Kent & East Sussex Railway

The what?

 

It's about priorities, and how they're understood. From experience, it's the "they" department that need to do this, and fall between multiple stools.

My own view is that heritage railways fall into a matrix, where interest in and ability to provide information to enthusiasts can be plotted against each other. Some simply aren't that interested in providing that information, and don't - in view of the question to @ikcdab, I'd include the WSR in that category. Others do, and do it well. Still others appear to, but then don't.

Those that don't, simply lose the business. That's an opportunity cost to them, which could probably be fixed at minimum cost were there the interest. But others who appear to provide information but don't populate it leave me wondering what's wrong inside the organisation that they appear not to know what's going on.

Based on this discussion, my hunch is that KESR are not especially interested in providing the information, and aren't resourced to either.

As an aside, given the widespread reliance on HOPS, I do wonder whether there's scope to use it for rostering and combine it with an API to allow the rostered information to appear online.

 

I note that most of those complaining have "No I do not currently volunteer" set It's a perfect role for someone who can't regularly volunteer in person due to health/distance/time/etc issues...

 

If - and it's an important "if" - there is the line of communication to enable it to work.

 

No Nick, I don't volunteer and I don't often give reasons why not, although I have touched on that earlier #1216.

Instead I am a ticket buying and donation making customer of the heritage railways I regularly visit. And I only give my custom and donations to those who, one way or another provide the information I need before I plan each visit.

So, that means a very small number of visits by me to the KESR, and then only when they have a special event where they provide loco details in advance. And, conversely, it means a lot of visits by me to the other old BR SR located heritage lines as I do know what I am paying for when I plan my trip - and I fully accept that late changes to motive power can and do happen.

I also fully accept it is up to each heritage railway to decide how they use the resources they have and what advance information they provide.

Bryan B

 

So we have the usual cries of we don't have the resources to do social media. As I have touched on Social Media is no longer a nice to have, it's an essential. If you were down to your last 3 or 4 volunteers one of them should at least be posting on FB we are running trains today!!
It's free, it has massive impact and pretty much all visitors expect up to date online information as much as clean toilets. To ignore it is doing yourself out of free income.

 

Who has said we can't do social media? No-one, as far as I've seen. Someone suggested that we had a social media "team". Wrong. We do what we can on social media. Funnily enough, if you actually LOOKED at our social media, you would see that we do post such little niceties as when we are running trains......

 

So if you are posting 'we are running trains on x date' why not add 'expected to be hauled by xxx (subject to availability)'?

It is a myth that Joe Public don't care about which steam loco is in action, they are actually very interested to hear the history and story behind a particular loco, especially if it has a claim to fame. All railways really should make more of this as again these are good promotion points. Railtour operators are very good at this in their on board literature - steam locos are a railway's crown jewels, we should celebrate them.
I don't have any particular axe to grind with the KESR, but it does seem an odd and strange ommission which is easily addressed by other railways.
My last word on this topic!

 

I would agree that you're correct to say that the general public can and do take an interest in the history of the loco on the front of the train, but it's probably a stretch to say any significant volume of passengers are going to chose to turn up or not dependent on which particular loco it happens to be. I can understand passengers heading to a heritage railway being disappointed if there was not a steam loco in service, but as discussed earlier, the KESR already seem to have that covered on social media anyway?

 

True, but for the amount of effort required it really doesn't need to be substantial. 1 extra rover ticket a week would probably more than cover the costs even if all the extra time necessary (all of about 20 minutes) was done by paid staff.

 

I don't disagree but it could all be undone if you have to issue refunds to 2 people unhappy that the particular engine advertised is no longer available and no one had chance to get the message along to update Facebook. You can try and cover that with the 'subject to availability' clause, but my own personal view as a volunteer is that I would be unwilling to argue with a grumpy or aggressive customer. I would rather just refund the ticket.

 

Unconvinced. If the argument for not providing is it's only a very small minority that care in the first place, I would say only a very small percentage of that very small minority will ever get grumpy.

 

So why do railways such as the Severn Valley, GWSR, Mid Hants, Bluebell etc etc manage to do this without, presumably, forking out on refunds? Is there any evidence that this is a realistic problem?

Sent from my SM-S926B using Tapatalk

 

If you’re going down that route, then the railway had better not advertise any train services just in case something happens and they can’t run the scheduled train at the scheduled time.

 

I’m fortunate to get the NYMR’s loco roster for each day the day before. This is produced by the operating department for the commercial department to post on the website. It is not unknown for three versions to be produced as the afternoon runs into the evening and locos come on shed after their days work. There is a plan as to what locos will be in use over a particular week and which will be on standby but it is a mix and match situation so there is little point in publishing anything more than 12 hours in advance.

 

What puzzles me is why the NYMR situation is so much more volatile than that elsewhere.

 

Which other line can use upto 5 locos a day ,7 days a week for several months of the year and usually atleast three for seven months of the year .. and has to deal with the curves and climbs (not the mole hills some lines consider hills )?

 

Not to mention the increased speed running to Whitby, for which only certain engines are passed?

 

Is that partly because of their use of several locos a day along with nature of the route there?

The Bluebell seem to manage ok with a loco roster when using up to 4 locos a day in peak summer, and the other SR lines I visit often also seem to manage, when using just one or two. But all 4 SR lines I visit are much shorter than the NYMR . I can't comment on the KESR as from my two visits over 14 years and the lack of a published loco roster I don't know how many locos a day they need at various times of the year.

Bryan B

 

It is not that the NYMR is hard, but that the NYMR's rostering seems so volatile, that surprises me.