Swanage Railway General Discussion

The PE looks fantastic, wonder how many are FIRST time visitors and will come back again.
100% agree that 2023 the railway gave us a inferior product with less services, weird frequency's and too much diesel (a steam on the back with the 33 doing the work is not steam hauled in my eyes).

Swanage should be perfect, simple 5.5 miles, only 3 main stations with mass amount wanting to go to the seaside but also a good chuck starting at Swanage and going to Corfe (with has grown as a % over the years). Stick to what the railway was great at, and it hopefully will do great in 2024.

Anything longer than 5.5 and you really do have issues with rising prices in line with mileage yet less customers willing to pay the extra.

I remember the days of yellow 2 steam during Easter, as far as can remember it was like summer levels of passengers (if the weather was good), perhaps Easter 2024 could be two steam 40/45 frequency apart from the Mondays/Fridays which are normaly less busy with the 33.
The summer 2022 timetable with one less service in the midday makes sense, and allows staff and crew to have a changer over/lunch.

Talk about selling surplus assets, I wonder what that would include??

 

Where do you get your 100% agree total from,have you done a survey on here or on the Swanage Railway this year?.Was it an inferior product,no it was not.Was it a weird frequency no it was not,it wasnt perfect but it was not weird.Too much diesel no, there were a few days a 33 was used top and tailed.I believe there were more 33 hauled services due to fires and the dry period in 2022. If any railway was guilty of the things you say then it has to be the Severn Valley but no one is telling them how to run their railway like the people on here. We all remember the days of yellow timetables at Easter and other busy periods,times have changed. Yes the PE does look fantastic

 

I think the sense was “I one hundred percent agree that …”, not “One hundred percent of [other] people agree that …”

Tom

 

Polar Express details have always said steam at the Swanage end, diesel at the other. Therefore logical any steam would have to face Swanage to provide a decent experience.

 

I see they have put PE logos on the coaches and PE wording on the tender, but the loco carries its usual number and name, no cowcatcher and whilst it has a headlight, it isn’t very much like the headlight in the film. I’d have thought these were important details which might have been specced by the production co. Certainly other venues seem to have disguised the loco a little more


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Life is like a box of chocolates said Hank Marvin, Roger De Coursey always mumbled into his Cornflakes, Steve McQueen got his fuel tap caught on barbed wire.
You sir, what did you say of importance?

 

How do you disguise a Bulleid Pacific as a S160? Anyway D6515 has cowcatchers disguised as snow ploughs!

 

A simple YouTube search shows that SPA in 2021 with what I assume was SKP and lat year with 257 did not have a cowcatcher. Neither did the Caledonian Railway or Wensleydale. I did not bother with the others, but bearing in mind who runs these things, then I can only assume it is not regarded as a major part of the production.

 

I am not quite sure what this vilification of the Swanage Railway and its timetable is all about. Why is it so different in Purbeck to elsewhere?
Yes the were comments about the SVR and the first train not leaving Bridgnorth until 12:00, but very little comment about the diesel services which were about half of them on a normal day.
Very quiet on the greatly reduced WSR service (from pre Covid) that most of the time was only 50% steam.
Little mention of the MHR's service pattern when a two train service of 45 minute gap then 1 hr 15 minutes gap repeated throughout the day. Although in itself far better in my opinion than the post Covid service with nearly an hour at Ropley on a number of trains. No mention either that unless you knew where to find the loco roster and it was actually up to date, if that two train service was team or one steam one diesel.
So please tell me what makes Swanage not only different but immune from all the financial issues most other HR lines suffer.
What part of the product was inferior, the only difference in the product was the timetable and on a few busy days strengthening to 6 coaches with a diesel one end.
Like diesels on the back on the mainline, not everyone who is a passenger has a melt down at this concept. I only counted passengers for a few days, but never heard anybody mentioning the diesel presence.

 

I think that collectively we are trying to find some rationale for the very significant drop in passenger numbers on the Swanage Railway in 2023 - down from C200K per annum in the late 20teens to C150K this year.

Understanding this is crucial because if SRC suffers a further similar drop (down to 100K per annum for example in 2024 ) or if 150Kpa is the new norm then very significant actions need to be taken because otherwise the SRC will cease to exist.

The cause(s) could be external (cost of living crisis for example) or internal (increased fare levels for example) or a mixture of both. The more that SRC is reasonably able to ascribe cause and effect the more confident it can be that the actions it can or will take will have the desired effect of reversing the adverse trend.

When looking at significant changes in sales or patronage in many businesses, the first question to be asked and answered is "Is it something we have done or not done that has caused this decline in sales"?

Looking at SRC one can say (1) a significant change in the timetable (2) a greater use of diesel traction* (3) an increase in fares (4) less marketing. Are these the causes ( and to what extent) of the decline in passenger numbers?

*The unanswered question is "does operating the DMU as the second traction unit on peak days rather than a second "steamer" have a detrimental effect on the patronage both in the day itself or on the "enjoyment of the day" and thus repeat patronage.

