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West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Discussion in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' started by gwr4090, Nov 15, 2007.

  1. Pete Thornhill

    Pete Thornhill Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Administrator Moderator Friend

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    If they are PLC owned do they not form part of the security for this floating charge? -

    https://find-and-update.company-inf.../01010188/charges/CplYaSecQLa73SyiemIxs25XjBQ
     
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  2. ghost

    ghost Part of the furniture

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  3. Snifter

    Snifter Well-Known Member

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    There are also the MK1s assigned to the WSRA in lieu of payment for the BL shop and stock. Are they mortgaged twice ?
     
  4. Pete Thornhill

    Pete Thornhill Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Administrator Moderator Friend

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    @Sidmouth (or anyone who knows). Given your line of work, could you explain how it works?

    I am confused as the floating charge lists pretty much everything the PLC owns, but, the same assets are linked to other charges. How does that work? Surely there is a book value of the assets which is the limit of the security they provide, am I missing something?
     
  5. Lenny

    Lenny New Member

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    A floating charge is on current assets of a company. Such as stock, debtors, etc.

    A fixed charge would be on fixed assets such as buildings.

    If the company goes into liquidation the floating charge will become a fixed charge
     
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  6. Pete Thornhill

    Pete Thornhill Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Administrator Moderator Friend

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    Thank you for the explanation. I guess you can have both at the same time? The link I posted says -
     
  7. Alan Kebby

    Alan Kebby Well-Known Member

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    Appealing for donations to raise £1M seems a massive ask. Last year other railways ran covid appeals, such as Swanage raising £350k. However this year Swanage (and others) are back to successfully running well loaded trains, without the need for further covid appeals. I guess this shows the WSRs problems run much deeper than Covid.
     
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  8. Pete Thornhill

    Pete Thornhill Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Administrator Moderator Friend

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    It also shows it perhaps wasn't as wise as they thought to not run trains last year.
     
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  9. Herald

    Herald Member

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    Length?

    Sadly, as rehearsed many times in various threads, the amount people are willing to pay for a heritage railway experience and the time the less enthusiastic travellers are willing to spend on a train has limits whilst the costs rise as the length maintained rises. Swanage achieves good passenger loads at a much higher fare cost per mile.
     
  10. Pete Thornhill

    Pete Thornhill Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Administrator Moderator Friend

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    The SVR has been doing okay, they might be a bit shorter than the WSR, but ticket prices are comparable. I think with hindsight, it was a mistake not to try and run something in the summer last year. At least it could of contributed some income towards the shortfall.

    Covid does however seem to provide a mask over the real problems, which are only coming to light now, hence the appeal.
     
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  11. Jamessquared

    Jamessquared Nat Pres stalwart

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    I think that is @Herald's point. Similar ticket price on a shorter railway means the proportion of the ticket that goes towards the infrastructure is spread less thinly. From memory, when the WSR was selling single tickets it was about £28 for a 40 mile round trip. Swanage are charging £16 for a 12 mile round trip. They can also potentially run a reasonably intense service with only a single train in operation, whereas the WSR requires at least three to offer any kind of frequency; that increases the number of locos and carriages you need operational and therefore what your "standstill" loco and carriage overhaul and maintenance requirement is, which is direct contributor to your costs.

    I don't tend to the automatic "shorter is inevitably better" school of thought, and in any case, we are where we are - you can't move the station with good motorway access any closer than it is to the station with a nice beach. But additional length does drive cost. Running. heritage railway is hard enough at the best of times, but being so long just makes what would in any case be a hard job even harder.

    Tom
     
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  12. Pete Thornhill

    Pete Thornhill Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Administrator Moderator Friend

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    My point was regarding the limit that people will pay for the experience. The fares between the two railways are comparable, which to me proves people are prepared to pay the levels that the WSR are charging, the rest I completely agree with.
     
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  13. 35B

    35B Nat Pres stalwart

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    Being pedantic, you could move those two end points closer together. It would be a very different - and difficult to operate - railway though.
     
  14. Cuckoo Line

    Cuckoo Line Member

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    But SVR were quite clever with the compartment for the day and stops at the Engine House , Bewdley and then the end of the line , actually giving a good day out. We were really impressed with how they did it and good load factors too.
     
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  15. Pete Thornhill

    Pete Thornhill Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Administrator Moderator Friend

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    Indeed, the Engine House is a great asset, the reasons you gave are also why we visited with the children.

    The other difference is the SVR thought about their USP’s, they also marketed it well.
     
  16. Cuckoo Line

    Cuckoo Line Member

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    As i understood they weren't,t expecting to make a great profit but it re-engage their volunteers and generated a lot of positive publicity. It also helped with keeping the machinery oiled and working.
     
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  17. Alan Kebby

    Alan Kebby Well-Known Member

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    It’s a shame the WSR don’t have a museum at, let’s say Washford for example, that could be used as an interesting stop off point.
     
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  18. 46229

    46229 New Member

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    Completely disagree with that. With the benefit of hindsight, those railways that chose not to run made the right move in many cases. They were able to effectively mothball a lot of their overheads and furlough their paid staff. Most of those that did run realised early on that reduced Covid loadings could only at best cover direct costs. Of course, it depends on the specifics of each operation and some may have chosen to run at a loss or at cost for other reasons.
     
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  19. MellishR

    MellishR Resident of Nat Pres Friend

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    The WSR is badly in the red. Do you really think it would have been even worse if they had run some trains last year?
     
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  20. Pete Thornhill

    Pete Thornhill Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Administrator Moderator Friend

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    Fair comment, the SVR did in fact record a slight loss on the reopening trains.

    However, they offer more than a train service.
    The secondary spend of reduced the reduced passengers has been higher. At the recent gala it was at an all time high for income vs passenger numbers.
     
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