Swanage Railway General Discussion

In recent pages of this thread, there seems to have been a change from criticism (apart from comments on the lack of interest in certain quarters in continuing with the evening DMU services) to identifying the problems specific to the Swanage Railway and offering suggestions of how they can be addressed.

In summary it seems that the pre-2020 model just about worked with 200,000 visitors per year. The challenge the leadership faces is to find a viable model for the railway with visitors now down to about 150,000. Not only will economies have to be made but new ideas explored. The "secondary spend" issue is a real challenge, given the proximity of pubs and other attractions near to both Swanage and Corfe Castle stations and another real challenge is the lack of space to stage special events. For example, there is nowhere comparable to the Bluebell''s loco shed which can be turned into an ice rink for a few days.

I hope that the recent elections to the Council of Management will have brought in some new people with some fresh thinking to address these issues. If the appeal for funding to keep the railway going is to be successful, potential donors will need to be assured that the railway won't be coming round with a begging bowl again in a year's time. I have no doubt that the railway will survive, but it would be sad to see it having to take a haircut on the scale of Llangollen.

 

I think the question should be reframed. The model used to work with income of £x, but visitor numbers are down by 1/3 - so how does income rise by 1/3 to plug the gap.

I very much doubt that cost reductions will seriously close the gap. That's not a challenge to being economical - always desirable - but an observation that you ultimately need to increase income to a sustainable level.

 

From the Swanage Railway website, they state they aim to increase visitor numbers to exceed even the pre covid levels. How they intend to do about that is unclear at the moment.

 

Would they need to employ a wedding planner? Are there not already local businesses that would welcome new venues for their wedding planning business? Would that not be a good way to 'test the waters' with little outlay/risk for SR.

 

Understood - and it's something that won't be achieved by cutting. Pruning rarely works in businesses, despite the popularity of gardening analogies.

 

Knowing someone who's an events organiser, there is a lot of work required to link the venue and the hirer. It's easily under-estimated - and the income from only providing venue hire will be less than from providing a full service.

 

I do not know what the "workable" price point is for a ticket.
But on Saturday at the MHR I paid £27.50 for a ticket that gave me 3 round trips on their two train timetable, so 61.5 miles of travel. However if it was only one trip I wanted then the same price for just 20.5 miles.
Bluebell £25 in advance or £28.50 on the day rover only, which some days only gave a two round trip service so 22 or 44 miles maximum for the same fare although on high service days more mileage is possible.
At Swanage a rover would be £25 this year giving 55 miles of travel, or a single trip £18 for 11 miles.
So difficult to see what much could be done with the fares, if you drop the one trip option would it be self defeating on what is only an 11 mile round trip.
Whilst the both the MHR and Bluebell only have a limited bus alternatives if you are in Swanage or Corfe and want to go to visit the other there is a regular bus option, in high season a frequent bus option which in a way sort of makes things worse for the tourist he may think a train ride may be nice, but at what cost. A difficult call.

 

What venue? As in, which specific building / room on the railway?

Also - if you want to have the actual ceremonies, you need a licence - so there is a degree of up front set up. If you are just talking about having a general purpose function venue, then you are back to the issue of where, (and is it licensed for alcohol …)

I don’t think it is an easy market to “just dip a toe into”. (And as @Pete Thornhill has also mentioned - even if you got a business off the ground, it is probably 2025 before you’d see any bookings).

Tom

 

I would also think one screwed up wedding in the age of social media could out way 200 hundred perfect ones as well. The more "moving parts" the greater the risk, even if some or a lot is outsourced.

 

I get the impression that some other railways have worked on the assumption that 2023 would be equal or up on 2022 but not to pre COVID numbers and planned operations and costs to that, taken a review mid year and recast planned operations based on more solid view of rest of 2023, I.e. 2023 has been about survival and trying out how to attract visitors via family events (and there are some that doesn't need acres of space) and publicity, also using the COVID grants to further that aim. Those that have kept a tight watch on the ball I'm 2023 seem to be the ones in better shape to tackle 2024. Just get the impression Swanage are about 12 months behind the curve which will make the job harder but probably not too latecwith the right tight and communicative management.

 

It is a sort of mission statement, I would not expect them to put on a website how they propose to do it.
BA aimed to be the worlds favourite airline, never said how it would achieve it (as I think we did not actually know) and I am not sure we ever won that accolade anyway.

 

If the Swanage can achieve what NYMR have done, then a rise to £20 giving perks with Gift Aid would allow the headline price for the repeat ticket to fall, and yet move income towards the £25 level for every ticket.

 

Has interest in visiting a heritage railway really dropped to the extent experienced by Swanage Railway? I genuinely do not think so. Look at the interest in Flying Scotsman (nationally), look at the stability of the visitor numbers to many other heritage railways.

