Severn Valley Railway to launch £4,000,000 share issue.

No, that is in Latest News. Go further down the column on the left and open Steam Works.

 

Is this what you are referring to?

If not, can you just give the URL, rather than turning this into a fairground game of "find the needle in a haystack"...

SOURCE: SteamWorks

Tom

 

That's it.

 

There is a certain amount of irony if the update contained in "Latest News" is not the correct one

 

Wake up! If that isn't a (nicely worded) gagging order placed on Tigger by the GM what is?

 

Bad practice that it is to quote yourself, its interesting to note mention of the gagging order is even being mentioned on the SVR's own heavily moderated site. This may be taken to imply the share issue is now going embarrassingly wrong. Perhaps the design team should now have the humility to admit how badly they got the original design work which is as likely the main reason for the present situation.

 

I would have thought that depends how the SVR plc costs free travel for accounting purposes. Afterall, if you get two "free" third class tickets if you are a shareholder, the nominal value to you, the shareholder, is the full ticket price (or maybe, if you are also a society member, the nominal discounted ticket price). But the cost to the plc of offering that benefit is fairly marginal, and in fact may be beneficial if it encourages someone to travel who may otherwise not have done so, and who thereby engages in some "additional spend" (shop, cafe etc). So it would seem counter productive to reduce member benefits in order to "pay" for shareholder benefits when those shareholder benefits are actually pretty marginal in cost to the plc.

(Note: I'm not saying that proividing shareholders with "free" tickets is completely free. They will have some cost, not zero, because at least a proportion of shareholders will use their free tickets instead of paying the normal fare. But that number will probably be low).

Tom

 

I don't think £900k plus in 2 months implies the share issue is 'now' going embarrassingly wrong.

Patrick

 

Update

Steam Works

Patrick

 

Consensus is it should have passed £1M by now had the income not significantly slowed. Reading Steam Works strongly suggests the Chairman's magical £3M would be an awful lot closer had Messrs Howl, Taylor & Dancer et al shown a little less conceit and taken a quick straw poll before publication of such a comprehensive initial artist's impression.
How about a little honesty like "Oops! We got it wrong".

 

I own enough SVR Shares to have a Gold Pass for unlimited First Class travel. Sally the Border Collie and I (and sometimes Mrs H) utilise it at least once a month. We always spend cash on the railway whilst we are there - we used to pay for SVR parking at Kiddy too - until we discovered that the Network Rail Car Park is cheaper and better surfaced.

 

I for one welcome this news. I Now await the details of the proposed changes. It looks as though the SVR has listened to its members and deserves some credit. I agree that it would have been better to have consulted with the membership/shareholders earlier on, but this is now water under the bridge.

Here is looking forward to a true Heritage Railway environment at Bridgnorth.

 

I don't know if the railway is/will be engaging in news management (embargoing the announcement to a particular day) or not, but when the railway releases news we can better judge

I also have in mind Jamessquared's comments relating to Bluebell's experience that income drops at a (three-month?) period anyway, so a slowing should not necessarily be seen as 'going embarrassingly wrong'

Patrick

 

As someone else has suggested (on the SVR forum), the railway could be waiting till closer to christmas before announcing an updated figure.
Anyway, people suggesting it's gone wrong are clutching at straws. Let's wait and see the next update.

 

It would be unfair for me to criticise the SVR to the degree that geekfindergeneral did; however his comments were not without any point. Those that are talking things up are fooling themselves that all is well.
What happened to the Chairman's promise of greater openness and better communication?
Very little talking is going on by Mr Paul and Co and certainly less listening.
I can't be there, but I'm sure some will mention this in January.

 

I am also glad that modification of the original plans is now being considered, and look forward to seeing what is produced.

For those that havent yet seen it, theres a fantastic program currently on iplayer (and BBC4) here showing footage of the early days of the SVR which I think is relevant to the current share issue:

BBC iPlayer - The Golden Age of Steam Railways: Branching Out

It is great to see how far the railway has come - I just hope it isn't blown on mis-direction.

 

I think that's a little ungenerous.

