Project Wareham

He has been very supportive of the RVR's project at Robertsbridge, both in writing and in person. He has also visited the KESR while not "on company time". Criticize if you must, but we seem to have a rail minister with more than a passing interest in railways....

 

Obviously a danger of going off topic. But this an example of knowing the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
In contrast, faced with the same decisions, Torbay council have decided to upgrade their air festival and very much capitalise on it. Maybe, if Bournemouth is cancelled, Torbay will benefit! Off topic
Ian

 

Let us hope he is in office long enough to make a difference - looking at the terms in office of Ministers of State for Transport they could just about justify buying a one year railcard to help them get around but not a three year card.

 

BCP have to make cuts due to their precarious financial position. It is almost impossible to cut the provision of statutory services so cuts have to come (obviously) from non statutory services. Tourism especially events are some of the "easiest" (I use that word advisedly) cuts to make because they do not tend to have the same ripple effect as other cuts (for example it rarely means direct job losses). BCP have been asking for sponsors to come forward but it appears that none of the beneficiaries of the £30M wishes to support the event. There has also been a lot of criticism locally of car parking issues and litter caused by the hosting this "free to view" event.

 

The original Wareham timetable showed trains ending on Saturday (9th). The green timetable now on the website for Saturday shows no Wareham service and a last train out of Swanage at 16:30. So it is neither the normal Green timetable from this year or the blue, but a sort of mismash of both. Does anyone know if Wareham is ending early I told a friend the 9th the other day who knew someone who was thinking of coming down.

 

You could always ring them up or call in to find out

 

The 9th is the last day of any Wareham diagrams. Saturday is a Green timetable with an evening service to Corfe
Last Wareham deps Swanage 1623.
Last Norden service deps Swanage 1700
Then the following deps from Swanage to Corfe 1820, 1920, 2020 and 2120 with returns from Corfe at 1850, 1950, 2050 and 2150

 

Then the website timetable is wrong as it shows a 45 minute steam and diesel service starting at 10:30 from Swanage with steam and Norden with diesel. I only looked as I wondered if there were any evening trains for the Transport Festival.

 

Easier to walk down there and see Martin but I had only just come back from photographing the Waverley and thought someone on here may know.

 

One early turn steam crew rostered, One late turn steam crew.
One crew for Wareham service rostered.
One evening crew rostered.
Dep from Swanage: 1000, 1120, 1214*, 1330, 1423*, 1520, 1623*, 1700, 1820**, 1920**, 2020** and 2120**
*Wareham service ** Evening service to Corfe

 

Good morning,saw that the website was incorrect for Saturday earlier, but this has now been corrected etc to show the Wareham services.Its the last day for them so come on down.

 

But doesn't show the evening service though

 

Just an idle question, Is there an Wareham feeder service on special events, such as the train of light, polar express Santa specials etc, As a way to encourage them to park in Wareham, and use the DMU, rather than drive to Norton, or Swanage?

 

There used to be a Santa Shuttle from Norden to Swanage to support the Santa Special (which could only be boarded at Swanage). This was given up a few years ago because it required additional crew and added considerable operational complexity. It also made Swanage Station platform very very busy indeed at certain times.

 

Exactly and the use of the description "full timetable" is self evidently incorrect.

Last Saturday I checked the timetable but also noticed that on the Music By The Sea event page there was to be a diesel service in the evening. This was not mentioned on the "full timetable". Did this service run?

 

Did it?

 

Yes it did

 

Yes it caused considerable congestion on the platform and meant that passengers arriving on the platform off the shuttle had to go to the booking hall to check their assigned seats on the santa special itself thus to some extent conflicting with the passengers who had already arrived who were queued up. Also when the Santa Special returned those going back to Norden on the shuttle remained on the platform to get the shuttle.

It also meant that Norden Station had to be staffed for passengers boarding the shuttle at Norden.

The DMU which operated the shuttle had to be crewed.

I think Martin Trott said that dropping the santa shuttle had made the running of the santa special much less fraught.

 

Apart from the points made by @80104 the car park at Wareham only has 69 spaces, many of course being used by SWR passengers. Remember also these services are currently WCRC operated as Swanage is not its own TOC at the moment. So that would also be a big hike in cost, coupled with at least two ECS legs at the start and end of the day.
If you have driven past Wareham with a family not really economic to pay around £3.10 or £2 (depending on day) and then the rail fare £25 adult this years trial when you could drive another 10 mile and park for £1

 

Ok. No further comment