IMHO the reductions in passenger numbers came largely about because of actions taken by SRC fearing a drop in passenger numbers and thus it became a self fulfilling prophecy:

1) cutting back on marketing particularly hard copy marketing of the railway for example the timetable leaflet distributed far and wide.

2) cutting back on the operating days and schedule, creating an uneven headway, introducing a higher % of diesel services.

One of the best adverts for a steam heritage railway is so incredibly simple - it is "running steam trains". If people at Corfe Castle or the line side camp sites or on the road bridges which criss cross the railway see a steam loco it advertises itself.

3) closing the platform gate and top gate at Swanage Station thus discouraging platform visitors who just might have gone for a ride, bought an ice cream or cup of tea or bought a souvenir.

4) not operating the Wessex Belle which whilst small beer in passenger number terms has cast a sense of doubt / gloom and uncertainty over the railway and many of its volunteers.

Personally to get passenger numbers back to where they were a lot could be achieved by reverting back to the policies pre-covid.

 

It did say how it achieved that self declared accolade and used the IATA statistics to prove it. The ASA approved the advert on the basis of the factual evidence put forward.

British Airways carried more international passengers than any other airline within a year. IIRC it used that accolade for a number of years until overtaken initially by Lufthansa.

 

The leaflet doesn't for me to include train timetable. When I,m on holiday I look for leaflets and what I find really useful are those with the code on that you can use your phone to read and take you to.the up tp date opening times etc. A few railways seem to have adopted that idea this year.

Sent from my SM-A526B using Tapatalk

 

Agreed it doesnt need to but some potential customers like having all the information in front of them without having to go on the web for additional information.

It is a judgement call as to which to adopt. The Swanage Railway leaflet also included a list of special events, details of the Wessex Belle Dining Train, shop and catering information and so much more.

The TT leaflet was SRCs primary sales tool and imho was very effective indeed.

 

Agreed a timetable doesn’t need to be included. Most people can easily look it up on the website. This is probably the best approach anyway as it makes the leaflet smaller and cheaper to print, and any last minute changes to timetables are easily reflected for all to see on the website.

The leaflet just needs to act as an advert for the railway, so people know it is there and are directed to the website for further information.

Many thousands of people holiday in the Bournemouth and Weymouth areas each year. Close enough to be able to visit, but far enough away that they might not be aware of the Railway without seeing a leaflet in their holiday accommodation.

 

Views vary; I find a leaflet without the key information (times, prices) easily moves into the "too hard" camp. It needs to sell to those who don't know the product, and wouldn't naturally buy it.

 

I don't think you can look at the maximum mileage a person can achieve like this in working out value for money. I'd suggest that the vast majority of those people undertaking more than one round trip are going to be railway enthusiasts and that is not the SR's core market. Like the NYMR they are effectively a transport system and run to two destinations. It is their USP. They need to cash in on that and encourage as many people as possible to use them. The P & R at Norden is good and I've used it to get into Swanage. I've also used the railway to get to Corfe when staying in Swanage. As long as it is reasonable, people don't mind paying for the train ride rather than simply taking the much cheaper option of the car or bus; it is part of the day out and fun for the kids in the family. How many children travel by train these days? Not many, I reckon. The big problem in getting people to use the railway for transport is that you have to run the trains at times that they want and not the times the railway wants. That can make for early starts and late finishes so long days and a tidal flow of traffic. The NYMR's first train from Pickering is at 09.20 and is invariably full. Joe Public want to see steam locos and can be disappointed if their train isn't steam hauled when they expect it to be. Experience at the NYMR says that people will turn away if they expect steam and don't get it. However if the timetable says it will be a diesel they will generally accept that without grumble because they have made the choice to travel on a diesel hauled train. The more important thing, though, is for them to see a steam loco during their trip. They are not hanging out of windows getting soot in their hair and, sat in a coach you can't really tell what is hauling you.

The NYMR have opted for kids go free in 2023. I'm not sure whether that has been a good move, or not, but you have to keep family travel to a reasonable level of cost.

 

No I agree that mileage comparisons do not mean much for most, but Swanage is one of the shorter lines (of the so called Premier League lines) so if people have travelled elsewhere or are not regulars it may be reasonable to assume that think the SR fare will be somewhat less than it would cost for say Pickering to Whitby.
However I agree it is not all about mileage, if the loco is in steam or the diesel engines are turned on then it is costing money. The thing to do of course is to not chase bums on seats but to chase profitability. Free kids as you mention or as it is here for a £1 works as long as it does the the parents to travel if they may not otherwise. My only concern is that the sector runs the risk of kids having effectively free travel may become the norm, and harder to break if we ever get to "better times"