West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Transfer the voting rights in donated shares would require compliance with the share transfer provisions in the Articles and would only be effective on registration by the PLC . It would also mean loss of any associated travel benefits for the donor.

 

What though are the potential outcomes of the current situation on the WSR,

1. Implement Bailey - BUT the PLC says no, although it has the potential to address many of the problems the wider WSR family currently face, or
2. Stagger through 2021 with a better 2022, BUT it doesnt address the fact that the PLC doesnt make enough money through the farebox to maintain the railway, and why would supporters pump money into the PLC if they have no control over it, and given the track record of the current - and previous boards, so at some stage we are faced with
3 Bankruptcy or some variation thereof.

 

The real concern must be whether the Plc has raised sufficient funds, whether through fare income, donations or whatever other means, to get through the coming winter.

 

Pages 46-49 in the most recent Railway Magazine for September are devoted to the WSR. The text is apparently based on a visit in late June and a later one in August. The situation is adumbrated. There is mention of the Somerset and Dorset Railway Trust and there is a list of works in hand: largely building maintenance, civil engineering work and some S&T.

 

So where exactly does the appeal stand now? Are the WSRHT and the WSRA members both capable and willing to make up any short fall?

If they are this will only provide a short reprieve so this begs the question concerning what they are prepared to do in the future. The line needs more income. As I have posted before, passenger numbers are simply not good enough and have not been for a very long time. So how do these associations propose to increase the numbers or is this purely seen as the PLC's job? Or do the members believe that support for the railway is so strong that passengers will not be put off by substantial fare increases?
The associations could try to recruit more members and also increase the cost of membership but being realistic that is not going to go very far, it might even go backwards. Would there be enough support for a "save your railway for the price of a pint of beer a week" (apologies to the A1 Trust) form of fund raising? Given the activities of those with the GW or nothing attitude such a concept could well be rejected out of hand as a matter of principle. Could alternative revenue streams be made profitable enough to have a significant impact on the overall finances?
Are members of the associations all buying lottery tickets and hoping for the best or are some of them awaiting a significant inheritance?
So members and supporters what are you going to do? Carry on Squabbling?

 

What do you mean by this? (said in an inquiring, non-hostile tone). The WSR is acclaimed by its supporters as a GWR branch line to the seaside, so I don't quite see what principle would be at stake.
One of the significant problems with this appeal is that the request seems to be "Save my railway ", rather than your railway or our railway.

 

Quite simple; they reject anything that does not have GW identity or roots, they might accept the odd guest briefly but that is as far as it goes. This was further exemplified by those proclaiming at BL that 53808 should not be working trains on the railway , a certain 78XX ought to be. They ought to be more open, more creative and more flexible but the very fact that the issues afflicting this line remain unaddressed indicates that they are willing to continue to do things their way regardless even though the financial evidence shows that what they are doing is not working and they have to take on lessons from elsewhere. And that isn't going to happen in time.

 

I have heard the big model railway isnt open at bishops lidyard and had been shut down as it’s the Somerset and Dorset line. I would think any railway would be happy to have it so it is your lost thanks very much. Soon the railway will not have anything

 

Where did you hear that?

 

Probably the same source that told him the MHR is extending west of Alresford

 

Is there any actual evidence, other than hearsay, for these statements? I have read speculation and insinuation to that effect but nothing more. If it is true then it is very stupid for a line that depends almost 100% on BR Mk 1 coaching stock!

 

This is a post that seems to beg a number of questions.

First, in what circumstances will a buyer of the plc's assets assume an obligation to “give creditors a better deal than they would get from insolvent liquidation”? So far as I can see, such a buyer owes the company's creditors no such obligation unless he chooses to assume it voluntarily.

In any case, where is the plc going to find a buyer willing assume such an obligation? Is not a prospective buyer more likely to await the opportunity of acquiring the plc's assets cheaply in the course of any ensuing insolvency, without having to incur any such obligation to other creditors?

Next, if insolvency does indeed loom, but the plc has option of selling the assets but not the company, isn't that an option the plc can exercise irrespective of whether the WSRA is trying to buy additional shares and/or exert pressure for change?

In any case, the plc directors must be presumed to believe that the company is currently capable of meeting its debts as they fall due, as they would otherwise be subject to an obligation to cease trading. Until that state of affairs changes, is it not their duty to serve the best interests of their shareholders in priority to those of the company's creditors? How do they discharge that duty by the sale of assets on which the company's ability to earn income depends?

If I'm correctly following the message @Lineisclear is seeking to convey, the WSRA should be lending its financial support to the plc but only on terms that it should not seek to exert influence upon the direction the company is taking or acquire additional shares to enhance such influence. Latent in that message is the threat that if the WSRA were to exert its influence or attempt purchase of the means to do so, the plc might be induced to sell the family silver and thereby wipe out the rights of all the shareholders, not merely those attributable to shares held by the WSRA.

And just in case any WSRA trustee may be wavering about whether his association should be giving the plc money without any quid pro quo, let's toss in the deterrent that he may be required to bear personally the cost of any share purchase the Association makes.

I find this a very odd way of soliciting funds to save the railway. It's one redolent of the Major Bloodnok formula for extracting cash: “Open your wallets and say after me 'Help yourself!'”

Of one thing I am quite sure. I have a choice between donating my spare cash to a company that says it's going down the toilet if I don't do so, or instead giving it to the S&DRT who will have urgent need of it if the WSR plc defaults on its overhaul obligation by going bust. No prizes for guessing it's the S&D Trust that gets my donation, and that too is something for potential donors to reflect upon.

 

Though a successful Cultural Recovery Grant 3 would go a way towards it. The Arts Council version says "we expect that you wouldn’t apply for more than 25% per cent of your annual turnover ... We aim to notify applicants of the outcome of their applications by the end of October 2021."

(I don't know which year's annual turnover, or if different parts of the scheme have different criteria or dates).

WSR PLC accounts for the year ending March 2021 are due to be published this month

Patrick

 

My personal take on that is you may have stumbled on the reason that the non subservient charity were refused a meeting with the Finance Director.

 

A glimmer of light has emerged in that Mr Edge's excellent website hints that the Emergency SOS Survival Appeal figure has reached £43k which will be announced next week. A back of an envelope calculation suggests it is cantering along at £260 a day.

Edited to add, would that be the same 4160 team who were engaged by the 6+1 to find a buyer for the shares in the locomotive ? IIRC, they sold the shares to themselves at a knock-down price. As for excessive expenditure, it seems that they can neither afford a dictionary nor an atlas. The plc also gets some attention under "damming news". I had no idea that it had diversified into hydrology engineering. Is there a prize for the first reader to locate the mythical welsh village of "Llagnollen" ?

4160 Ltd - Home

 

OK, we can laugh at other people's spelling mistakes, but at the end of the day reconciliation between 4160 Ltd (in which I have some shares) and the WSRA and the plc could bring this very suitable loco back to the WSR, where to my mind it really belongs to be.