West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Which is directly comparable with the Peter Principle. .....

 

The group of concerned WSR Volunteers who started the Petition/Open Letter recently would be a good source of info for you. They should be able to tell you the number of active volunteers and people close to the WSR (shareholders, stakeholders, etc.) who have signed out of the current 533 total.

You would have to consider that many active volunteers who don't use social media don't know about the Petition because the 3 Boards have not passed it on to their members/shareholders to consider, but it would give you a view.

 

Could not at least the WSR PLC board issue stock/shares to the WSRA over the 'Promotions' sale?

Although technically worthless in monetary terms on redemption, it would dilute the WSSRT shareholding and would give the WSRA the considerable 'clout' over the WSR PLC board that has been lacking for 45 years?

19th century railway stuff was littered with debts being assuaged by the issue of shares as a sort of 'guarantee' for the debt, however worthless they turned out to be.

 

I don't know how widespread that view, in the hard-line form you give it, is; I suspect many of the quiet readers are more in the middle. E.g. from my perspective, yes, there is a worrying level of authoritarianism and 'disagree and you're out' going on, but I would be somewhat surprised to discover that there's an organized group with that as an explicit goal.

Noel

 

There’s even a graph. I trained as a scientist, so I like graphs. This is a particular favourite.

Robin

 

The petition? Seems to me to be substantially those who volunteer on the WSR and have 'HOPS' access. Was it up to 528 signatures the other day?

And Robin in her above post could possibly have said something more relevant rather than display her intellectual prowess, that I am sure is not in doubt; but where does this help the WSR and also the SDRT?

 

I must be confused; I thought that was the very antithesis of "great conspiracy to concentrate all power into the hands of the plc". But I must admit my interest in the details of the WSR goings-on has flagged.

Noel

 

Hi Noel,

I'm not very good with computers but this was I think the first post over the petition...

I think we all have difficulty keeping up to date on all this, and I was about to 'like' 'Monkey Magic's' most recent post - but it has been removed before I could 'like' it.

Cheers,

Julian

 

The problem though is this, how would the other ego's take it, if the WSRA were allocated shares in Lou of payment for promotions? There is no trust I would say between any of the groupings, and that is a very large part of the problem, none of the organisations exactly have over the years have not fallen out with each other, or had their own agenda.
Its going to not take just a new structure, but new personalities, who have no baggage from the past to turn things round,
My feeling is that West Somerset Railway Mk1 is going to at some stage fail, and what it needs it for people to come together, have an new structure , new organisations, one hopefully where there is one charity for the whole railway, with the majority shareholding in the operations company, apply for a new operating licence and in the meanwhile fund raise, to reopen a short section of line, and live with in your means, mothball the rest of the line, pending track renewal and getting the PW sorted, re open in stages, and look at developing your attraction .

 

Was not the information wrt the Honourable Member for Bridgwater in the Public Domain ?

Consistency please.

Michael Rowe

 

Have to agree with that. The thread has been hijacked by a handful of folk most with no apparent direct connection with or meaningful contribution to the WSR but with an overload of under informed opinion.

 

I think this forum has lost sight of what's important.

What is most important is that the PLC and support organisations survive into the 2021 season.

I agree that the structure of the railway needs amendments but that is unimportant for now. At the moment the only thing we should be concerned about is survival and everything else pales in comparison. This is not the time for distractions.

At the moment our sole efforts should be to support the existing organisations in their quest for survival and leave the rest until the time is correct.

 

I think the problem is that some folk genuinely believe that on its current course the railway simply will not survive, as it'll be unable to attract the required support due to its bad behaviour.
The structural change required isn't just a nicety to correct a few anomalies on paper, in my view it's integral to the survival of the railway. Now it may be that the WSR *can* get through this period on its current course and it can get away with putting off change until a little bit later. But that in itself is a risk.

 

Plenty of apologists as well,

 

Anne,

Firstly, in many respects and at almost any other times, spot on.

The difficulty however is what has been identified as the threats to the railway that need to be be addressed in these difficult times.

 

>>>At the moment our sole efforts should be to support the existing organisations in their quest for survival and leave the rest until the time is correct.....

Should that include organisations such as the DEPG and S&DRT - if not, then why not? And if it does, then surely 'support' for the S&DRT must include dealing with this ridiculous situation of the Plc spending valuable time, effort and (most important of all) money trying to evict them from Washford, in the process of which it is losing good-will and support from many volunteers.

 

Sorry, had to have an ironic eye roll at this one, considering for many of us, the sum total of info on which to form any opinion has appeared on this very thread.

Beyond a sense of deep sadness at how it affects perceptions of the WSR, both sides need their bl--dy heads banging together to understand that many of us unconnected with either feel that who's at fault here is increasingly of less importance than the damage such wantonly destructive behaviour is doing to the reputation of this very fine railway and the dreadful effect it must all be having on the dedicated army of volunteers who work long and for love alone to keep the line alive.

 

The problem with those calling for support for the plc/jjp to get through the current covid crisis and that any reforms required can be put on the long finger is, that, if the plc survives, then jjp will be seen as the saviour of the line and that obviously everything he did was correct. You only have to look at a certain Facebook page (with some posters from here) to see the fawning over jjp, the total belief that he can do no wrong and that the £800k loss to a £300k profit should be believed without question. Those who disagree are removed from the group. Sound familiar? In fact, now that I think of it, certain aspects of the WSR remind me of the Sn******ch debacle

As others have said, now would be a very good time to completely overhaul the support organisations and the control/structure of the plc. (maybe even a relaunched fund raiser for the new look WSR?). It would also be a good time to look at what else could be changed to make the railway more financially viable. Hard questions like do we need to run trains over the whole line, should we own rolling stock or lease it, what locos that might be available are capable of pulling our trains while doing the least damage to the track/infrastructure. Basically start from a blank piece of paper and take all the best bits/lessons learned from other railways.

Keith