a similar survey back in May and not come to the conclusion that the powers that be on the WSR have been slow off the blocks. They *could * have run some trains in August, when everyone was on holiday in Somerset. As it is, I suspect its rather to late now. Presumably that £300k "profit" will tide them through...

Sent from my VOG-L29 using Tapatalk

 

Why? What's the point of just opening for one day? Why go to all the bother of setting up the shop for social distancing, training staff and putting the necessary processes in place for just one whole day?

Has anyone there got any idea or, better still, a definitive plan, about reopening the railway?

It's not "...cuckoo in the nest..." I'm worried about - It's cloud cuckoo land that's worrying me.

 

It struck me as very amateurish

 

To be fair, maybe it is intended to be a 'trial run' for later re-openings during the 'Living Musuem' weekends? Tho with only 2 people in the shop at a time, I can't see much footfall to make much of a financial impact.

So, let's see, so far we have:-

• 20-odd miles of railway being weeded by hand
• one shop opening for one day
• 2 'living museum' events where you will pay to see not much more than you can see from outside the fence for free
• no days for actual rides on a steam train yet announced
• a Road Run that has had to be cancelled 'cos it threatens to be too popular and hence unmanageable

meanwhile, elsewhere in Somerset three other heritage railways will be running steam trains again within the next 3 weeks.

 

Thanks - Barry Light’s photo below.

A privilege to be involved. If you are anywhere near Swanage for the remainder of July and August, do book for a ride. It will really help. Indeed, make the effort to travel on any heritage railway you can. Great efforts have been made to be open in difficult times and every bit of support will be welcome. Bring the relatives...

On Saturday I will be in Kent for K&ESR re-opening day.

We hoary old operators have our uses on occasion.

Robin

 

There is an important point which you appear to be missing, here. The position of a supporter of the Railway finds themselves in is no different from that of an investor looking to put their money into a normal company. Whereas the investor is looking for a monetary return, the supporter is looking for the benefit of feeling that they have helped "their" railway. Both supporter and investor want to know if they will get that return before they contribute and both will be put off if they think the current management are running the company into the ground, as neither will see any return from their money. It really doesn't matter if either of them already have capital, whether it be financial or emotional, already invested in the business, they will still be throwing good money after bad and see not return. There is no point in trying to "save the company" when all you are doing is putting off the evil hour when it will all have been for naught.
The management of a preserved railway has three sets of customers they have to keep happy, unlike the management of a normal company: passengers, volunteers and supporters. The, by now, completely obvious fact that the management of the Plc are unable to keep in the good books of even one of these groups is a big warning sign to any supporter who wishes to contribute. Put it this way, if the WSR was a normal private company whose shares paid a dividend and were quoted on the stock exchange, would you buy shares in it, when at a time of crisis, one of it's senior management thought that the best use of their time and money was to initiate legal proceedings about something that was discreditable to them at the time but that everyone had largely forgotten about, thus initiating the Streisand Effect?
Another point is that now is the best time to initiate change. Yes, the railway is in the midst of a crisis, but it's a crisis that means the railway isn't running, so there is more time available to manage change that there would be if it was running. As you probably know well, volunteer time is a precious commodity, and we've just missed an entire three months where that commodity was in much greater supply than usual, doing nothing but saying "let's not do anything now, lets' wait until we've got through this". Unfortunately that is always the tactic of those who don't want change, to kick the can down the road. We are in Mandy Rice Davis territory here. There are lots of things that could be done tomorrow, like rescinding the eviction notice on the S&DRT for example. It is not very convincing argument that now is not the time for change, when now is obviously the time for much less important actions like raking up old score by writing solicitors' letters. The problem is one of impression. When you are pleading in the court of public opinion, which is what you are always doing if you are putting out an appeal for funds from the general public, you need to think, not only "is this the right thing to do?", but also "will this action give the right impression". Your business is everyone's business, when you are asking everyone for donations. An attitude of "put up and shut up" just won't wash.
A final point, if the WSR goes under, it will not be the fault of those who did not contribute in their time of crisis, it will be the fault of those who put those potential contributors off by making it look as if they would be wasting their money.

 

And on the WSR?

 

Agreed, I’m not sure what useful information they expect to gain from this.

Question 8 about what safety measures you would like to see in place. Well obviously managed social distancing on trains, regular cleaning etc. Same as all railways that have already reopened.

Surely questions such as the following would prove much more informative

• Would you still visit if services only ran Minehead to Blue Anchor? - Yes/No
  
• Would you still visit if trains were diesel hauled? Yes/No
• Would you still visit if you could only join and leave the train at Minehead? - Yes/No