Swanage Railway General Discussion

Good video, concise and to the point, it will hopefully appeal to non-enthusiasts.

 

Fantastic video - very professional and a very clear message.

 

The presenter is much better than Tim Dunn!

 

Sadly, like the earlier one first time round, spoilt by music.

 

It is very professional.

 

Heritage Railways like Swanage Railway should know when they can consider taking passengers again when the cruise liners in Weymouth Bay and the channel are gone. In the meantime some volunteers should be able to return in supervised and very small teams (2 people) to carry out maintenance of rolling stock and buildings.

 

Well the south news at lunchtime said Carnival have announced no cruises until October, so maybe a long wait.

 

I'm not sure how transferrable decisions in one sector of the economy are to another. Every business will have different starting points for the difference in cost between running or not running, how quickly they can go from one to another, how much sunk cost has to be invested - at risk - up front etc. For example, I heard yesterday that a theatre company (the RSC I think) had decided they would not run any plays for the rest of the year. Which felt very cautious, but if you imagine having to do three or four months of expensive rehearsals, set design and so on before starting, all of which would be at risk if there was a second wave of infections, the caution is understandable. Whereas other businesses may have completely different basis for their business model, and therefore come to different decisions.

For cruise companies, there is obviously a degree of haemorrhaging money form the capital cost of unused ships. On the other hand, once the ship goes to sea, the costs ramp up considerably for staff, fuel etc, which are largely independent of whether the boat is carrying anyone or not. Add in what I suspect is a marked reluctance of the core clientele to enter that kind of environment, and I could easily imagine that the risk / reward for the cruise ship owner points towards caution.

Tom

 

Likewise with Celebrity Cruises. Their first sailing from the UK is on 30th October from Southampton to the Med. <BJ>

 

My comparison between Cruise liners and Heritage Railways was not to do with the way businesses are run, it was purely based on Public confidence. Both businesses required customers. Both can say when they would like to restart, but it will be the customer confidence that determines a successful restart.

 

But....public confidence clearly varies considerably activity to activity. There is a massive difference between a cruise liner environment and the heritage railway environment.

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Yes, but a customer at a heritage railway can always change their mind at the last moment with no financial loss, where as a passenger on a cruise ship would have paid a lot of money in advance. I suggest the degree of confidence required in these 2 scenarios is vastly different.

 

But the reverse also applies - a cruise company will know what demand it has well before setting sail, whereas a heritage railway will have little meaningful information about the actual level of demand.

 

A better comparison is perhaps the channel ferries where risk assessments have been done and freight can be carried and lorry drivers have exception from quarantine. Brittany ferries say they want to run a public service from the middle of June and you can book online, with the provisional warning that bookings are dependant on the UK and French Governments lifting restrictions on public transport and quarantine, which they have not currently done (although there is confusing talk of "air bridges").

On a separate issue there has been little movement of trains at Swanage other than the diesel shutter loco, but the station railcam is not working (but OK at Corfe), any idea from anyone at Swanage why?.

Also with the latest longer length videos being planned might be better to cut back the "dramatic" background music? It can emphasis the urgency to raise funds, but to have it throughout the longer video could be tiresome.

 

So if the Cruise Lines are talking about possible returns to service about October, are we expecting Heritage Railway passengers to be queuing up well before then?

 

Well if the Czech and the Greeks aren't allowing British public in, then there is no way France will. Especially since France isn't remotely over COVID-19.

 

Can't wait to see the first 'Santas' with 2mtr long arms and thighs. That'll keep child psychiatrists in clover for years!

 

Camera is working now. Probably recovering from the shock of some rain this morning for the first time in weeks!