Steam Dreams - Southend to Salisbury - March 15th

Same problem occurred last year. I think Steam Dreams are treading very close to the line regarding mis representation when they repeatedly offer a package they know, from experience, they cannot deliver.

 

Perhaps Bittern will haul this trip to allow Britannia on the Ranger if the A4 is banned from Carlisle? If the A4 couldn't do Southend either may explain the changes?

 

Steam Dreams aren't the only ones to make last minute changes to itineraries though are they ? It seems to be an accepted part of steam on the main line, and something you simply live with from what I've seen.

 

Another one of those mysteries to which we'll never hear a definitive answer I suspect. It's annoying though when these "steam firsts" such as steam from Southend Airport are promoted as they are, as in SD's letters / emails etc, and then have to be dropped at the last minute. It comes across very badly, and looks incompetent, but as I have said before, we're a forgiving lot and keep coming back for more. No doubt we will continue to do so.

 

Once again a couple of mates and myself have tickets on a SD train which is not going to be run as advertised or indeed sold to us.

The first part of the run via Southend, Wickford was the only reason we booked this trip and once again we have been let down.

Enough is enough and the frequent policy of changing the haulage from steam to diesel on the initial part of trips from south east is becoming a joke. Please in future can SD either stick to what they advertise or not bother listing steam from the South East such as Southend or Ipswich as I am getting cheesed off with not getting what I paid for or indeed want. In future my cash as well as my mates will stay in our pockets.

Stan

 

Working hours regulations would have a lot to do with it.

 

It was announced on the Britannia Facebook page sometime last week, thought it was a bit strange given it was still showing as Southend on SD site at the time!

 

I'll probably be told I'm wrong, but the kind of itinerary change you describe is more usually associated with RTC who have always used WCRC as their TOC. Now SD have switched to WCRC and they're doing it. Is this a co-incidence ?

 

RTC 100 trips a year approx, SD 50 trips a year approx. When Steam Dreams were last with West Coast 1 trip was cancelled no crews, but 2 RTC trips ran.

 

When Steam Dreams used both West Coast and DBS (the later usually only for Tornado) one of the trips from Southend (behind 70000 I think) was DBS rather than West Coast, which surprised quite a few people on here.

 

Very true, and illustrates the dangers of glossy brochures promising milk and honey, then failing to manage expectations when they can't be delivered.

 

Absolutely. Its particularly ironic that this was the sort of itinerary (unusual starting point etc)that DBS were said to find impossible to resource. As others have said I suppose the main issue is the running of 2 other WCRC steam trips that day(one of them double-headed)but again this must have been known about for months.

 

Agreed. There are others dates ( looking at Saturday only) though such as 5/4, 31/5, and 7/6 where there is only one trip.
SD, VT ,RTC etc need to look at what their competitors are doing and question is there sufficient resource available and move the date if necessary, ideally before annoucing the trips.

 

Remind me, what was SLOA for?

A question to which I (and many others) would be intrigued to know the answers.

I think you'll find that Saturday's train is steam-hauled from the Southend (and crewing has never been dependent on the Buxton train)........

JS