Swanage Railway General Discussion

Tom is right, that £3m will be long forgotten. Once this years trial is completed, I suspect that will be the end of a regular Wareham service.

 

I tend to agree, if the Council tax payers were moaning about paying an extra £1 a week to improve policing, I cannot see a Wareham rail link funded by the council going down well.
Also in this world of the NR this would have to be some OA operator as there is no way the DfT are going to fund it and TOC's have no say in what they operate anymore.

 

I don’t disagree that is the likely outcome. My point is that the SR needs to be seen to play ball, and be trying to fulfill it’s obligations. It can’t simply dismiss the £3M of public money it has been given, (and will continue to benefit from with the mainline connection, even if no more Wareham services run) as ‘water under the bridge’.

 

When it's overhauled, hopefully it'll visit along with other lines.

 

SRT SRC can always gauge the way the political wind is blowing by consulting Cllrs Trite, Whitwam, Budd and Ezzard.

 

The 4 people you mention are not all DC councillors

 

Although from https://www.swanagerailway.co.uk/ne...ew-signalling-scheme-for-main-line-connection
the money came from property developers, not the public.
Most of the £3m money went to network rail

"It was in 2010 that Dorset county and Purbeck district councils pledged to invest £3.2 million, over three years, to pay for a new signalling system to enable passenger trains between Wareham and Corfe Castle – £2.85 million going to Network Rail and £350,000 to the Swanage Railway for the work.

That investment has come from a transport improvement fund into which property developers pay – the money being collected by Purbeck District Council and spent by Dorset County Council as the transport authority"

 

Yes it came from property developers as part of the standard tariff they have to the council for new developments. As that point it became public money, for the council to decide what to to with.

Yes most of it was paid to Network Rail, but it was entirely for the benefit of the Swanage Railway, not Network Rail.

 

Firstly, when you say "DCC (sic) haven’t forgotten they have spent that money" you make it sound as if the council is a singular human entity. But Dorset Council isn't a person; it can't remember or forget anything. There may be individual officers or councillors who were involved in setting the original conditions, but there is a difference between those people remembering the £3m, and wishing to push the issue in amongst many other priorities.

As for "They also have a clause in place that enables them to impose an outside operator to run the service," - that may well be true, but it is an empty sanction unless another operator comes along and applies to run the service. Having an option if someone else offers is not the same as being able to force someone else to run it. Any other operator is going to run into the same combination of financial and operational constraints that have become apparent.

Finally, I am not suggesting that the Swanage Railway should be blasé about the previous investment in the way you suggest. But I think if challenged, the railway can make a good case that it has delivered value to Purbeck (and Dorset), and can continue to deliver value in the future, by making the operation of incoming charter services simpler (each carrying hundreds of passengers able to spend money in the town); as well as having represented a valuable investment in the future sustainability of one of Swanage's major tourist attractions and employers.

Stuff happens: the fact that the trial running hasn't shown the way to a viable means of regular running to Wareham doesn't mean the entire investment was a waste.

Tom

 

Not quite entirely for the benefit of Swanage Railway (though, I accept mostly for their benefit...). Assuming that access to the branch was being retained anyway within the signalling scheme (which was a regulatory requirement due to its status as a freight asset), then much of the NR expenditure was directed at signalling around Wareham station and of benefit to the wider railway - providing the ability to turn mainline trains back at Wareham and continued access to the sidings for engineering trains as side benefits (providing similar flexibility to that incorporated in the same signalling scheme at Wool.

Of the SEU's involved I think it works out at 3 solely for the benefit of passenger trains on the branch (and even that is, perhaps arguable, as there is a tendency to fully signal freight only junctions when being re-signalled), a further 5 increasing flexibility of the layout with wider network benefits. Of greater impact for return on investment for Dorset Council is the fact that 5 of those SEU's cannot be used due to the Council's own unwillingness to approve alternative arrangements for the level crossing which would bring much their cash investment into use. A significant amount of the equipment financed by DCC's contribution to the re-signalling has never been brought into use. On that line of argument, it is these wider benefits (which were arguably the greater financial aspect of their contribution) have not been realised due to action on the part of the council.

 

SEU?

 

Signal Equivalent Unit. A unit of measure for the complexity of a signalling installation, allowing comparison between otherwise very different projects.

 

Still in the strategic plan for 2030, but not updated since 2015. 31625 is stored in one of Imery's clay sheds.
The local MP has been chasing about Perneco Oil's unused sidings without success.
https://www.richarddrax.com/news/diary-furzebrook-sidings-important-swanage-railway

I see the brake car from the 4TC has moved a bit off the ramps, 3TC with 33111 soon, push pull to River Frome later?

 

See post 2362 in this thread https://www.national-preservation.com/threads/project-wareham.536513/page-119#post-2820285

 

I do not think anyone is saying just dismiss the £3m but that there needs to be an element of reality.
I worked for a company that was very financially focused and had good financial controls, but we never audited every capital project that was undertaken. Spend was monitored to make sure that nothing that was over budget was committed to, but very few projects were ever audited to ensure the payback claimed was actually achieved. Of course if the payback was not achieved there would normally be some market reason in the aviation world why this was the case. So for the Wareham link there would be Covid, Brexit, the wholesale changes to the national rail franchise model to name just a few.
Now yes £3m is a lot of money (albeit only 1% approx of the budget) but it was a long time ago that it was "spent" and who would all these years on be initiating some sort of audit review?
But then there still remains the question I raised in my previous post who would DCC "force" to run this service. I would love to listen to the phone call that goes
Hello is that the DfT? this is Dorset Council we demand you run a rail service to Swanage or authorise an OAO to do it, as it was an option when we granted £3m years ago.
So when the DfT politley says "go away" or similar, would the DCC fund an OAA who also may have to obtain some stock to operate it.
For info this is the DCC budget and it shows what is obviously important to the council and in most cases I suggest the tax payers a well.

https://www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/-/our-budget-explained

 

Travelled on the DMU today 1119 from Wareham and was very well loaded perhaps there is demand during the six weeks summer holiday period although numbers may be good as people realise it may not run again after this trial

 

The 1119 Wareham was particularly well loaded. It was a bit embarrasing for the SWR member of staff at Wareham as all the ticket issuing equipment had failed along with and internet access via railway communications. Some of the systems have been unavailable for a number of days... ( What price excess fare pads and a list of local prices?)
Also there was an official visit by either the DfT or Westminster politicians to Wareham and Swanage.

Cheers, Neil

 

When we visit we buy All Day tickets on line in advance. A bargain at £25 each. Obviously not many sold as the TTIs check them with interest

 

Beer, Curry and Steam.
No mention of a diesel on the back for those who do not like such things.
Not sure if it would be a good idea to try to eat a curry in a compartment though.

From the train name I thought it was an early advert for next years Diesel Gala

https://www.swanagerailway.co.uk/events/view/the-purbeck-piddler