West Somerset Railway General Discussion

My reading of the briefly available press release is that he has stood down from all activities.

 

Hmmmm. Is that a suggestion that the natives in that area are a tad unChristian?

 

Thank you 60044 for IMHO a very apposite observation. ( For what it is worth I did make a
similar statement wrt marketing and future strategy at the last Plc AGM ).

Jamessquared ref posting 29333 . I agree. Another realistic posting. IMHO all the Heritage
Railways ( and I suspect most of the leisure/tourist 'industry') are confronted with 'risk
management' challenges.

Following my posting 29177 some thoughts wrt the challenges facing Heritage
Railways and 'risks'.

Perhaps there are three categories of organisation.
1) High fixed overhead ( particularly salaried staff ) . Insufficient funds to cover period
until March 2021. They have no option other than to run trains, even if said operations
run the risk of not covering the 'marginal costs'
2) Have some funds, could reach March if they laid off some staff ( even taking into
account redundancy costs ) but this would jeopardise their preparedness for the
( hoped for ) 'normal 2021 season. They will run services now, but the imperative
is less than those in 1)
3) Have some funds eg cash and donations, few paid staff, were struggling ahead of Covid.
They have limited resources so starting any service is high risk, conversely inaction
is equally 'risky'. They will be 'risk averse' and particularly prone to inertia,

I think the WSR ( having reduced. salary numbers drastically to enable it to survive is 3 )
now has a low fixed overhead related to length of line, but there is a major downside
( particularly during/ post 'Covid' when many volunteers are post 70 ) wrt being
able to put in place all the requirements of running a train service at all ( let
alone the fact that it may represent a risk of 'eating cash')

For what my opinions are worth, I think the 'open' weekends at Minehead represent
a sensible 'toe in the water'. It has been reported that last weekend produced £5K
net of all costs, if this continues through the Summer Hols that represents a very
useful contribution to the fixed overheads.

Hopefully it will be possible to run some services at the Christmas/ New Year. The
apparent success of the Minehead initiative must encourage further 'risk' taking.

I believe the WSR can now survive until 2021 ( a better position than I thought
some 6-8 weeks past.)

I have nothing more to say ( many I am sure will be delighted, ) This will be
my last NP posting ( unless this Forum and its contents are locked away ).
I was 80 this week so probably appropriate,

Michael Rowe

 

I read from my paper this am the Mayor of Minehead is complaining that the town and surrounding area is rammed with tourists in caravans/campers etc? Would they be looking for entertainment?

 

A belated Happy Birthday, Michael.

Sent from my SM-T590 using Tapatalk

 

Myself and most likely a few others was surprised that such a highly rated person as Mr Meanley is that he wanted to get his feet wet joining the WSA board when he did.

 

Its now a case of change or die, if you, as an organisation want to survive, the only way it to adapt, change your set up to reflect, and adapt to the new normal, and offer what the public( who keep you in business) want, people do want to do something with their leisure time and a place like Minehead, with the right people in charge, should be IMHO, doing far better than offering just attractions round Minehead station, whist these are laudable, and could be a base for doing more .

 

Bob Meanley enjoys a good reputation in the railway heritage world and this will have been hard won over many years. Once you have gained such a reputation, such credibility, you do try to ensure that it is maintained or even enhanced. With all that is going on, or perhaps in some areas not going on, in and about the WSR, it did raise questions concerning what Mr Meanley might be expected to achieve whilst a member of the PLC board and given the actions taken by that board I believe his resignation to be the best action that he could take in the circumstances. No one looks to be tarnished by association. Hopefully we will get to find out more concerning what he was trying to deal with in due course. It should provide some illuminating lessons.
Some supporters of the WSR are very concerned about the future of the railway, so are a large number of concerned outsiders. There are other WSR supporters who insist that any decision made by the board needs supporting, each and every action of the same is deserving of full uncritical approval. All are agreed that the railway needs funds. And to be a successful in raising funds you need credibility. Having what might be termed the right people, appropriate people, involved with your organisation lends credibility and the person on the board who gave the PLC credibility in the eyes of many has just gone. So the railway lacks credibility from the actions of those at the top down to the unwillingness of those at the bottom to support structural reform over many years. A question for the members the WRSA etc. can you manage to get through this crisis without the benefit of help and funding from external sources? If you can, great, nothing to be concerned about. But if you unable to how do you gain sufficient credibility to make those who have decided not to help you in your current situation change their minds?

