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Swanage Railway General Discussion

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

  1. Alan Kebby

    Alan Kebby Well-Known Member

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    He’s talking about the 5 mainline registered MK1s owned by the Swanage Railway. They just need door locking fitted before they can carry passengers into Wareham.

    The idea is to use them top and tailed with 31806 and the 33 into Wareham. Not WIBN, but an officially declared intention of the Swanage Railway (albeit now delayed by covid.)
     
  2. Gladiator 5076

    Gladiator 5076 Part of the furniture

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    That would obviously require stewards as per a mainline tour. Whilst the DMU's central locking negates that issue, one of the other things stewards do is to stop folks hanging their head out of the window. Anyone know how that would be "policed" between Bridge 4 and Wareham with such a large number of doors?
     
  3. Jupiter

    Jupiter New Member

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    I guess along with locks, if they are mainline registered carriages the windows would need to be restricted to 100mm opening.
     
  4. Jupiter

    Jupiter New Member

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    Interesting point. Living in Poole a day return to London is a good day out, as is an afternoon in Winchester, etc. We’ve been looking at Corfe/Swanage being a destination but could also be the start of a day trip. I’m sure a day teturn Swanage to Waterloo would be attractive to some Swanage residents. You’d need a reasonably early up train…etc
     
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  5. Andy Moody

    Andy Moody Member

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    Really?
     
  6. 80104

    80104 Member

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    It may be worth all those referring to the ORR to consider the extent of the obligations placed upon SR to run on the mainline.

    Licence obligations | Office of Rail and Road (orr.gov.uk)

    Items such as a Complaints Handling Policy and Accessible Travel Policy whilst not unduly onerous do place obligations on the SR.

    These are not just policies that are written, accepted and filed away, these are live policies which are in effect every time the service is in operation.

    Whilst the ORR may take into account that SR is a railway of limited means, are the customers likely to be more tolerant towards SR than say they would be to SWR if things went wrong? If for example there was a major service failure on say a Sunday afternoon with three of four hundred passengers stranded up and down the line how would Swanage Railway cope?

    Whilst it is fair to say that SR would do their best and that they can only do what they can do, the possibility of significant sums of compensation being paid out and additional costs incurred rears its ugly head. At the moment any complaint is dealt with internally by SR. If the customer remains aggrieved they have resort to law in the first instance making a complaint via Trading Standards. If operating to Wareham, a Wareham passenger has the right of recourse via the Rail Ombudsman. If they make a complaint to the Ombudsman then a charge is levied on SR for responding to and investigating the complaint. Any compensation payment ordered by the Rail Ombudsman is in addition to this. Given the relatively low value of SR fares then SR may find its best course of action is to refund fares as a matter of course to try and "defuse the situation" as that may be less costly in the long run than getting referred to the Rail Ombudsman.

    The challenge for SR will be do they treat "Wareham" passengers differently to "Non Wareham passengers"? both at the time of disruption or post disruption. If you have 100 passengers stranded at Swanage what do you do? If you have a very limited supply of taxis the logical thing to do would be to get the Wareham passengers away first because your liability to them is potentially greater and thus the quicker they are on their way the better, but of course there is the counter view that getting the Norden passengers away first is preferable because you could get more Norden passengers away (because the journey is quicker and the taxi can get back for a second trip) within the same amount of time. What do you do if someone has a non flexible rail ticket from Wareham back to London. If they miss their booked train will SWR accept it or insist a new ticket is purchased? The customer would certainly ask SR to refund the additional cost. This all may seem very theoretical but it is the sort of thing SR needs to have worked out in advance so that if it does come to pass precious time isnt wasted. Its also worth bearing in mind that disrupted customers are more likely to complain because of the railway not having a plan (and appearing incompetent / uncaring) than if there is at least a plan in place and what is happening is communicated to the waiting passengers. If a customer has to pay to resolve the problem then they will almost certainly ask for their additional costs to be refunded. Even if the answer is No SR wont refund, that phone call, email or letter still has to be answered professionally and within the timescales laid down in the CHP (Complaint Handling Policy).

    Alternative travel capacity on the Isle of Purbeck is very limited: there are few taxis at weekends waiting for fares, the Purbeck Breezer buses have limited spare capacity, there are few, if any, coach operators who have drivers available that can be called up at a moments notice to provide a rail replacement service. It may well be that the only solution is to sit it out and wait for the problem whatever it is to be resolved and then resume service paying passengers compensation accordingly.

    I do not wish to appear pessimistic about either the commercial prospects for the Wareham service or the possibility of major disruption. The purpose of the trial is to test the commercial prospects and operational challenges and it should be seen in that light. Whatever the outcome the SR will go to DC and report the results. What happens next would be up to the partners to decide whether that is SR to continue to operate the service (with or without support in whatever form) or for SR to withdraw and the service to be discontinued or for other parties to become involved possibly as an operator.

    Irrespective of the eventual outcome, operating the trial service does place SR in a very different position to where it is today where the rewards could be higher but the risks: safety, operational and financial are very much greater. SR must be able to manage those risks so at the very least, all that has been gained through sheer hard work and persistence over the last near half century isnt lost.
     
