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Swanage Railway General Discussion

Discussion in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' started by Rumpole, Oct 10, 2012.

  1. biggles200

    biggles200 Member

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    In the summer Swanage does have a connection to Poole that is used by residents that is neither bus nor train. That is the Solent Scene and providing the weather is okay it is reliable. It demonstrates the need to have a way to get to Poole other that by road. The Bus has problems getting past park cars on the Studland Road with great public expense of having to tow cars away, and then on the otherside in Sandbanks passing the cars that are prepared to pay parking ticket fines in order to block everyone else to get on the beach. 12 police cars were there the other day trying to clear a way and in fact one day the police shut the road. I myself have had to cancel hospital appointment while driving at Sandford area due to Music Festival finishing and the resulting traffic jams. There is a real demand at certain times for reliable transport between Swanage and Poole. At one stage there were suggestions that the disused sidings at Poole could become a terminus for the DMU service but obviously there are all sorts of problems and Benefits, so survey would be required. Swanage Railway and Purbeck Community Rail Partnership needs to do a lot of research and needs some trials to determine the real problems and needs. Everything, road, rail and sea need to be co-originated - not an easy task. Certainly there are also new possibilities like the Cruise Liner ports of Poole and Portland

    This ship left Poole the other night with Americans only cruise around the British Isles
    https://www.cruisemapper.com/cabins/Ocean-Explorer-2083#review

    We have to look to the future and not just recreate the past. It is gone and it is good to have memories.
     
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  2. johnofwessex

    johnofwessex Resident of Nat Pres

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    Bring Back Cosens & the Swanage - Bournemouth ferry using new build paddle steamers?
     
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  3. biggles200

    biggles200 Member

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    I wasn't suggesting anyone went backwards - forwards is the only way with new ways linking with the past.
     
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  4. 3ABescot

    3ABescot Member

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    That's what lies behind it.
    Again, I do wish "Like" was "Thanks".
     
  5. oliversbest

    oliversbest Member

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    Totnes-Paignton-Dartmouth- Totnes. A great experience which I think SR/Morebus/boating concerns should take a good look at
     
  6. DcB

    DcB Well-Known Member

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    There is a joint boat rail ticket on the Swanage Railway website.
    Also More bus have been promoting the Road to Rail weekend.
    https://www.morebus.co.uk/roads-rail
    But for the Wareham link does Government policy encourage First Group SWR or Go Ahead More group to complete or work together?.
    Hopefully the Wareham link will take ex car and new passengers, rather than bus passengers and work together.
    Hopefully the DMU worked reliably over the weekend so it can go mainline next year?.
    The 3 train service seemed to have had a steam train follow shortly after the DMU during the day, maybe in case the DMU on it's first post overhaul passenger trips had a problem.
    The 33 could have stepped in if the DMU had a problem in the evening, on the webcam looked like the 33 replaced a steam loco on Saturday for some reason?.
    Looks like the 60ish year old DMU did well, so good if the Wareham link starts next year?.
    Good photos of the weekend on FB including Nathan's engagement.
     
  7. Gladiator 5076

    Gladiator 5076 Part of the furniture

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    DMU by night, waiting with the 22:40 to Norden, and the two steam locos in use on the services on shed. IMG_7060.JPG IMG_0871.JPG IMG_7052.JPG
     
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  8. oliversbest

    oliversbest Member

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    Thank you1. One of my fond geezer memories was an evening meal at a Corfe pub and then a trundle back to Swanage on the DMU. Which stirs an image of stopping at Daggons Road fabulously lit with oil lamps coming back from a Day at Salisbury!
     
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  9. 80104

    80104 Member

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    This is a target market which gets mentioned frequently but is a very difficult nut to crack.

    The cruise companies control the sale of excursions very tightly indeed. They appoint an excursion specialist who put together a programme of excursions for each port the cruise ship docks in / at. The excursion specialist pays the cruise company a very high level of commission or flat fee which pushes the price of excursions up very considerably when compared with say DIY options. The cruise company itself does not wish to deal with individual attractions (including heritage railways) but deal with one overall provider who handles it all. The excursions which tend to sell well are those which have a "broad spread" of appeal. Niche products are unlikely to appeal to the excursion organisers as they know those are a harder sell.

    The attractions (including heritage railways) approach or are approached by the excursion specialist. The challenge is that few heritage railways can either give the sort of experience the excursion specialists want (product) or at the price the excursion specialist wants to pay (price) or cope with the numbers involved. Excursion specialists think in terms of blocks of 40 - 50 (a coach load) and will want to be able to send multiple coach loads on an excursion because of the demand driven by the size of the cruise ship in the first place. At a port they want to be able to offer say 4 - 6 excursions each with the capacity for say 200 - 300 per excursion not 20 excursions each with a capacity of 50. Bear in mind from a railways point of view their ability to deal with 200 passengers who turn up within say 15 minutes. What happens if the coaches are late arriving for the train departure? How long can you hold a train before you create huge consequential problems. If you dont hold the train what happens next?

    Targeting cruise passengers direct is very challenging indeed because of the problems in accessing them. Likewise putting together an attractive proposition (for example how do you get passengers from the ship / dockside to the attraction and vice versa) can be quite challenging. Public transport is rarely available to / from ports that cruise companies use. If the means of getting to the heritage railway is complicated "selling it" to passengers becomes very difficult and many cruise passengers will be concerned that if something goes wrong the ship wont wait!

