West Somerset Railway General Discussion

That sounds pretty damn serious to me, a rough equivalent to a school getting “Requires Improvement”.


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Does anyone know what happened to the S160?

DJB.

 

Returned to its usual home some weeks ago now.

 

Works?

 

Now on Steve Edge's site..

http://www.wsr.org.uk/news.htm#1620

Vincit omnia veritas!

 

It will be interesting to see the ORR letter

 

To suspend operations at the start of the 2019 season until 1st April means it must be serious.

 

Reading between the lines, it looks to me that WSR have suspended operations themselves before being told to

 

Not necessarily. All that I think is clear at the moment is that the WSR has been given five months to sort certain issues out, and that the management has decided that closing the line for three months is the best way to concentrate on resolving them. No doubt if these issues aren't sorted within that time then the railway would be at risk of suspension.

I agree that it will be interesting to see what the ORR's statement says, but from what the railway have said, it would appear to include issues with both maintenance (but of what?) and recording staff competencies (something the ORR has been concerned about elsewhere in the past).

 

Shame the Gala could not be rescheduled.

 

Particularly as it means lost revenue, when money is reportedly tight.

Noel

 

As discussed here (and elsewhere on NP) before, whilst it may bring in considerable 'Revenue', the costs are enormous and it is questionable as to how profitable the event is due to the scale that the West Somerset have arguably forced themselves to stage it on (number of guests etc.)

I think I am right that one of the magazines quoted the WSRplc GM as saying the Autumn Gala had revenue of £70,000 (it definitely said total, i.e. Fares and secondary spend). With the number of guests, how much profit was made?

I have previously commented that somebody formerly pretty senior in the West Somerset queried how genuinely viable the 'mega-events' were, and although the West Somerset does have the advantage of staging the event when it might otherwise not be running at all (thus meaning anything it makes is additional as opposed to the question 'how much would a normal service have made'?), this in turn brings risks from the weather which can effect the event (one year, the Met Office issued a Severe Weather Warning advising people to stay away from the north Somerset coast!).

The proposed ACE event may be more of a financial loss, whilst any income during the winter period is of huge cash flow assistance. Having 'products' for which advance bookings are taken can be a big cash flow help too, as long as potential customers have good grounds for believing those 'products' will then actually be delivered.....

Steven

 

Please can we keep things accurate. Operations have not been suspended until 1st April. The Christmas trains and Winter Steam Festival are all continuing. We close down in any case for nearly all of Jan/Feb/Mar so the only regular trains which won't run are at half term and a few other trains in late March. The value of the gala has been questioned in other posts and the ACE weekend was a bad idea which would have cost a lot for little return, so whilst as a Fireman I would love to see both done do they really help financially. This is a positive step forward and a good management decision, we can draw breath (we ran more miles this year than ever) and start again stronger. I would say it maybe time to close this thread off now, its not reflecting the reality of things.

 

Yes, she's successfully operated for 2x days since her return to CVR.

 

I guess the line was given the opportunity, by the ORR, to continue the Christmas/New Year period trains as they are usually a good financial operation and tickets have probably already been sold. The closure is longer than usual but fortunately, providing the ORR inspection in March is satisfactory, the Easter holidays are not until mid April in 2019. I am sure the closure will mean those involved, in whatever capacity, will be very keen to get the line 'up to scratch'. It does appear that the issues, hinted at in earlier posts, are more serious than at first thought by many on NP.

 

It’s rare that I disagree with Andy, but learning how to use social media responsibly is the answer, not, not having social media. It can’t be ‘un-invented’.

Interesting how pretty much exactly the same thing was said about other communication advances...the penny post; railways (!) ; morse telegraph; the telephone; radio; fax machines; mobile phones; teleportation (oh no, hang on, that hasn’t been invented yet Earthlings..)

Robin

 

Whilst I take your point, sharehplders, staff and the public have been told very little. The WSR PLC has never been good at PR in situations like this. If you want to keep people on side than you need to tell them the facts rather than a bland platitudes. Cancelling an event like the Spring Gala is bad for revenue and morale. I had hoped that the New Chairman might be more forthcoming.

 

While I am disappointed that there will be no SSG next year it must be remembered that events like the SSG and ACE take a huge amount of planning before the event and the PLC have, in my view, quite rightly decided to concentrate all the railway's efforts towards the ORR's follow up visit in March.