Project Wareham

DCC could very well decide to raise the cost of parking at Norton to try to get more people to park at Wareham Station and catch the connecting service, Especially if some deal could be done with the parking , especially at week ends, when the SWR Car park might be half empty, to make it more attractive to park there, than at norton, add specially discounted tickets from local SWR stations to attract customers, onto the trains and out of their cars also, to make using the connecting service viable, you have to make using the car unviable,

 

Sorry Martin, but that smacks of enthusiast logic. Beyond the sole objective of justifying SR services to Wareham, to what end precisely?

 

Car Parking charging is usually harmonised / banded so that you dont get anomalies as these tend to be exploited once word gets around. Increasing Norden would not just effect potential SR passengers but also those who use the car park when visiting Corfe Castle or Dorset Water Park. If the goal of DC was to get road traffic off the A351 between Corfe Castle and Swanage then the solution would be to make Norden Car Park / Purbeck Park free of charge and double its size. However as like most councils they like car parking income (as it is not a regulated activity as such) they are disinclined to forgo it.

Mass encouragement of potential passengers to park at Wareham is fraught with risk given its low capacity (69 spaces) Monday - Friday. Furthermore the local businesses are not exactly chuffed with potential passengers using up the on road parking nearby.

In an ideal world passengers would use the mainline services to connect but offering specially discounted fares on SWR would be very challenging to implement: commercially and administratively.

 

Run it and they will come; if they don't then discontinue it.!! Perhaps DCC should have put in a word for a couple of those free pacers! I notice one on this site for sale. Is that possible if an organisation was gifted these units?

 

Apparently Pacers are not certified for use on third rail track.

 

That assumes that all those people in those cars would be prepared to switch.

Also with the hate that was garnered for them in the media unlikely to be a positive promotion point for a new service.

 

Pacers can't be used on the mainline as they are not PRM'd, otherwise lots of operators would still be using them. Covid gives the SR, DCC, SWT and anyone else the perfect reason to drop the idea of regular trains, trials etc and I'd be surprised if that doesn't happen. There was very little money available when all this was agreed a few years ago, there is no money left now.

 

Would PRM apply on the SR service, I assume the 117 and 121 are non compliant as well. BR Mk1'S do not meet it either on Heritage Lines or mainline charters do they?

 

To what end? Well hopefully to ensure its a success, because if its not, that's an awful lot of money wasted, the DMMU'S main line certification, , the fitting of main line equipment on the U, uprating a rake of coaches so they can operate over the mainline the money spent on the signalling so Mainline tours can work through to SR, Lets assume the trails flop and those who said " It was never going to work" are proven right, what happens with the main line link, how much will network rail charge to maintain it for a hand full of tours in and out, they might even put it out of use, if there is only a couple of times a year its needed,

 

Nordon park and ride is arguably in the wrong place, with hindsight perhaps it could have been located at Worgret Junction and a Smallbrook-style interchange built there. Right on the main road, and no need for the SR trains to run onto national metals. Ain't going to happen now though!

 

Norden Car Park now Purbeck Park was built at that location (not withstanding space available to site a car park upon) so that it provided a car park which could serve both Corfe Castle (the village and Castle - itself an attraction) and passengers for the Swanage Railway service travelling to any of the stations along the line. Corfe Castle village itself has very limited car parking with less than ideal access to the village car park. In its early days Norden Car Park also provided some staff car parking for BP staff at the Wytch Farm Oilfield. IIRC permission for SRC to run services to / from Corfe Castle was conditional upon the building of Norden Station and Car Park.

 

I just want to come back to this. Let us say you have flown in to Heathrow. You will have taken your luggage to the underground or railway station. You'll have either changed in Paddington to get the Bakerloo to Waterloo, or Picadilly Circus, going down and back up with the luggage and navigating Waterloo or you'll have taken the luggage to the bus to get to Woking and crossing the bridge to get the Weymouth train. Or you'll have navigated any of Clapham Jnc, Basingstoke or Soton if coming from anywhere else.

Given you've done all of that, why is changing at Corfe or Norden more of a deal breaker than going across London with luggage?