Looking at the external environment one could say (1) cost of living crisis = less disposable income for leisure activities (2) fewer visitors to Purbeck - but that itself could be caused by (1) cost of living crisis.

If one thinks that the external factors are of greater effect than the internal factors then it would be reasonable to assume that external factors would effect other tourist attractions as well. Reading some of the postings on this forum and elsewhere heritage railway patronage has been effected but not equally across the board. Some have done reasonably well, others less so. Other non railway heritage tourist attractions appear to have done well The Tank Museum for example which is close to Swanage.

There are some very contradictory indicators: air travel in 2023 was almost back to its pre-covid all time records so that would suggest disposable income was being spent on leisure activities. In some respects this was not unexpected as we have seen strong overseas travel immediately after a supposed staycation year previously.

The evidence is not compelling nor conclusive. But if SRC does manage to raise £450K to survive (and we most fervently hope that is so) it can not afford to run a significant loss going forward. The size of profit or loss is closely linked to patronage as the fixed cost part of overall costs is very high. For that most crucial reasons of all, it has to look at the decisions it took in deciding the 2023 operating programme and challenge any and all assumptions it made. It has to get 2024 right or at the least be very fleet of foot so that it can generate additional patronage and flex to meet changes in demand.

 

I guess SVR clearly stated what they were running was cut according to costs available and they did rejig later in the year. Yes there were comments about Brignorth but they did seem to react to that. Re Diesels SVR is known to have a large diesel fleet and following whereas I guess Swanage is regarded more as a Steam operation

Sent from my SM-A526B using Tapatalk

 

I suppose the main thing when talking about the Swanage Railway is how many are going for the railway rather than just off to Swanage with a pop on the steam train. If suddenly we go from steam every 40 mins with 12/14 services a day to what, 10 at off frequency then that may put off people. Whereas WSR WSR is longer and I'm guessing more people who travel on it are doing it for the train itself

 

Certainly we as a family see it as visit to Swange combined with a steam (not diesel) ride from Norden and return. As far as we are concerned there are some nice take aways in Swanage that provide a warm snack for lunch to eat at the front.

 

Whilst I can see the rationale in some of your points the basic unanswerable question might be classed as "Why didn't you travel on the Swanage Railway?". It is unanswerable in that the railway cannot know who might have travelled nor their reason(s) for not travelling - unless they volunteer the information to it of course.
All that can be done is to make an educated guess at what might attract more passengers to Swanage and then hope they are right. It is something of an arcane 'art' in my view.
The increase in foreign holidays means fewer days spent in the UK, of course, and consequent reduction of monies available to spend on leisure at home. I believe the Bournemouth and Weymouth resorts have not had a stellar season this year and I would guess many Swanage Railway passengers might be generated from those areas.
How one overcomes these varied problems I haven't a clue.

 

Interesting article here

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...ow-uk-well-off-have-outsize-carbon-footprints

The biggest carbon divide is in aviation, with the richest 10% in the UK – the 6.7 million people paid more than £59,000 a year – causing more than six times more climate-heating emissions from flights than the poorest 10%.

What this suggests to me is that the 'frequent flyers' are back to their old habits but the 'infrequent flyers' who may well be the sort of people who visit our seaside towns and presumably form the bulk of t Heritage Railway passengers are suffering due to the Cost of Living Crisis

 

What surprises me is that the ratio is only 6 times as much, given that I would be surprised to find that many in the poorest 10% would be able to afford any kind of flight at all.

 

There have been occasions this year where it would have been significantly cheaper for me to fly than take the train to get to Edinburgh this year when I have been working down south and needed to get up there.

How wrong is that......

Chris

 

Does look like those more well off are starting to take overseas package holidays again (or ship cruises) rather than "staycations".
Those less well off are still coming to UK seaside towns, but spending less?.

Have seen a few holiday makers from Europe visiting UK. But perhaps not in the numbers before Brexit and the Corona virus?.

There is also a report about UK off peak leisure rail travel increasing
https://www.railtech.com/all/2023/11/20/britains-changing-pattern-of-rail-travel
Which might help the Wareham service for 2024?.
Interesting promotional video by the PCRP for a 2 day trip to Purbeck by mainline rail, shows the SR, mining museum, but only a mention for the Wareham service about 2 mins in.

 

When on portering duties at Norden, I often sit in the booking office.
The most common question, when is the next train?
All this talk of time tabling putting punters off is, from my observations, unfounded.
Marketing is the key, I was guard on the first day of Polar Express last week and got into conversation with one of the owners of the production company.
I asked what was the reaction was from the press on the press junket the day before.
She replied that apart from a few locals, it was all influencers that were invited.
Funnily enough on the second train, a couple of 'influencers' turned up unannounced, but seats were found for them, such is the power of these people.
The world has moved on from radio ads and leafleting......

 

Yes, they are no longer the only means of reaching people. But that requires understanding who the target audience are, and how they are most effectively reached. That may vary between a charismatic major event, and routine operations, even for the same organisation.