    IMHO there is better low hanging fruit which could be targeted compared to cruise ship passengers which may only visit the Port 3 or 4 times a year.
     
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  10. Gladiator 5076

    Gladiator 5076 Part of the furniture

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    Whilst it is good the morebus were promoting it I suspect more for locals. Whilst the connections from Norden to Wareham are good if heading to London (on both the 30 and 40) the connections the other way are more just missed (sometimes with the train due to pull in as the bus leaves). With only an hourly sevice on the 40 all year a great way to discourage use and I expect anybody coming by rail would change at Bournemouth to a half hourly 50 service.
    In fact I seem to remember the poor connections were being complained about by enthusiasts at one of the last galas before covid hit.
    I will accept though it is hard if not impossible to get connections to work everywhere on a route that is 135 mile long.
     
  11. Gladiator 5076

    Gladiator 5076 Part of the furniture

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    Also as RTC found out when the Great Britain visited only coaches with two axles are allowed on the ferry, so if a three axle coach turns up then it has to go around the harbour further congesting Sanford and Corfe. Of course if all your 4-6 coaches do that to avoid ferry delays that just makes traffic worse everytime a cruise ship comes in.
     
  12. 80104

    80104 Member

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    If Sandbanks / Studland is packed then tends to mean that the weather is excellent which in turn usually means that the Solent Scene is able to operate reliably.

    Whilst there have been problems with congestion at Sandbanks / Studland the number of times this happens per year is very small, probably far fewer than the number of times there are issues either on the road through Sandford to the Bakers Arms or along the Old Wareham Road.

    For over £1Million I would expect a very high degree of reliability!
     
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  13. 80104

    80104 Member

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    You dont really want a tri-axle going through Corfe to Swanage as the wiggle through Corfe is very challenging even though the Morebus drivers make it look easy with the Volvo double deckers.

    Norden is better for handling large coach groups.
     
  14. oliversbest

    oliversbest Member

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    gladiator, I have to say that the connections either by train or national express at BTX are pretty good for the 50 Bus to Swanage. a not too wearing transfer for the carless! Travel light!!
     
  15. 80104

    80104 Member

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    Yes especially in the summer season when the 50 is every 30 minutes compared to the hourly frequency of the 40 from Poole.

    The travel interchange at Bournemouth works well but there again that was why it was built!
     
  16. DcB

    DcB Well-Known Member

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    The 50 bus takes just over an hour, coming from say Basingstoke on a train for a daytrip can take over 2 hours (much more longer time than driving).
    If the SR Wareham link gets going will take less time and be more comfortable, providing the connection times are sorted, to change at Wareham for the DMU, or eventually 31806.
     
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  17. buzby2

    buzby2 Well-Known Member

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    Coach shown is indeed 69332 arrived from Meldon.
    The low loader(s) relate to the delivery of sundry rollers/traction engines steamed at "Roads to Rail" festival this weekend which, from an outsiders point of view, seemed to be quite a popular event. For those not able to attend - a collection of diverse vintage vehicles plus around 20 traction engines/rollers were displayed [in steam where appropriate], fairground rides, food and drink stalls with the addition of supervised access to the footplate of 34028 Eddystone which was in steam for the whole event in a siding adjacent to the show field.
    If the final figures turn out OK I believe "Roads to Rail" may be repeated next year - but at a different time as the Great Dorset Steam Fair should be running again then [apparently Thursday 25th to Bank Holiday Monday 29th August 2022 according to https://www.gdsf.co.uk/ ].
     
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  18. buzby2

    buzby2 Well-Known Member

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    The MV Dorset Belle is currently having another season of operations from/to Bournemouth Pier: https://dorsetbelle.com/ The owner, David Wilcock, bought it from operations in Cardiff Bay which started in 2012 and ran until around 2020.
    A little history about MV Dorset Belle - In the mid-1970s the Croson Ltd. fleet was getting old. Three new vessels were built by J.Bolson & Sons, the first being Dorset Belle in 1974 followed by Bournemouth Belle and Poole Belle. Dorset Belle is about 28m [81 feet] long and carried 178 passengers originally. Dorset Belle was chartered to Mursell & Kemp of Sandown for the 1983 season following the closure of Swanage Pier due to storm damage. She was purchased by them in the autumn and renamed Island Enterprise in January 1984. However, Mr Kemp retired after the 1994 season and the boat was sold on to Wight Line Cruises who renamed her Ryde Scene. She was used mainly for Portsmouth Harbour cruises for two seasons, then sold back to Croson and resumed sailing her in 1997 as the Dorset Belle - as Swanage Pier had, by then, been repaired. Later she was sold for use around Cardiff Bay.
    After returning to English waters Mr Wilcock had all the paint taken off in dry dock. Over 30 layers of paint had to be removed to get back to the bare steel hull. New wooden decks were installed as well as the necessary engine rebuilds. It has been repainted into original blue & white livery for last and this season's operations (photo found on Visit Dorset site and is not my copyright).
    [​IMG]
     
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  19. oliversbest

    oliversbest Member

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    Thank you. Bolsons built and still going strong after 48yrs. At one time the Sandbanks ferry used to get its overhaul there. They kept business l.ocal. in those days.
    would a boat like this be able to get up to Wareham??
     
  20. johnofwessex

    johnofwessex Resident of Nat Pres

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    In the past I believe but not now
     

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