West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Except if the landlord wants to sell the property.

 

Don't think that would matter-the S&DRT would be a sitting tenant.

Keith

 

But ther WSR are not the landlord in this case it has to still be Somerset Council I would have thought? which in that case the notice to quit has to come from them?

 

Good point. The SCC to PLC lease will have terms within it to give the PLC the ability to sub-lease parts of as you rightly say SCC's property to other groups as it needs to (as long as the sub lease doesn't last longer than the main lease), Its a common arrangement especially with long leases like this. Therefore SCC are not involved, until of course they see a 'worthy cause' such as a charity like the S&DRT being thrown off their land for no good reason, in which case they may feel they are being implicated in a reputation problem and may feel they need to step in and have a view in order to defend their position (they will likely have a clause in their SCC to PLC contract to cover this). Again this may fall back to nobody can fence sit when something like this happens, beware WSRA & WSSRT around this subject because they as well as SCC are PLC Shareholders??

 

What the WSR can and can't legally do depends entirely on what the lease itself says, and what break clauses it includes. As this could be absolutely anything, speculation on what is or isn't likely to happen is even more pointless than usual.

 

Clearly true to a point

But what is I think clear is that it wont be that easy to get the S&DRT out, and, of course there are the legal responsibilities of the trustees which will determine how they choose to respond

 

It's all a bit Oooo-aaaarrr down there. "we don't like you, you're not from the same part of Somerset as you!" Pathetic small minded no such thing as society rednecks.
MAybe its the spur to get a decent little bit(a few miles) of S&DJR going as a heritage line.

 

It's a storm in a teacup which 99% of WSR customers will have no interest in - even in the unlikely event that they are aware of it. So some posters on the S&DJR Trust Facebook page have expressed indignation - so what?

Some people on here need to get a sense of proportion.

 

It's not the WSR customers who are asked to finance the big projects. The WSR need to keep the enthusiast population on-side.

Keith

 

But the customers keep the railway running on a day to day basis - otherwise there'd be no railway for enthusiasts to support

 

Indeed, you need *both* the day to day revenue from ordinary customers who aren't up to speed on all the latest gossip and just want a nice day out, *and* the enthusiasts to dig deep for, say, a rail renewal project, or to volunteer to run trains, to enable trains to run to collect passenger revenue from the ordinary customers. It's a chicken and egg situation, and you ignore either at your peril.

 

The customers though, by and large, aren’t paying for the infrastructure renewal needed, to take one example.

Tom

 

But they should have been for the last 20 years or so - a management/governance failure

 

Well, we are where we are and that doesn't help the current situation; that supporters need to dig deep now, at a time when the management are making decisions alienating those people.

 

Sadly, one option not available to the current management is to change decisions that were made in the previous century, so saying "they should have been" does not really help fix the current situation, other than showing what not to do next time.

 

Those who are enthusiastic about the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway are not necessarily supporters of a GWR line. They may be keen on supporting SDJR stuff at Washford but that doesn't necessarily mean that they want to dig deep for the rest of the line.

 

As we can see here, those enthusiastic about a GWR line are also enthusiastic about not kicking out a group resident for over 40 years and the contribution to the railway that they've made. This story will almost certainly make the railway press, wider circulation, and general supporters of railways and potentially the WSR will once again shake their head, wonder what their problem is, and not bother donating any money.
I know you were no fan of the WSR pretending to be the S&D, and I get that, but this is very bad news for the WSR, the damage done far outweighs any perceived shedding of S&D desires.

 

Will Mr Whitehouse continue as a WSR signalman?

 

You see this as bad news but frankly I don't and I know others share this view. The WSR has long provided a bolt hole the S&DRT after the scheme for a S&D base at Radstock unfortunately failed & the WSR deserves credit for that. The S&DRT aims make it clear that they exist to further interest only in that particular railway so maybe it is time to further those aims by becoming based on an ex S&D site? Several are now evolving. Folk have claimed that the Trust depot at Washford is a major attraction but in reality is that true? Yes folk do visit at Galas (10 days per year) but at other times casual observation from passing footplates suggests that visiting is in quite low numbers. It has been more or less admitted that the Trust suffers from an ageing active membership. That is not uncommon in the heritage railway sector but what is being done about it? If the answer is nothing then clearly the Trust will in any case fold. Time for a new direction?

 

Looking at the Trusts 2018 report & accounts the S&DRT are indeed looking at securing their long term future