Swanage Railway General Discussion

Thanks Tom, that is indeed a very interesting way of looking at it.

 

Good to see the other steam set is being used today with the two heritage coaches!

I messaged the heritage coach group last week:

"We are waiting to get 5761 into the goods shed for a repaint. We hope this can be arranged soon. we would then like to be able to work on 4365 which needs some door repairs as well as some bodywork improvements."


So hopefully for summer we can have all 4 being used on the steam set which will be great to see.

I'm excited to read the April edition of Swanning Around which should be out soon. 3TC set inbound....................

 

''Join us in our beautifully restored 1930s Maunsell heritage carriages - with their comfy upholstered seats and varnished wood panelling - for a refreshing and tasty Prosecco cream tea through the Isle of Purbeck''.
To run on most Sundays. Click on the link below for dates. <BJ>
Afternoon Cream teas on a historic steam train and carriage (swanagerailway.co.uk)

 

This is great.

It doesn't need an extra service and uses a entire carriage that would be empty mid day and instead brings another type of customer onboard. A very good way to be more cost effective.

I can see this being VERY popular, as is the fish and chips.


However.. you have to stay ON the train. I always thought it might be better making the experience of food/drink a one day thing.. thus... allowing people off at Corfe and having people returning just on any service

 

Talking of passenger numbers. Would be very interesting to know year on year passenger numbers.. obv Easter is earlier this year but hopefully its positive.

Inflation is now getting close to 2% and might drop close to 0% and many many family's now have around 9-10% pay rise for minimum wage and living wages. Hopefully in terms of passenger numbers Swanage will recover now for summer... though.. other issues are longer lasting

 

Doubt it, unless your prepared to lend a hand

 

Maybe so, over the past three years the average price of the goods and services we buy has risen by a 21%. I am sure if you asked an ASLEF driver or NHS staff they will not have seen anything around 9 to 10% in that time, the same as many others.
Nothing wrong with optimism (I am more of a glass half empty man), but you do seem to have a view about many things that there are no issues in the HR world.

 

I don’t fully understand inflation but I can tell you that I have much less disposable income in the first 3 months of this year than I did last summer, and I’m on what is a fairly decent wage, although nothing spectacular. The cost of living is still far too high.

 

Which is the point that obsessing about the rate of inflation misses - that rate may slow down, but prices have still risen and if your incomes haven't risen by a similar amount, you will feel poorer.

 

I also calculated about 80 passengers per train on average.

Wonder if anyone in SR has historical detailed passenger numbers (total ticket sales or staff counting passengers on trains)? And if these are diesel or steam trains, which as you say could be cost affective for a 2 steam train, rather than a 1 steam 1 diesel train, timetable this summer?

Last year some people were coping with increased costs, others had plenty of spare cash! we know that in 2023
https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2024/03/swanage-railway-withdraws-plans-for-wareham-train-service.html
"Our popular heritage train services between Norden and Swanage carried more than 150,000 passengers in 2023"
How does it compare to previous years before covid?

 

200k plus. Think one year it might have got to 220/225k back before Covid

 

I think the maximum was 213,000 or thereabouts. (2015 and 2016).

What SRC doesnt say is the composition: does it include PLMs (no fare paid), dining train passengers (C4k), santa special / polar express passengers (C10k ss to C20K?? pe).

The evening dmu was discontinued a few years back but that contributed some passengers albeit at a low fare.

SRC used to operate daily from about the 20th of March to the Sunday at the end of the October half term. Over the past few years Mondays and Fridays in the low season have been non op.

A true apples to apples comparison would be helpful.

 

I think the first year we topped 200k was 2005, with SR overtaking WSR (and becoming the 3rd busiest heritage railway in passenger number terms in 2006). The numbers (at that time) excluded dining train passengers, but included special events - and only included those PLMs who went to the trouble of obtaining a complimentary ticket from the booking office - which was not a significant number! I cannot speak for post-2007, but do know that passenger numbers continued a report increases for several years.

 

Not quite, as 2005 saw 196,972 passengers. 2006 saw the 200k 'barrier' broken with 200,452. Busiest year was reported to have been 2015 when 217,080 were carried.
It would be nice for the Swanage Railway to get back to those latter figures in the not to distant future.

 

swanningapr1024.pdf (srstaff.co.uk)

26% increase year on year for Easter. Which was stated followed similar trends than February half term. Which shows people are coming back.

3,550 people carried over Easter and just under 2,000 people for the Mini Victorian gala

 

Difficult to find data on general visitor numbers to the area, but I did find this on a web search for 3 years pre Covid

https://www.swanage.gov.uk/userfiles/file/Agendas/Supporting papers - Tourism - 14th March 2018.pdf

https://www.swanage.gov.uk/userfile...019-Item 8) Swanage Value of Tourism 2017.pdf

https://www.swanage.gov.uk/userfiles/file/23 March 2021-Item 11) Swanage Town Data 2019.pdf

All pretty flat really, would be nice to see the equivalent numbers for last year.

 

True "holiday weather" today.
The mist came down around lunchtime so as I had to go down the town I thought I would go via HX where it was likely misty. Not much mist at Haycrafts Lane Bridge so went up the hill for a more distant image, from where I could not even see the railway.
The two 15:20 services seen in the mist, and the 16:40 passing a misty Herston.

 

So to quote Frank Roberts “Our popular heritage train services between Norden and Swanage carried more than 150,000 passengers in 2023"
Lets say 150,000, with an increase of 26% would be an estimate for 2024 of about 190,000 passengers.
Not up to the good figures for 2006 to 2016, but maybe enough to justify the extra coal costs of a 2 steam train yellow timetable for the summer peak?

 

26% up at Easter doesn't automatically translate to 26% up all year.

Firstly, what does the 26% actually refer to? If it is 26% of passengers, that's good. If it is 26% on income, that's still - well, OK but you've got to accept at least that income has to increase year-on-year by inflation just to stand still. So 26% increase in income might be closer to a real-terms increase of 16% or so - still desirable, but not 26%.

Then more generally - there will be some days in a year when you were already busy in 2023, so much increase isn't possible. If your gala weekends, Polar Express were already running close to capacity, then there is little option of growth there - so to hit your 26% target, if there are some days with little possibility of a big increase, then the remaining days - broadly your regular service - has to increase by even more.

Finally - Easter is normally a hard time to do year-on-year comparisons because it changes where it is: it could be anywhere between late March and late April. Weather also makes a difference - this year was a bit mixed which probably swayed some people to the railway rathe than the beach. Which is a good thing of course, but doesn't necessarily translate to every weekend of the year.

So the bottom line is that any increase in traffic is welcome, but I wouldn't be basing banking the profits from the extrapolated additional 40,000 passengers just yet!

Tom

 

A quick look back at my images shows the first 2 days of Easter 2023 as sunny, Sunday dull but dry, and the Monday sunny. So all round slightly better than this year weather wise. 5 coach service with Wareham DMU on Saturday, six coach steam/diesel T & T other days.