The Challenges of the 2022 Heritage Season

We are about to have the biggest cost of living increase since record began in the 1950s and the cost of tickets has go a lot more expensive £65 just for tickets at the SVR the black country museum is £50 for a family you can go to the cinema for under £20. There will be a large number of people who will have little disposable income if your gas and electric has doubled.

 

Where did you get that price from for the cinema, last time the good lady and I went ( 2019, last time both of us went, she’s been more recently on her own) it was at least £20 just for the tickets, without including the rip off prices for food and drink.
Also in from my own experience in Cambridge (throw in parking price’s, they aren’t cheap) an evening at the cinema for a family isn’t that far off some of the prices you’ve mentioned for the SVR and BCM.

 

The Vue supersaver is under £5 booked in advance parking fees and expensive food is an issue at the railways as well.

 

I suspect the cost of petrol/diesel could be enough to dissuade a number of volunteers from making the journey to offer their services,

Jon

 

Surprised there is no mention in this thread of several railways having binned their WW2 themed events for this year, given current events in Eastern Europe. Without wishing to divert the thread too far, that will be a sizeable dent in income for many lines.


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The prices for Cinema tickets have dropped since they re-opened after Covid started. Recently one of the chains were selling tickets for £3 on one day only. Our local cinema was sold out in all the screenings on this day. I haven't been tempted back yet even with cheaper tickets. Can't say I am comfortable yet with so many cases of the virus still around. I read a while ago about the amount of people who caught Covid after going to watch the latest Spiderman Film.

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https://www.national-preservation.com/threads/1940s-events-in-2022-yes-or-no.1420775/

 

Having just read your post Martin and not exactly being cheered up by it I did have one little (dim) lightbulb moment, I’m just wondering if a certain railway that has a terminus on Comberton Hill in Worcestershire could maybe do some sort of deal with some of the local takeaways in the same postcode and use their spent cooking oil to power the diesel fleet that’s based just off there?
It’s just a thought.

 

Whilst present circumstances are without doubt impacting business as usual, I will pray at the altars of capitalism and the human spirit….

and make some small offerings….

 

One railway today has said it won't be buying any more Russian coal due to the current situation. Couple of points of interest there, one is that it is most unlikely there will be further Russian supplies coming in, however it has been reported there are 30,000 tons of it on the floor in Ireland. This no doubt means it has been paid for by an importer previously, purchasing it now is unlikely to be making any difference to Russia's coffers. It would seem a little daft to be looking at 30,000 tons of coal whilst leaving your engines in the shed just because months ago it came out of a hole in the ground in Russia. Secondly, if you've made that stance what's next? Start draining down diesel tanks due to probability there is diesel supplied by Russia in there? I'm all for making a stance against the deplorable atrocities taking place in Ukraine but need to be sensible about such things and focus on items that will have an impact.

A recent conversation with a loco owner with a few years left on boiler ticket revealed an interesting view point. 'the way things are going I'm not sure if I'll bother doing another overhaul'

Certainly got me thinking for a bit, maybe he has a point....

Maybe in a few years time we'd give anything to see a 4-6-2 loco in purple chuffing merrily up and down with a light grey haze at the chimney, the aroma of the coal lingering in the air whilst wondering with hindsight why we were so against it back in 2022....

And with that thought I'll get my coat.....!

 

I think Copper-capped has highlighted what is already happening. We know that "heritage" costs increasing amounts of money and it is unrealistic to expect railways to charge enough to cover all the costs of operation and maintenance. The difference is made up with grants, if possible and donations from those able to give. I'm sure many on here will have added more to various "pots" over the years and more so over the past two years.

 

I suspect a lot of less/ barely profitable running days are going to be quite heavily cut back with a heavier focus on galas and special events is on the cards. Maximise on days/ weeks you can definitely do decent numbers. That and possibly a bit more diesel/ DMU power when its prudent to operate but not with steam. I'd also expect a shrinkage in the number of charters going on as well to preserve coal supplies.

 

Yes, I had somehow missed the other thread. Seems relevant here as well, but probably best to keep the other discussion separate.

So... no coal, massive increase in diesel prices, special events going in the bin, Covid hasn't really gone away (just being ignored until a worse strain comes along)... what a year eh? And it's only March!

 

Maybe time to go back to just running school holidays and weekends and maybe using the lines with battery or other carbon free fuel types during the week as public transport.

 

But will that generate enough money to pay for overheads, bridge repairs, track renewal etc.?

 

The service need to make a profit on each day it operates or be offering a public service

 

It's the "or" part I am struggling with. If the option is "make a profit or offer a public service" - who is going to pay for the losses on the public service?

If the answer to that is "the taxpayer", I might be inclined to argue "in which case, why do you have such labour-intensive infrastructure and signalling standards - strip it back to minimum railway standard (or just subsidise a bus)" which I doubt most people want.

Tom

 

But the fewer days you operate, the larger the daily profit will need to be to pay for things that cost the same irrespective of the number of days you run, like locomotive overhauls, bridge repairs and the like. You can only carry sell so many tickets per day.