Steam Dreams Tours 2012

All steam tours operated by PF are now £99.

The Bristolian - Steam - Pathfinder Tours
The Cumbrian Streaker - NEW - Pathfinder Tours

etc...

 

Sorry, but I do not think anyone's product/reliability/delivery of product is good enough to warrant a price tag of £99 for the most basic accommodation. I would not mind paying more if it were going to the Loco. Owner but they get the smallest part of the monies received.

 

Thanks Mark

Ouch, i haden't realised they had jumped that much, and those two you've highlighted are not terribly exciting either, a run along the flattest Mainline in the land or a Streak reduced to trundling around the Cumbrian Coast and most likely with Aircons at that.

Thank god I have Vintage Trains on the doorstep...

 

It may not need trespassers to end steam on the main line (see another thread), the tour operators are doing a good job themselves by pricing passengers out of the market. I hope it is not a deliberate ploy?

 

People have already said on here that they are not willing to pay what seems to be a new £99 threshold on the cheapest railtour class. Don't forget more everyday things in life are constantly going up, food, fuel (all types) etc. So there is a lot less money to spend on luxuries. Talking of fuel, I see petrol is starting to go up again. Risen here by 2-3p a litre in the last week or so. Has been stable for a while. I wonder what the excuse is this time, I think Cameron has chucked his two pennerth in with a tax/duty rise.

 

Got to pay for ones duck pond by some means!

For me everyone has a personnel limit, I was tempted to go on 6024's last run but the price just put me off, after adding on driving to reading, fare to Bristol etc. but it was a close call.

Then again I have driven to Birmingham a few times!

But looking at there brochure yesterday I will look at what charter to next run on if the price is right, which for me is around the £90 mark.

 

Whilst remaining on the fence there does appear to be two different approaches being adopted by the big two promotors this year... RTC with its cheaper and repeatable winter cme's and steam dreams with its niche economy.

I know the winter CME has been a sell out success, with extra coaches and an extra train...does anyone know how SD is coming along, they haven't yet run a trip at the new rates yet, so maybe hard to judge.

 

Brent crude is currently trading at around it's highest level for some weeks if I have read the charts right. Circa $118 a barrel. My understanding is that the price we pay at the pumps is related to the price of crude oil on the open market.

So far as the price being charged for steam trips. I will still go on any trips that operate over a route I like with motive power I like and with the good chance of no box and a reasonable timing for part of the day.

And as I've said before we do not know what cost pressures those who set the prices are under. Or what their recent experience of who is buying what product in what numbers is. And if the age profile is seeing more people with mortgages paid off, decent company pensions now coming in, (from the days when some of us contributed to such things), paying for the higher end of what is on offer on steam trips, then why shouldn't the prices and what is on offer reflect that?

Plus those SKI-ng of course! Spending Kids Inheritance.

And if Steam Dreams or anyone else gets that wrong for a year and subsequently downgrades one of two coaches to a lower price and quality for us scruffy enthusiasts I'd put money on those who looked elsewhere coming back. Such is the attaction of mainline steam.

I'd also reckon some of the "I won't pay that new price" brigade wil be seen paying the higher price this year. Such is life. Have a good old moan then quietly accept it, (boxes on the back excepted. LOL!).

 

Well I for one will not be paying the new prices.The product on offer is just not up to those price standards. The lack of reliability in actually delivering what the customer paid for, poor rolling stock, endless delays etc etc all mitigate against it.

Compare this to the £40 I spent on a three day pass for the Mid Hants gala last autumn, unlimited travel, the chance to take photos., something almost totally lacking with mainline steam and the ability to go home when I want to rather than waiting at a failed signal in the middle of no-where and then having to pay taxi fares because I can't get home any other way at 2a.m.with tour operators unwilling to contribute to these very substantial extra costs mean that I shall be getting my steam fix on preserved lines for the foreseeable future, at least until the product on offer improves to the most basic acceptable standard.

Bear in mind that the tour promoters are also in the general leisure market If I took my wife and I on a steam tour in SD's super standard it would cost a total, including their carbon offset fee of £202. In my local travel agent's today there is a three night trip to the Canary Islands, for two, room only in a 4* hotel, in late march for £199 for a couple!

 

You make good points but at the same time, IMO there is no substitute for experiencing a steam loco working hard on the main line with loads and at speeds far in excess of those achieved on the main line. That's what I'm prepared to pay good money for and so are lots of other people.

 

And Ian I respect your views. However for me they have broken the price/value equation. It is not that I cannot afford these fares, rather it is that for me the value is not there and problems such as traveling in a coach, in the cold with no heating and/or lighting and then arriving in central London at 02:00 and not being able to get home outweigh the pleasures of main line steam!

 

I'm limited to the number of tours I can do as I'm at work when most of them run but nonetheless I haven't experienced a really bad day out on a steam tour in years. In fact the few tours that have been nightmares were back in pre privatisation days. Hopefully my luck will hold as I'm looking forward to my first steam up Evershott and Upwey banks as well as along the sea wall later this year.

 

The papal indulgence analogy is spot on IMO.

 

I was in the Vatican a week ago (I'm not religious, I'm more atheistic, but it was awe-inspiring architecture, nonetheless). Should've paid a visit to the Bishop of Rome and asked what he thought about the evils of carbon off-set charges on steam railtours, and whether his predecessor, Alexander VI would have approved of them.

 

Does anyone know where steam dreams carbon offset goes ?
As far as I see that cost is not optional.
if it goes towards planting trees..... Well I buy a real Christmas tree every Christmas and it costs me around £40.. So surely I have 20 railtours worth of carbon credits

 

We planted a Giant Redwood last year. We are right under the flightpath to MAN!

Perhaps years after I'm gone it will show up on their radar! And I've done my Carbon offset bit for life the number of trees that have grown here over my lifetime - so I'm not paying these politically correct prats a penny.

 

I am booked on the RTC Cumbrian mountain express at £69 this Saturday, Steam Dreams are advertising the identical tour in May at £89, even down to the timings. The only difference is motive power (Tornado instead of 2 Black Fives). I am not going to spend an extra £20 on food and drink on board this Saturday and I couldn't give a monkeys about a table cloth! I was tempted by the idea of bagging Tornado between Hereford and Shrewsbury, but at £49 rtn even that is too steep for a run that is the same length as the Shakespeare express (this year £12.50 rtn if booked in advance from Stratford!) and i'm not going to eat or drink much in an hour. I am in no doubt SD have abandoned the enthusiast in favour of the affluent South Eastern market. There is still plenty of money down there and they are cashing in. It is a shame, I just hope RTC will still cater for us normals on a budget.