West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Wot? And deny us the reams of vitriol over the past ... hold on, I'll just pop back and count 'em ....

 

Perhaps if those who are critical of the WSR could critique the tone of there posts, there would be no issue? The critics of the WSR on this thread are in a noticeably more negative tone compared to critics of other railways, and negative criticism will only be followed on by more negativity..

No wander people react so quickly in the way they do when they have had to deal with several years of negative criticism of the railway on here.

 

Therein lies the problem, though - most of the criticism has been of the way in which the WSR, or parts of it, have been run - not of the work of those on the ground. I respect the frustration expressed by @WSR_6960 in his posts, and your's above, but the quid pro quo needs to be a recognition of the history that has led to this point, and especially the deep mistrust that the current plc board have caused through the way they've chosen to run the railway. Those doubts aren't mitigated by the resignation of Mike Thompson, which is as far as I can see neither publicly acknowledged nor accompanied by any announcement as to the impact it may have on the "Bailey" changes.

I want the WSR to succeed, and because of that cannot quite believe that WSR plc made the decision not to operate last year because of the commercial risk around Covid. On the other hand, the suggestions about the state of the Seaward Way crossing, and the multi-year delay in getting it sorted, leave me deeply concerned about whether and when it will be completed - doubts that the job ad recently debated just reinforce.

 

Just a reminder that it turned out that was at best only a contributory reason, at worst face-saving excuse for the real reason, which was to avoid the embarrassment of the ORR having to expressly prevent them from running trains again.

 

I don't follow other railways on Nat Pres, so perhaps you, or someone else who does could enlighten me as to whether those who are critical of other railways on it are immediately accused of only doing so out of a deep and abiding hatred of the railway concerned.
Whilst I would agree that some of the criticisms levelled at some of the organisations on the railway were unduly negative, personal or both, I feel that is only fair to point out that it is not only the critics who have been abrasive and personal and that the majority of the posts have not been either negative or personal, unless you count any pointing out of where things have gone wrong as negative criticism. To my mind it is only negative if it is simply finding fault, not if it is also asking why (on the assumption that there is a reasonable explanation), or giving suggestions for improvement. Once again, a huge number of the 1893 pages of this thread and the thousands of pages of previous threads are not so much negative criticism, but argument about what some people perceive as negative criticism, whether it is correct, whether or not it is negative, whether or not it should have been made, the motives of the critics in making it, people complaining that it has been made, etc.

 

Sorry but in reading that on an occasional visit here I could'nt help wondering if this was a script intended for Sir Humphrey in that fantastic comedy programme of some while ago called "Yes Minister".

 

Who is Mike Thompson, when did he resign and what was his role on the board?

 

A recently retired airline industry commercial analyst who had been helping the WSR plc with commercial matters as an adviser for a year or more. More recently running a group intended to bring forward proposals to implement the Bailey structural reform. Joined the board on 20 November 2020 and resigned on 26 February 2021, the same day as Martin Brown.

 

Thanks for that. Who is Martin Brown and how many directors are left?

 

Was that the second half of the original £800,000 or in addition to it?

 

Martin is the recently retired Safety Director of Crossrail who was WSR plc Safety Director until his recent resignation.

the WSR plc Director information is freely available on the Companies House website. Google is your friend.

 

The WSR often resembles a long-running soap opera, but it's a bit sparse on the laughs.

 

I have seen criticisms about the Companies House information being not kept up to date in a timely fashion, but maybe that was just WSR-bashing.

 

That was another slightly unfair criticism. The WSR has on occasion been a bit slow on updating Companies House but it's fair to assume it's accurate to at worst a month ago. So not perfect, but a useful and reliable source.

 

There have been two Culture & Heritage Recovery Fund Rounds. I had the honour to chair the joint pan-railway fundraising group which workd on the first round bid. The bid 'team' consisted of WSRA Trustees Geoff Garfield, Di Ricketts Tanner, WSR plc Director Stephen Williams, D&EPG Treasurer Julian Weston and myself with significant assistance from WSR plc accountant Joy Boswell. Steve and I were joint applicants on the form. A grant of £865,000 was achieved.

The WSR application for CHRF Round 2 (guideline no more than 50% of Round 1) was led by WSR plc Director Stephen Williams. I have no idea who the team members were.

 

Thank you for providing some information to those who are interested in the WSR.

Noel

 

The latest on the original grant is here: http://www.wsr.org.uk/chrf/chrf-update-04.pdf Does anyone know if the last £86,000 mentioned in that report was able to be claimed before the deadline?
Even if it wasn't, being able to spend £779,000 on the railway in what was a relatively short time is a huge achievement for everyone concerned, yet once again it is something that goes unannounced.

 

To be fair, there is information in the public domain about this, including a dedicated list of announcements on Steve Edge’s website.


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It never looks good when people keep resigning from the Board. Anyway, let's all make sure that the trains, starting again on 22nd May, are full!

 

Over £400,000 of that went to pay the WSR plc wage bill over the winter.