While I am too frustrated about aspects of it, and without going into full Python mode, the launch in late 2012 and the development in 2012 of Home demonstrates better communication.

Back on thread there have been Steam Works updates 17/12/12, 29/11/12, May, August & September. There were Q&As in Sept '11 and Jan '12, I was at a boilershop meeting (September) and a presentation at the Members & Shareholders Weekend ('M&SW', October). There’s another Q&A in Jan ‘13. The railway published its interpretation of the feedback plus over 70 verbatim comments from the M&SW, both supportive and critical

"Constructive and attributable comments, opinions and insights can be fed through to the design team using the following email address steamworks@svrlive.com".

Each of us has their own opinion. As it happens I don't think *all* is well (my emphasis), but I agree that it looks as though the SVR has listened to its members and deserves some credit. I do believe there is more openness and better communication (more is needed) and I don't believe the share issue is now going embarrassingly wrong.

Patrick

 

Agreed - it seems to have become fashionable to knock the SVR & it has to be said that the railway has not always presented things in the best way and still needs to learn an awful lot about communication in particular.

The current economic situation is affecting pretty well all heritage lines and the SVR is no exception.

But lets remember that the railway is still one of the best Heritage lines in the world - amongst other things it is still 16 miles long, still has 26 steam locos, an unrivalled collection of pre nationalisation rolling stock and OWNS the freehold of the entire route. Only a handfull of other lines come close to matching any of one of these aspects.

The raising of (nearly?) £1m in the time so far taken, in the midst of poor economic conditions is a considerable achievement - why belittle it?

If you don't like aspects of the railway then get involved! - thats the best way to change it.

 

One thing is clear, Lingus, we both care profoundly about the SVR and are discombobulated by events. Like you, I find the amount of “talking up” going on is a concern. The share issue will creep pass the Sacred Million that so enchants other posters here and may already have done so – at least according to Heritage Railway this month. Certainly it will have in time for the Q & A sessions in January. But that will be it.

The trouble is, £1 million isn’t enough by a country mile. It scarcely covers the railway's elephantine bank borrowing. It certainly isn’t enough to provide the 50% match funding requirement to two identified capital streams –DEFRA and ERDF – unless they can do a £10 million wish list with just £3 million and to get that they will have to ignore the looming infrastructure liabilities, and leave Hagley Hall in the bottom of the toybox. Match-funding in these two cases means having your portion available as real money. If you have spent half of it on a new stores building for MPD, it isn't there as match funding any more.

That leaves HLF, who luckily no longer expect match funding of any consequence and so the Great White Hope hinges on a successful bid to HLF for as much as £7 million. HLF can do that much, and just have for the Imperial War Museum and a few others, but they don’t do it often. SVR will make their application in the second half of 2013. 75% of all HLF applications fail. Clearly now everything in the prospectus depends on it beating the odds.

The reasons behind “gagging” the SVR Chief Twitterer will be familiar to anyone who has managed publicity for a frightened organisation,and as usual it merely creates an information vacuum which in this case, entirely predictably, Robin Jones has filled for them. Most of the relevant financial facts about SVR are already in the public domain for anyone who wants to see...and has the stomach to look.

The simple truth is that SVR was a well-managed self-sustaining business until the anus horribilis in 2007, since when it has been in intensive care. It has never recovered, the finances remain dire even though the trains still put on a brave show, but they run for a critically diminishing number of paying passengers. Survival and a sustainable future comes only from carrying more people – about 50,000 more every year within the present cost base would do it. It used to be able to do this, but appears to have forgotten how. The £3 million sunk into the Engine House has done nothing for passenger numbers since it opened in 2008.

The prudent answer is not to fritter management time (and money they don’t have) on projects that are not critical to survival. Bridgnorth Steamworks is the biggest and most frivolous White Elephant of the lot. 70% of the SVR supporting family – the +/- 15,000 existing shareholders and members combined– have voted with their wallets against it by not buying shares this time round, despite the Boards’ judgement that they would be good for it. That is what is “going embarrassingly wrong”.