Swanage Railway General Discussion

Very few commercial companies could warrant being in business based on a decent trade in no more than two months.
The post #2612 mentions large sums being put up for the line and its link service. It is interesting reading. I am sure there is more about the financial aspect of this saga.
https://www.national-preservation.com/threads/swanage-railway-general-discussion.37847/page-131

 

If the grass needs cutting that badly, why don't you get yourself down there and do it?

Whatever the ideals of the founders of the SR, the railway was rebuilt by the heritage-oriented people and it is only right that they are in the dominant position and calling the shots. I don't see any unwillingness to introduce a public transport element to it, but I do see a lot of hurdles, and overoptimism from zealots like yourself who seem incapable of recognising that running to Wareham will be a complex and challenging development do to bureaucracy outside their control.

 

I spent the last third of my working life with a County Council and in the years of Gordon Brown provided largesse before 2010 there were numerous WIBN projects which went forward - many of them have since ceased.

 

One would like to think so, but with the exception of the Saturday Corfe service, rail ticket based offers on SWR (unlike when SWT held the franchise) seem almost non existent. I can find no mention on their website of any promotion for the IOWSR and of course at the moment the MHR is not connected, so unable to say what may have been offered last year.
All their promotions appear to be geared around 2 for 1 attraction entry. Hopefully if they still have the franchise then they will see the SR as an attraction.

 

While the Ferry capacity is limited, I suggest that the loss of the capacity to shift 150 or so cars plus a few buses per hour is the straw that breaks the camels back

 

It was 4 coaches today, and they weren't busy (plenty of double seats if you wanted one) despite the ferry closure. I think this does show a few posters are being unrealistic with their demands.

 

I could be wrong as I do not see it either live or on the webcam every week but I believe it may be the first time it has been 158's instead of a 3 car 159. Even more annoying I did not get out for a record shot as once again in mainly SWT livery. Only time I have got out this year it was of course an SWR livery unit as they all were last year amazingly.

 

Forgetting all the debate about Wareham and DMU's. True Southern at Swanage on the 18:00 tonight. Not sure who the wreath was for as there was also one on the Ivatt today.

 

Although I left the railway I'm still FB 'Freinds' on Facebook with some of the people who work there. They posted that one of the drivers, Tony Hallworth, has passed away... the wreaths were for him

 

Good luck with the 121 'bubble car'!

My own experience of operating Arriva Trains Wales' No. 121032 was that it spent more time out of service than in. I never failed it myself, though my reports often caused it to be withdrawn the next day. It was supposed to have been thoroughly overhauled before it got to Canton - from memory this consisted of asbestos removal and a re-wire plus the central door locking.

The doors were in poor condition when it arrived, and the windows would not stay up. The heating was very temperamental in the coach and Guards compartment, and the central door locking system on 121032 was very unreliable. I probably have an old sectional appendix somewhere, and for some reason it was not allowed up The Valley Lines beyond Radyr, not that this would ever be required.

It was not very popular with crews or passengers on the Cardiff Queen Street - Cardiff Bay service, especially in Winter or at peak times.

Cheers,

Julian

 

As Ady has said, the wreath, along with the Atlantic Coast Express headboard and appropriate west country headcodes, are to remember one of our (and Bodmin & Wenford Railway) Drivers, and ex-Wadebridge Engineman of the highest order, Tony Hallworth, who sadly passed away this week. Quite frankly, given that being around a heritage railway is actually far more about people than trains, this has been occupying a lot of our thoughts over the last few days.

 

It seems that those in the know have comprehensively shown that the Swanage Railway cannot solve the ferry problem. It seems a bit much to imply there is a duty anyway! I remain surprised at the number who think that providing a meaningful public transport service is a priority. The logical conclusion of this would be an extension of the SWR franchise down to Swanage; none of us want that! The closing of branches like this may have been a tragedy at the time but what we have now at Swanage is infinitely better than the sad fate of the branches that remain open on the national network. The Wareham connection is a fantastically useful asset but let's not let it hollow out everything which has been acheived at Swanage.

 

Which would immediately grind to a halt at Worgret Junction as soon as it came off the juice.



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1) I have no intention whatsoever of following your advice.
2) The world has moved on since "those early SRP pioneers" - if indeed they were opposed to "unlimited access to road transport" - whatever that might have meant.

 

It's difficult to imagine those who travel for free on the bus - and who are pretty time rich - being willing to pay to travel by train.

 

I like how people seem to berate the railway for a problem that has nothing to do with it. SWR services terminate to Corfe to ensure that they don't siphon off trade from the core services. It will be different when its one of our own services.

We can go on about taxpayers money but let's get one thing absolutely clear here. DCC have got an absolute bargain with their investment.
The BBC reported that “Swanage Railway has received £5.5m, mostly of public funds”. In fact we have received less than half this amount as £2.85m of the £3.2m contributed by DCC\PDC went straight to Network Rail for the Wareham & Worgret Junction element of the Poole to Wool re-signalling project.
Even if it had received £5.5m it would still be an absolute bargain for a rail re-opening project as others in the UK are being costed at between £9m and £23m per mile!

They have had a complete railway built from nothing for free! In that time they have charged rent on the trackbed and station buildings. They then make a small investment in at the very end and suddenly they have all the rights to dictate what does and doesn't run. Im sorry but they need to get in the real world and recongise the immense value the railway adds to the area and also the constraints it faces. No support has been forthcoming for development of facilities and the railway has simply had to suck it up. Well that isn't fair.

The Fawley Branch which is still in place, has been estimated to cost between £27-35 Million to reopen. Thats the true cost of these things.

I also take issue with Olivers Beat having a go about the railway, even down to the grass cutting. Get a grip mate. I might even go and do it.

 

The funny thing is I don’t even think that’s our grass. As far as I know the road and bank behind the station at Corfe belongs to the gallery.

 

I am still a little confused.

I fully understand that once the DMUs are available, training needs to take place. No doubt, some can and will be on the Swanage Railway itself, but crucial training will be required to take place on NwR.

Is it the Swanage plan to pay a third party to train their crews and has this third party been identified and agreed to do this?

While I can understand having Track Access, Operating Licence etc. and no trains may be discouraged by ORR, it would seem more efficient to me to be able to undertake one's own training on one's own Track Access Agreement, Operating Licence etc.

Given what has been said about how difficult these are to obtain, would I be correct in thinking that the process has started but has hit problems, and perhaps these delays are a greater reason for no 2019 service being likely than simply the delays with the DMUs?

Steven

 

Not forgetting the training carried out on the converted Boeing 707 simulator.

Bare in mind that apart from the bubble car, we don't yet have the DMU back and given the history, current delivery expectation in the Autumn cant be guaranteed. Many such dates have come and gone. Once back, testing shouldn't be considered a rubber stamp exercise given what's at stake. Training during the high season is going to be difficult (or impossible) with everybody at full stretch keeping the core service running and putting £ in the bank. The winter isn't really a brilliant time to mount a trial so a conservative date in spring 2020 looks prudent. We are lucky in having the skills in house to be able to produce an in house training program that meets ORR requirements.

The process was started internally some years ago getting things like the SMS up to standard etc etc etc. I suspect that a while back there might have been an element of "the DMUs won't be back for ages so no need to rush" which might have ment we weren't as far along as we could have been but the word on the street is that its all in hand and ontarget with a good chance of a successful application. What happens when the application is submitted, who knows? but unless there are problems encountered at that stage I dont think it will be the TOC status that becomes the ultimate delay.
The application stage is always a bit of an unknown.