West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Well it is fairly obvious that there can only be an interchange station at NF if one is built by NR as part of a policy to reopen stations along the main line. Did you seriously think I was suggesting that the WSR fund the building of an NR station? I'm not that gentleman with the foreign sounding name in Minehead. Equally obviously, if reopening stations is not happening "due to the current economic climate", then it's not going to happen, not that anything is likely to happen in the next ten, or even twenty years. Also, I see you subscribe to the old BR idea that reopening stations only takes passengers away from existing stations, something that has been debunked with every single station re-opening that has taken place.

Yes, but how many extra passengers do those additional facilities attract, or to put it another way how many potential passengers travelling to the WSR and/or places served by it are going to be put off by the lack of facilities at Norton Fitzwarren , how does this translate into lost revenue and how does this lost revenue compare to the additional expense of the WSR running into Taunton?
It is also fairly obvious that the best solution is for a TOC to run over WSR metals to BL. It is still expensive, but not compared to the other options of connecting the WSR with NR passenger services.

 

If you actually researched the reality you would know that the rules for local authority accounting are quite strict with no room for the sort of creative accounting you are thinking of. In fact all accounting rules in the U.K. are much stricter than in the past. Not perfect but not like the excesses of the past.

 

Yes if they were available for sale, and of course it is joined to the trading estate making it a very costly land value price.

 

The I.O.M has the Steam Railway only has the Douglas to Port Erin line open , now that is only a tourist line that only runs Easter to September / October , time although they do run a ' comuter ' special in the high season , ie TT period . There is also a tram that runs Douglas to Ramsey , the islands second largest town similar TT to the Steam Railway except there will be be trains similar to the QB durring the Christmas period . One very big difference ALL public transport is owned by the government .

 

Don't forget the need also for planning approval.

 

I believe an interchange at Norton is not the right option:

1 I can't see all mainline trains stopping at a new station at Norton, whereas almost all mainline trains stop at Taunton (a station which already has all the facilities you and I would expect when changing trains)

2 I really don't see the attraction of rail travel between Taunton and Minehead if it involves a change of train at Norton. Even less attractive for travellers to/from places beyond Taunton who might need to change at Taunton and again at Norton.

Turning to the idea of having Lydeard as the interchange. I agree with you that a TOC service to Lydeard is the cheaper option - but it suffers from the same drawbacks as I have mentioned above. Plus, again, it assumes the WSR would then provide an expanded (and quicker) service to/from Minehead, early morn/late night plus (somehow) between its own services. That expanded service would require WSR to (re)introduce cheaper fares too. All in all, it does not look like an attractive solution for would-be through travellers.

So, with all of that in mind, I'm afraid the MRLG are right in one aspect: any regular train service between Minehead and Taunton needs to run right through with no changes and it needs to be attractive in ticket price and journey time. Two costs come to mind: the cost of providing that kind of service are enormous; and the cost to the local community of potentially losing a major tourist attraction must rank high on the risk register. MRLG do not yet seem to have cottoned on to those two costs.

Steve

 

W.I.B.N. attitudes are not confined to railway enthusiasts it seems.

PH

 

And the MRLC's WIBN seems to have a large element of SEWP* as well.

(*Someone Else Will Pay)

 

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Very nearly the wsra I guess if I hadn't of set the alarm bells ringing and someone (Robin actually) hadn't convinced Mr A d M that the new Association was NOT the place for him.

 

Lots of meaningless initials again....

 

I'm sure a few other people also had a word or two in AdM's lugholes

Steve

 

West Somerset Railway - Then and Now #157

Bishops Lydeard 1988 / 2017

Only a few changes in 29 and a half years. WSR stalwart David Northey’s coat has grown and his hair shortened a bit, that’s all?

Mind you, thecweather’s better these days.

Copyright Peter Thompson / Robin White

1988


2017

 

It makes me feel ancient when the "then" pictures seem so recent! It's ok for youngsters like Robin.. ..

 

Ah, but you are making the fundamental error of letting the truth get in the way of another self indulgent pointless whinge

 

A lady never reveals her age, but I am aware that you were only one year ahead of me at school, Ian...

Robin

 

Thank you for correcting me. I was thinking I might stem the flood of ludicrous statements from some posters resident in cloud cuckoo land.

 

Agreed that, if expense were no object, a public transport service from Taunton to Minehead would be the best solution, but here, undoubtedly, the best is the enemy of the good. It is like saying that you should never buy a Ford because Lamborghinis are so much better. It is undeniable that more people would use a through service but not even the most rabid WIBNer could claim that the extra revenue would do anything to pay for the extra expense.

 

Scenes from a Railway Day...

Robin

 

I too hate TLAs

(that's Three Letter Acronyms before anyone asks)

 

Cracking pictures again Robin .