 

Thats too easy, it will never catch on.

 

Oi!! This is no place for sensible thinking.

 

That won't happen now that someone else has come up with the idea.

 

A message received from the GCR regarding their recent reopening:

''Things went extremely well, with a healthy number of visitors all well spaced (whether on trains, on platforms or in cafes), and we now plan to repeat this each weekend throughout August''.

Here are a couple of the comments we received:

"Just want to say that today was great. Wonderful to see the steam trains back at GCR. Thanks for a great day out."

"It was a great day, and we felt safe. We'll definitely be coming back."

Come on WSR. If other railways can make a go of it so can you.

Bishops Lydeard to Williton or Watchet anyone? <BJ>

 

Sorry to back track so far but I've now found the press release issued in advance of that business plan, and it is quite clear that sub-leases may run until expiry of the head lease, meaning it was, and is, quite possible to issue a 50 year sub-lease to S&DRT:

https://www.west-somerset-railway.c...merset-railway-plc-on-new-lease-flexibilities

 

It is clear that potentially a second lockdown is not far away. The effects would be devastating across for the whole industry. I think that there is only going to be a very small window in which lines are going to be able to operate. As Paul Lewin said (thanks @Sidmouth for drawing my attention to the news story) this is a three winters year. Hoping that things will get better later in the year is I think an incorrect approach.

My sense is that those lines that have at least got some revenue coming in during this window, are going to be better able to survive than those have not yet been able to operate. Even if lines are only able to get 3 or 4 weeks of revenue in, that could be the difference between some lines surviving or not. It might mean that the wages of critical staff members can be paid and so the staff are not lost. It might mean that some bills can be paid.

The fundamental problem for lines is that the nature of Covid means that they cannot fall back on volunteers to 'fill the gaps' when the majority of volunteers fall into the band of people most at risk.

I do think lines need to be thinking as creatively as possible about how to generate as much cash as they can while the window is open because you may only get 60 minutes notice as to when the govt is going to slam it shut again.

 

I'll throw this into the mix for heritage railways in general, rather than the WSR in particular. Mods please delete or move if appropriate.

The SVR's GM has come from Bovington which has a similar turnover (£7.2m). It has a marketing team of 8 and slick databases and digital marketing. WSR TV has 814 subscribers, Bovington has 280,000. As a sector we can wish for better marketing but stand to be outgunned by Bovington, Ironbridge or wherever chasing the family pound.

Patrick

 

Perversely you make a convincing case for why some lines might do better by not re-opening!

It's not just a case of switching back on. You have to produce a re-start plan that complies with the Coronavirus legislation and the ORR advice as well as put in place all crowd control ,and social distancing measures. That's weeks of work that needs experienced staff . The Government's furlough scheme is an inducement to not re open as you can avoid most of the staff costs that would be involved. You need a period of expensive shadow running with no passengers to ensure competencies are regained. Above all you must have the capacity to thoroughly clean trains between services. It all adds up to quite a hefty bill. As suggested in an earlier post re -opening is a risk. It must be a carefully calculated risk taking account size of that bill and the forecast revenue. For some lines the amount of revenue that can be realistically achieved in a socially distanced environment isn't likely to generate a surplus over the re opening and operating costs. The lower the forecast surplus the longer it will take to recoup the cost of re opening. So if your pessimism is justified some railways might find that re-opening just makes their financial situation worse.

The right decision will vary from line to line.

 

Not only does it own the cafe but there is a serving hatch facing the pavement. Is it being used today to generate cash ?