Folkestone Harbour Branch

very good questions, we have identied the start up costs as being in the region of some £200,000 which we will have to try and raise, how will we do it, by asking members to dig deep and getting as many people both local and who dont live here to contribute a lot of our members are retired but still fit, or have spare time but the honest answer is i dont know , who knows how any appeal is going to go ? at first there will have to be no paid staff so it would have to rely on its members to run local government s are fickle and one thing i do know is that my local council will not help us financially because they are always broke, and waste money far to redily.
What you say is right about its always the same faces, and this is the same no matter where you are there are still a lot of un known factors, for one what will the lease cost us? because we wont be buying the land, network wont sell it to anyone , my own view is that its to early to put costs down yet untill we know what the outcome is going to be if and when we do get the line, then the hard work really starts , but its envisaged that we could be into proffit by the third year of running, one thing we do have is that, we would be taking over a complete railway, that would be an attraction to main line tours so we could gain some income from these, as well as by operating the park and ride with only basic facilities that could be built on as time goes on

 

The Folkestone Harbour branch is very short, with no destination at the mainline end and devoid of any attractive scenery beyond which can be seen by foot around the harbour - the only way you are going to get people to travel for any meaningful price is to attract them with steam. An 08, industrial shunter or 1st generation DMU is not only likely to receive just as many complaints about noise and pollution given their age and the demands of the line, but it simply isnt going to get bums on seats nor will it help volunteer numbers or fundraising.

It pains me to say it, but in my opinion when it comes to preserving and commemorating the history of this line a well designed linear park, with at least some of the track retained and suitable interpretation boards erected, would be the most realistic option. As far as i can see, a working railway like that proposed just isnt practical, sustainable or representative of the line's history.

Chris

 

Christopher, think back to Havenstreet in its early days, what did you run, how did you start, well thats where we would be, you spent the first few years living hand to mouth, as did all railways, the issue here is that the owner of the harbour does not own the track, or any land beyond the viaduct, and doesnt even own the viaduct, just the land it stands on but they insist on making public statements when we are already involved with NR and they are not even holding talks , they refused to join round the table talks, its taken our local MP to even get them to concider any comprimise so it would just be left as an overgrown wastland, the top of the branch is still live, so trespass is a problem if you allow people to use it as a foot path
we would want to use steam, but when we could afford it, thats not to say that we wouldnt hire in an engine for special events, but like the IOWSR we would have to be very carefull how we spent money, the railway does have a certain charm, and is very much missed by locals and visitors, we brought down several tours in the last year it was open, and these seemed to be very popular and these might be a way to get income if ran in connection with something local where by if it was done when we had a visiting engine, it would boost takings and allow us to maybe bank a charter out with steam, can i correct you about the upper end, to start with ,there would just have to be a simple platform, but in time we would have an interchange with network rail and south eastern who we happen to have a very good relationship with

 

I dont think the IoWSR is much of a comparison - when it started out, they had appropriate loco's, carriages, a station, plenty of oppportunity to extend, were situated on a very popular holiday destination, they had land to build sheds and other facilities, no vandalism issues, and they werent in a residential area - pretty much the exact opposite of this scheme. Of course the IoWSR started off with just the basics, but there was huge potential to create a line that both celebrated the history of Island railways and could also carry 100,000+ passengers a year - i cant see how the Folkestone Harbour Branch compares.

While i see what your saying about the upper end, however good your relationship is with them there is no way that NR and SouthEastern are going to build and stop at any kind of interchange just to serve your line. While a station could be built to serve the area in the future, there's no timescale or even commitment to build one im aware of.

With regard to the railtours being popular, i dont see how you can draw too much from that. I was there for the last one myself, but like many people that wasnt for the scenery or the town but because it was being touted as the last opportunity to see trains up the branch. If the future of the branch was more secure the novelty factor would still be there for many enthusiasts, but as we all know they dont make up the bulk of railtour passengers and its hard to see how there'd be many more trains up the branch than there were before the closure plans.

While i can see your point, i think the people questioning this scheme have done so in a mostly constructive way and its been very interesting reading the replies - just what this forum is for. Dont forget that the questions and issues raised will also be raised by funding bodies, councillors, residents, local media etc so they'll have to be answered at some point anyway.

Chris

 

Chris you are mising my point, we all have to start somewhere, and if i can be blunt and honest, its not going to be you, me, or anyone one here that decides this , its going to be down to network rail, who will have the final say, after all its their railway , it would be a pity though, if the intereg funding for the ferry gets approoved ,the service starts and the best way to get to them isnt used , but its all in the hands of the general public at the end of the day, if we get the support, great, if we dont, i hope that people dont moan to me in years to come about the state of this town, because we gave them the chance, and you wont have known this, but there is talk locally that folkestone central might close and east be reopened because there is far more potensial traffic from the east now than what there was when the station was first closed,

 

The Bodmin & Wenford runs past the back of local residents gardens,
I don't think they have to many complaints

 

and they have a bank to climb also , the thing is Folkestone is like marmite you either love it or hate it, i think the ones that hate it are the same who come up to me every saturday and have believed all the media reports put out by the owning company , but of course they dont tell you the full story and say youve already lost pack up and go home , then once we have told them what the harbour company neglected to tell them, things such as, they cant take the line up, its someone elses, or put yourself into the shoes of a person who has just bought a flat here and you find out that your journey -from- hell, through the traffic to reach the station, just in time to see your train pulling out , could have been a strol to the bottom of your road and just a few paces into a waiting train at the junction, they change their tune then when you say, wouldnt your grand kids like to come down to the sea side to visit you and the final part of the journey was by a steam train, how would that be for them, i did that saturday, and the gent burst out, oh, my grand child loves steam engines and took a membership form away to read up on what we really were about, they dont always join, but its not what we are there for, people say we and i inparticular view this through rose tinted specticals , but i think its got so much potensial not just as a heritage railway, but as a public transport system, in my view it would still have all the trappings of a preserved railway, for instance, i am pushing for our station at folkestone east to be built as a terminus station with canopies so you would arrive at a propper terminus, only on the platform next door would be a javilin that would connect with our trains

 

Martin youve summed it up. if you dont try then you never know and your right preservation is about achieving the impossible , how many said 71000 was a restoration too far, that tornado, to build an engine from scratch could never be done i dare say that you have got your own mission impossible but are you going to not try? i agree in that a reality check on the way is no bad thing , its strange, you said about memberships etc, well we have an organisation here thats into the war time history and in the early days they didnt even want to talk to us, now this past week end ,they had a stall next to us and are now using our expertise and supplier for their own fund raising we are gaining acceptance from once people who didnt want us to even excist and now their organiser who was once very anti us and i are on first name terms and i was even advising them on suitable things to go on their mugs etc

 

I think I've said this before, but weren't you taught in primary school how to use full stops?

 

Right Mr May,
can i ask exactly what purpose is intensioned by the remark? i have noticed that your past remarks tend to get personal i have said previously, that grammer isnt my strong point , but it doesnt detract from being able to understand what i am writing .
i am always prepared to discuss geniune points of view, you may not agree with what i support, that is your choice , and i am not going to knock you for it , and just for the record, prehaps i should have taken better note at school , but things like football and girls got in the way

 

The perpendicular pro-noun is always a capital.