 

but i am not doing that. Doing my due diligence I can catch a National express Heathrow to
Bournemouth TX. Then a Breezer to Swanage. By train i would catch the service to Southampton from Gatwick, (When the Gatwick service went to Bournemouth it was even easier}same platform change to Wareham
We are basing this discussion on getting to Swanage from London. I have several relatives dotted across the UK so i might not be going directly from LHX or LGW to Swanage. I have in the past come from Taunton Castle Cary(bit difficult) Dorchester West to Dorchester South and on to Wareham
When i leave i will take the Swanage to Wareham service(assuming i don't have to change at Corfe) and then a westbound train for my onward travel. If it is made too difficult to travel by train one has to seek alternatives. Someone posted that the rails are laid,so that is a link. A sad way to be disingenuous about the true purpose of a rail link ;changing trains at Corfe breaks that link into two sections,obviously this was not the objective of the SRP

 

Are we sure there will be a DMU to steam change at Norden or Corfe though? No timetable details have been forthcoming yet.

 

Let us hope not,at least initially.










l

 

Answer: NO, all speculation! I am unsure just where this thread is heading, but makes amusing reading.
At the moment you cannot get direct from Waterloo to Wareham, Trains From Waterloo only hourly and terminate Bournemouth with a hourly service to Weymouth.
Currently the only two Heritage railways that have loco hauled stock that is registered and permitted to run on the national network are the North Norfolk Railway between Sheringham and Cromer as an extention of the Norfolkmen Dining train. with 76084 and KBS 1969 FO 3116 SO 4372 and BG 81033 which apparently is going to be replaced by BCK 21034 which has just returned from the NYMR where it was fitted with a Toilet retention tank.
It would be interesting to know what the arrangements for going onto the National network at Sheringham are.
The other Railway of course is the NYMR which have 23 Mk1 coaches plus 3 Pullman cars approved for operating to Whitby and Middlesborough. I suspect that
the NYMR has "Grandfather rites" going back to the BR days.
The London Transport 4TC is only allowed to run loco hauled or be top and tailed when on the national network, I think I am right in saying that it is something to do with "Crash Worthyness "
As of yet the only First generation DMMU registered for Main line running is ex Chiltern class 121 034 which is used as a Route learner by Loco services limited.
So at the moment the only two SR Locomotives registered for the Main Line are 31806 and D6515 and they have to be crewed by West Coast Railway staff as soon as they go over the SR/NR boundary.

 

I would imagine that the LT 4TC set, or any other such set, has to be hauled rather than propelled, as the driving cabs at either end of the set are not fitted with the now necessary TPWS, OTMR and GSMR. These are expensive enough to install in a steam loco, but you double the expense in any unit with two cabs. And then there is the expense of fitting retention tanks on top of all this. Unless you have very deep pockets or existing grandfather rights it is best to steer well clear of any dreams of main line running.

Peter

 

It would be down to the DfT to grant an exemption as is the case I assume with the other stock you mentioned.

 

This is only a temporary timetable due to COVID and hopefully by the summer will be restored.
https://www.southwesternrailway.com...nounces-new-simpler-fares-for-off-peak-travel
"Sunday 5 September our Super Off-Peak fares are being replaced by a new simpler fare structure that covers more of our destinations.

“With leisure travel set to bounce back quickest following the pandemic, the vast majority of our customers will benefit from reduced fares when travelling off peak. We are confident that our customers will welcome the greater clarity and better value for money that these changes will bring.”"

We shall if this brings new rail passengers, some of who will leave cars at home, or at the nearest SWR station?

Thought the 117 DMU at Swanage was refurbished to mainline standards with TPWS, OTMR, GSMR and central locking doors, and has been reliable enough in 2021 to be certified for mainline use?.

 

This doesn't make much sense to me. If it is easier to get the coach from Heathrow to Bournemouth and then to Swanage, then you wouldn't be using the link. Gatwick to Swanage via Southampton. It seems a bit perverse to spend two hours on the train plodding along the south coast for the sake of not having to change platforms.

If you are willing to do Taunton-Castle Cary, Castle Cary - Upwey, Upwey - Wareham, then again, I don't see how having to change at Norden or Corfe is a bridge too far.