Swanage Railway General Discussion

Why is this the important thing?

Edit: For whom is this an important development in your view?

 

Agreed. It’s a case of experimenting at the moment and seeing what works best as a long term solution.

Hopefully the 117 and bubble car won’t become redundant before even being used though.....

 

You forgot Winchester, all train have to stop at Winchester. It appears a law was created to make it a compulsory stop for all SWT / SWR trains

 

Which do you prefer, the Swanage as a heritage line or the Swanage branch as part of the network? I ask because I think the two might be mutually exclusive. Perhaps not, but I still question why anyone would spend £10 return from Salisbury would then spend £15 return or whatever for the Norden to Swanage stretch of line behind a steam loco. I am very happy to be proven wrong in the years to come, and acknowledge that the Swanage Railway will continue to evolve too, but thin end of a wedge this certainly is and I am not at all sure what the thick end will look like, but it may not be a a pot of gold for the Swanage Railway.

 

Preferably with a Bulleid on the front the whole way...

 

When will we get announcements at Paddington and Waterloo '...............passengers for Lynton change at Exeter St Davids and Barnstaple'

 

Not my call .... But as long as it strengthened the Swanage Railway, quite frankly I'd be good with it.

GSN for preference .... though I'd be pretty damn happy with a rebuilt West Country ..... though if we're talking viable big railway services, even a "Hoover" trailing a dozen MKIIf's would do.

Let's face it ..... the Swangage line is a rare example of those which should never have closed.

.... and btw ..... s●d Winchester, or SWT might as well add Weybridge and Clapham Jnc while they're about it (Chertsey and Staines too, if taking the scenic route).

 

Because of its 'Park & Ride' status, the Swanage is unusual, but surely, a major part of why any passenger travels on any preserved railway is travelling on a steam train. I know that, in some cases, a lot of journeys are 'tourism travel' - i.e. there is a destination people want to visit (and this will be increasingly important I suspect for the financial health of lines) but there is almost always a quicker, cheaper way of getting there, yet people still drive to one end and take a steam train to the other.

Why should the same not be true of taking a train to a change over point? If anyone wants to visit Corfe Castle from inland, then at most they will use the Swanage from Norden to Corfe Castle, so the loss is not great (and could free a seat for a full length journey - Swanage are restricted as to their maximum train length), operation by SWR will not be for nothing and anyone wanting to visit Swanage will still have to buy a Swanage Railway ticket. SWR aren't running to Swanage itself!

Have more confidence in 'the product' and welcome new ways of delivering 'customers' (sorry!) to the doorstep!

Steven

 

Swanage steam ticket in conjunction with this service, £10 return, seems a good deal. £20 for a day out comprising mini rail tour and steam something different!

 

Indeed, the £5 return Bournemouth/Corfe C on SWR is an excellent deal. The last time I took the Bournemouth/Swanage bus (via the ferry) I am sure it was over £6 for a single.

 

The route of the SWR service is the same as GBXI took from Yeovil Junction
The bus from Wareham to Corfe is hourly but gets delayed in summer.....
N/b I found the connection v v tight going w/b
The SWR initiative is aimed at Yeovil/Gillingham and Salisbury as well as a Wareham connection
Considerable public money was spent as we all know on signalling........
Thanks to SWR for this rare commercial initiative linking towns on Saturdays at a v reasonable cost!
Ray Mason

 

I looked at it - but except for hard core railway enthusiasts, it’s hard to see much traffic from Salisbury - certainly not family traffic.

3.5 hours Salisbury to Corfe Castle, four and a quarter if you go to Swanage. It’s marginally better coming back, but in an eleven hour day, you get less than three hours on the beach and over eight hours on a train. That’s a rail tour, not a day out to the seaside.

It’s a bit better from Weymouth; I assume operationally this will really be a Weymouth - to Swanage service, but with the unit starting at Salisbury and so offering a Salisbury connection at zero marginal operational cost. No doubt Salisbury - Weymouth would look good for some people, but outside the hardened gricer fraternity, it’s hard to see much Salisbury - Swanage traffic.

More generally, I hope the Swanage Railway has done its sums right and this generates additional traffic, rather than syphoning off existing traffic. Otherwise, one could imagine a scenario in which hard working volunteers expend effort over the out-of-season period maintaining the railway in all weathers just so someone else can cream off some of their passengers during the lucrative summer Saturdays.

Tom

 

Yes that’s the problem. After the Swanage railway announced it wouldn’t run trains to Wareham this summer, presumably DCC put some pressure on for some sort of service to be run. It wants something in return for its £3M.

Now if only SWR would run a similar service down the SWML. Would be much more convenient for me!

Heritage line vs part of the national network is a difficult balance to strike. However I think it can be done.

 

I think to a certain degree its 'what do we do with this spare unit for 5 hours?' the Salisbury/Weymouth is one service and the Weymouth/Corfe another.

Running on summer Saturdays is hardly going to attract tourist from outside of the area as it is changeover day.

The £5 return might entice more local (rail) traffic as it is £3 to park at Norden alone.

 

It is a case of suck it and see. If it brings in more people then great, if it takes passengers away then you don’t repeat it. Swanage isn’t going to close because if SWR.

Although I wouldn’t say no if I turned up at Waterloo and found a 33/1 and the pair of 4tc or a 47 or 50 on 8 with a destination of Swanage or Arlesford :d It would always be preferable to a 450 in rush hour.

 

Quite emotional moment. Having been involved with Swanage since the early 80's and help relay the track from Herston to Norden. I always believed this day would come. Now it has, I welled up a bit.

 

Its a pity there isn't a mainline registered Hampshire unit , imagine if the SWR service was being operated by an hired in thumper, still theres always the Hastings unit but on a serious note, would any toc apart from maybe west coast have any crews that are still current on heritage traction? might one day we might see SWR hiring the Swanage's DMU and operating a Yeovil to Weymouth ,then Weymouth to Corfe shuttle using it?

 

Well FGW use the 57’s, DRS use 37s, Colas use 37s. I am not sure who are using the 50s. I guess ROG use 37s, 47s and 56s.

A mainline thumper very nice, although I am not sure I’d want to go Swanage to London in one

 

I would think it would be just a Weymouth to Corfe, with first and last trips extended to Swanage if using the Swanage based DMMU, Do any of the SR crews have route knowledge between Wareham and Weymouth ?

 

Who provided the crew for the recent trials with 31874 and the 33 on the back? Was that Swanage or someone else?