West Somerset Railway General Discussion

It's not theirs to sell and I doubt SCC would give them much for surrendering the lease.

 

Indeed but the question was why would they want to part with it (or any other asset). My point is that a sudden cash shortfall is the kind of circumstances that might change whether an asset has to be parted with.

I am reminded of a post-Communist oligarch and politician who is well known for saying 'you can ask me anything other than how I made my first million'. The problem is we know how he made his first million. He sold an airfield he didn't actually own for cash.

 

From my subjective observations of previous trips at the same time of year, I’d be surprised if they weren’t in the black (certainly using the methodology apparently underlying the Christmas results), but not brilliantly so.

My concern is more the willingness to discourage casual business and thereby forfeit marginal income.


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Looking at the red timetable, the first Minehead departure isn't till mid day, isn't that rather late, if i were staying in Minehead, I would expect an earlier train than that, Or is Minehead now less popular as an starting point, rather than BL ? If you want a day trip from Minehead, you don't have much time if your going as far as BL, because the last return is that same train, can the WSR afford to have potential custom go elsewhere?

 

Well there's less to stop off and see along the way now that washford yard is closed down so a straight out and back trip is probably about as good as it gets.

 

Oh don’t be so harsh, Washford now represents how the Western shafted the Southern when given control of all those Branch Lines in the West Country, it’s just history repeating itself.

 

I just popped into the thread after watching the video update from the MHR. Most uplifting ..... and now I'm popping back out, before I get depressed.

 

Oh don’t be, I’m sure our friend @JBTEvans can give you a million reasons why you shouldn’t

 

I would not wish to comment on the rights or wrongs of the Washford situation, but of one thing I am quite sure. Apart from the true railway enthusiasts, who form a very small proportion of WSR passengers, I would say those passengers who did break their journey at Washford in order to visit the museum was so small as to be statistically insignificant. Almost all journey breaks have been at Watchet.

 

So how many people will now break their journey there now there’s nobody to look after the station and the buildings there?
Take a look at the likes of say the KWVR and what they’ve done at Ingrow with the VCT and the guys that own 45596 in your own county of Yorkshire.
Can you not see how bloody stupid it is?

 

I assume from your strong language you understand the passenger flow at Washford. Perhaps you could inform us so we could better understand your view. In my view there have only been two reasons to get off at Washford, to visit the museum or to walk the trail down to Watchet (there may be others). Every time I have been there on a normal timetable day it has been dead.
The WSR has eight intermediate stations, most of which have more reason to get off than Washford.

 

Washford could be used to recreate the Beeching era, with a closed and decaying station building. The yard opposite could be filled with all the derelict rolling stock on the line and left to grow weeds. A collapsing chainlink fence full of holes round it would be a nice touch, too.

 

It is, but I don’t think that is actually the key issue here - as others have said, it was never a honey pot.

The more serious question, in my view, is how the WSR has gone from having a beautifully well looked after and highly presentable site, for which rent was paid, to having a stripped out site where they have to pay the maintenance.

This at a station which is highly visible to casual passers by, because of the way it faces onto the A39 (incidentally, also a problem due to the position of road and railway).


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"Bootiful, well looked after and 'ighly presentable site, you've got 'ere, be a shame if anything 'appened to it, wouldn't it?"

 

Washford station is also close to the village, whose people and councilors may take exception if the site is allowed to deteriorate into an ill-maintained eyesore.

I don't know if S&DRT have identified any sites for re-location of the shed and track. If it looks like these assets will go for scrap, a better solution might be to sell them to the WSR or to one of its supporting charities - if they can raise the money. Maybe the site could find long-term use as a Highley-type museum and store, or a carriage and wagon works, or whatever. But the departure of the S&DRT is still unfortunate, and likely to blight the WSR's reputation for years to come.

Looking at the site on Google maps, has the farm track behind the station yard been upgraded to a hard surface? In theory, that's an alternative site access, although presumably only useable by light vehicles with permission from the farmer.

 

You misunderstand my point and you need to look back at the comment I was replying to. It was suggested that with no museum at Washford then there was no point in doing any journey breaks, just go there and back. Thats an enthusiast's viewpoint. Unlike correspondents on this site, most of our passengers are not 'enthusiasts'. I was pointing out that Watchet has always been the most used journey break opportunity by a long chalk. [It has generally been very difficult or even impossible to do a full round trip and have more than one journey break. Watchet has normally been the choice.] I am not saying it is not/was not stupid or unjust to evict the S&D group. I am just pointing out how very few of the core travelling support ever bothered to get off at Washford. For enthusiasts its sad, very sad, its not right, its not proper, but for the majority of fare paying passengers upon which the line actually depends, it makes very little difference to anything. Just saying.

 

Well, as far as I can see almost all trains are now stopping at Washford so the station is open.

Presumably all diesel services are the DMU as the DEPG are not showing operating days

 

You should know that basically the first train off MD and last train off BL can be an all but ECS working, particularly out of season. Cutting these services is a good idea.

The SVR have to pay a covid loan of 40k a month apparently, they have too dropped service days/levels in their 2022 timetable. Another example is the DFR only running 3 round trips before Easter and after September. I doubt there will be many railways running a 2019 timetable in 2022.

What do you want? A 2007 SSG re-creation?