GWSR Broadway Developments

The Pickering tearoom, used to illustrate what the Broadway one might have been like is mostly staffed by paid employees.

There is nothing wrong with employing people if the business can sustain the cost and turn a profit.

Sawdust.

 

My personal view on this is that a Cafeteria would be a much better idea than a coffee machine & shop. Speaking to others at Broadway, I haven't found anyone who disagrees with that. The idea of franchising the Cafeteria out sounds sensible, and perhaps someone already running such an establishment in Broadway might be interested in doing so, if it was made known that this was a possibility.

These proposed changes will also mean that we need to spend more money changing the electrical wiring and boiler in the original store to transfer it to the proposed new store, more wasted money we cannot afford.

 

Perhaps the volunteer team building Broadway should vote with their feet and simply say 'we're not going to build a trinket shop, we're going to build a café as planned'.

Andy

 

The door plate for 'REFRESHMENTS' is already on order, and I'm not buying a different one for 'SOUVENIRS'.

 

It seems to me that someone somewhere is moving goalposts without bothering to talk to the team actually doing the work, electrics and plumbing i assume will already have been put in, or are in the process of being installed, is this another case of someone trying to stamp their authority on the project, just for the sake of it? through out the build it seems to me that its been a fight to get it done right, the canopy, the chimney stacks, so is this another where once again there will be a fight before the agreed original plans are carried through, i have only one question, will the changes improve the station, or make it an operational nightmare? if the original design is better, why change it?

 

As an ex volunteer on this line I have followed all the blogs from day one at Broadway and seeing what the PW have acheived yesterday,I have been wondering how long it would be till we saw another boardroom bloomer.Hey ho here we are again.More shelves for Thomas and his friends to sit on.Its time the board realises that you cannot run an extended railway with just volunteers.This seems a kick in teeth to everone who has bought effort into making broadway what it is today if the original plans passed by the local council had a café included.
This station will be proberbly unique when its finished in the preservation era,a time warp of enrichment and atmosphere.
But really a coffee machine.Time for the board to wake up and smell the coffee, and ask for a members vote on it.Or is still the same policy as when I was volunteering,we just wanna play trains.
A lot of the suggestions on the extention blog are sound views about the staffing situation,has anyone looked into it.Obviously not.

 

Just noted on the Broadway blog:
http://broadwaystationgroup.blogspot.co.uk/
that the owners of the next door B&B are selling up. I wonder if this somehow has any bearing on matters?

 

The more I think about this the sillier it seems. To try to change the established design in a way which means the fireplaces/plumbing/wiring are wrong, on the basis of what can be little more than an opinion, not a consensus, makes no sense at all. If there is a shortage of staff to run a refreshment room, why would there not be a shortage to run a souvenir shop?
Is this from the same clown who thought that a canopy design akin to a supermarket would be OK because 'nobody looks up'?
One souvenir shop on the railway is surely enough, whereas people always want a drink and some food whilst enjoying the ambience of a station and waiting for the next train.

Andy

 

No, they are moving for a completely different reason.

 

What I was thinking was, is there an opportunity to be had here?

 

possibly next door to a newly re opened steam railway station, in a tourist hot spot, but it depends on what type of clientèle you want to attract, but thats two very good reasons to be optimistic over the posibilities

 

If the Small Businesses Advisor at one's bank agrees, then 'yes'.

 

Reading the comments with interest.... Did I not see a blog comment or two mention a change of Project Manager (and Chairman) , perhaps a new PiC will allow a new approach to seeing the project completed... There are many areas that need to be compleated before the Grand opening and if resorces and finances are stretched some items will rightly get pushed back but why not creat a Public masterplan and time line showing all areas needing attention , Initial finish of P1, detail finish of P1 Building, P2 Building, Footbridge, Southern Loop, breaking areas down and allowing some discussion on the reasoning behind decisions, If such a plan was published and available it might be possible that individuals could personally contribute towards a specific area....perhaps an area that is not of a high priority .

 

Could this come back to a similar 'forcing of the issue' as happened with the canopy, with the prospectus promising one thing and the project manager? delivering something else. I think the canopy was forced when it was suggested that investors in shares may request their money back if it wasn't built as promised/suggested in the prospectus.

Maybe something similar needs to happen in this situation. Sad that it has to come to this.


Keith

 

I don't think the shop will go once its in. All the electrics would have to revert; I think there is also an issue with water for the kitchen etc.
Any soothing arguments about 'we can always change it later' is akin to telling a young child they will get their ice cream later. It gets them off the hook and they hope you will forget or go away. I heard it only yesterday. Once it's in, it's in. We are not well known for reacting to public pressure.

 

I'm sure that's right - we all know that 'temporary jobs' often remain temporary for ever more!
As I suggested above, the best response would be for the volunteers doing the work to simply refuse to cooperate. They could of course argue that if the Refreshment Room proves to be a failure then 'we could always change it later' into a trinket shop..............
Andy

 

That's a big 'if', though. Loss-making food establishments aren't exactly unknown on heritage railways.

 

Indeed not. Vastly profitable ones as well for that matter.

PH

 

Absolutely. We get a surprising amount of passing trade at both Winchcombe and Toddington as it is, neither of which are brilliantly located, I'm sure Broadway would be at least as good if not better given the caravan site.

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

 

Does not that tend to be the ones largely staffed by volunteers, though?