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  7. Alan Kebby

    Alan Kebby Well-Known Member

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    Yes really. They upgraded 5 of their Mk1s to mainline standard in 2018. They then ran with 31806 to Yeovil as part of its mainline test run. Although still allowed to run on the mainline, they need door locking fitted before they can carry passengers.


     
  8. ady

    ady Well-Known Member

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  9. Gladiator 5076

    Gladiator 5076 Part of the furniture

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    I guess it would be fine for 2022 but come 2023 I guess they would have to lock out the toilets to take the Mk1's to Wareham, as hardly economic to fit retention tanks.
     
  10. 80104

    80104 Member

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    They may wish to consider fitting retention tanks because there is always the possibility that the landlords (Dorset Council and Swanage Town Council) may decide that in the interests of public health (and that includes the pway team) that effluent should not be discharged onto the track.
     
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  11. oliversbest

    oliversbest Member

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    looking at some of the previous posts we are well into the 2002 reasons why we cannot run that DMU to Wareham, On receiving a"what if" question a dear departed friend of mine, and in a position of some authority, would reply
    We do not deal in "what ifs" "could have beens" ,"might be" or" maybes." I am sure that the SR has a competent board and even better, competent operational Officers who can game the probabilities. Some might remember Capt Peter Manisty one of the early doyens of the HR movement and was a great believer in making the seemingly impossible happen.BTW when I joined the SRP circa 1976 one of the principal aims was the restoration of an "amenity' service to Wareham , I am sure the Corfe Station library has a copy or two that spells that out repeatedly. Perhaps some of us pioneer members should also put in a claim for a delayed train!!! As to the the notion of a 50/60s branch operation I can assure the contributor that the present SR operation bears very little resemblance to the worn out dirty suburban coaches pulled by an unkempt M7 that I remember from the 50s
     
  12. Woof Mk2

    Woof Mk2 Member

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    Perhaps you should raise your concerns/views etc with the current management as you will get a far better answer and straight from the horses mouth rather than on a social media platform
    Also see post #5366 by 80104...….
     
  13. ady

    ady Well-Known Member

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    The original reason I was going to post yesterday was I was going ask (again) if there was any news on 31874 as the recent SR News arrived with no mention of the locomotive fleet save stuff about the bloody T3 again, 80104's appeal and 34072 leaving the line for repairs.

    Also I think another reason why Swanage may not have Wareham on the plan this year (or are bothered by not having Car No 14 in service as well) they most likely trying to get resources to fix the main carriage fleet, as the serviceable coaches have suffered over the last 18 months and there currently a shortage of working carriages...
     
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  14. Rumpole

    Rumpole Part of the furniture

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    Why "the bloody T3 again"?

    563 has the advantage of a positive, pro-active fundraising group for it, who are working hard to return the Swanage Railway Trust's only owned steam locomotive to service for the first time in over 70 years; a unique and highly popular goal, if the fundraising so far is to be believed.

    Would that other projects had similar (or some people had more hours in the day...!).
     
  15. ady

    ady Well-Known Member

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    Not my favourite locomotive type. I not that much of an express engine fan. Especially after the whole 'E class' is better the the 'K class' thing.

    And yet that seems to be making progress while the engine I been far more interested in for years, the 'N', the overhaul is about overtake 'Scotsman' in the number years it shouldn't have taken...
     
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  16. martin1656

    martin1656 Nat Pres stalwart Friend

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    The N was due to be running before the U class boiler ticket expired, but problems with the boiler contract delayed things and by the time the boiler was done, the U'S ten year ticket was up. But it was decided that as the U class was in good mechanical order, and it would be quicker to swop boilers, and keep her in traffic, that the N could wait, the chassis is finished i believe and its only awaiting a boiler,
     
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  17. ady

    ady Well-Known Member

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    I'm already aware of this I don't need it repeated I just answering why I said the 'Bloody T3 again earlier...
     
  18. ghost

    ghost Part of the furniture

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    Calm yourself Ady! It's only a steam loco, no-one has died. There's only so much money to go around so the SR can't overhaul all their locos at once. The N will get finished, have patience.
     
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  19. ady

    ady Well-Known Member

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    Also while I think about it.

    The 'moguls' did seem to have active 'movement' behing it as there was the 'Swanage Moguls Fund' which did have its own FB page and website. And it was simi-regularly updated. There's days both seem to be dead with the website last saying anything in 2018 and the FB reporting the boiler swap at the start of the year. You could say there is no news to report but I doubt have thought they shared the news of 31806's trip to Portsmouth etc. at least.

    I want to know am still going to be told that 31874 is still '18 months away' or is there at least a plan now?
     
  20. oliversbest

    oliversbest Member

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    Rail News @0500
    All Party Parliamentary Group are pushing for heritage railways to be used to boost tourism in environmentally friendly way.NB this statement mentions specifically railways that have existing connections to the National Network.
     

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