Swanage Railway General Discussion

Visit Britain forecast that in 2023 the inbound marker would be 92% of the 2019 (pre-covid) level. I have not seen their 2024 forecast yet but there is reason to be optimistic that we will be back to pre covid figures.'

There is a lot of data on the Visit Britain website.

Have to be very careful making assumptions that a growth in outbound tourism (overseas holidays etc) from the UK necessarily means less staycations. It is a very complex picture.

Irrespective of the tourism figures there is a huge market which visits Dorset (especially the BCP area). If one postulates that SRC visitor numbers are "linked" to BCP tourism figures then one would have to wonder why in 2022 (which was a bumper year in Bournemouth) SRCs passenger numbers did not reflect that.

To pick up on some other comments tourism is a very broad term. Each type of attraction (and there are many) attracts / appeals to different markets in varying degrees. The crucial point is to target the most fruitful markets in a way that reaches them and encourages them to visit. Each market needs to receive a message (via the most appropriate channel) tailored to them focusing on the aspects of the Offer that will most appeal to them. IMHO SRC simply does not carry out enough marketing to generate the passenger numbers and revenue it requires to sustain the business.

 

A couple of vague related Polar comments from the last week or so.
Proving that any project probably never comes together on day one (at least most I was involved with never did ) I noticed when I was down the town yesterday morning the Polar Express sign over the station entrance was only being fitted yesterday (although the normal ones in the car park and by the shed were replaced last week) as were the Christmas Tree lights. Although the tree is usually a town council project, and I assume it still is, but obviously not aligned with the start of the season.
The other was walking past one evening (may have been the "influencers day" mentioned by! @Daddsie71b ) and seeing that bouncers had been employed. I had a vision of Croydon at 23:00 on a Saturday night (other cities and towns are available for drunken youth) with lots of bad behaviour from 7 and 8 years olds. Still as there are numerous licence application notices in Gilbert Road maybe it is the parents that are the issue.

 

Hiring of SIA licensed door staff is increasingly common, as a way to provide security and ensure that appropriately trained staff are in place if security is required. For Polar Express, I do suspect its the parents (and possibly grandparents?) who may be the issue, especially if they want to blag a freebie.

 

The Christmas Lights switch on in Swanage is on the last Saturday of November (Sat 25th Nov 2023) and has been for some years. It is aligned with the Artisans in the Beach event which runs through December. This is the first year afaik that the Swanage Railway Christmas Season has started before the towns event.

The SIA staff certainly are quite a contrast to the festive dressed PE and SRC staff.

 

The security is not there to 'assist' pushy parents.
There are thousands of pounds worth of lighting and sound equipment, let alone the merchandise and most importantly the cookie store, to be protected.

 

I would say your comments are covered by the small print on the signs around the area.

 

Sadly It isnt theft I would be worried about as much as vandalism though I agree with @Daddsie71b the cookie store must be protected.

 

I don’t disagree, and it’s not meant as a criticism of the railway at all


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A couple of images from today and yesterday (where until I heard a whistle and a few minutes later saw the train leave I had even missed it was a running day). My wife's very late running train back from Woking allowed me to stop at Corfe on the way to pick her up. I was however unaware the station was unlit, (good job those steps on the footbridge have a white edge) however it did make the token exchange look interesting, the white light by the platform edge denoting the signalman's location, and gave an orange glow to the loco and the Maunsell coach.
Today the northerly wind meant steam and sun collided so an image from the jungle that this part of the common seems to have become since I was there last.
More signage over the station since last weekend and "Polar Express" now on both sides of the tender give it a more complete feel. I believe the towns Christmas Tree on the platform end gets switched on tomorrow evening at 17:00.

 

Was it today (Friday) that the station lights were out at Corfe Castle? They should have been lit, It also looks as if the Signalbox was also unlit, Was there a power outage in the village? Hope it is going to be OK on Sunday when I'm there.
A bit more potential daytime photography as there is also a 1245 departure from Swanage this weekend.

 

How are the Polar Express trains doing? From the webcam the 7 coach trains appear to be carrying mainly fresh air

 

It was Thursday evening Andy, although looking at the webcam last evening the light to the Gents was on (unlike Thursday) but all the other lights were still out. All the other lights were on in the village and the approach road and car park. I just assumed it was part of the product not to have the station illuminated.

 

Levelling up funding to help Keighley heritage railway become commuter route - BBC News

Wonder how well and what exactly that will look like.
On the face of it it does seem sad if the railway doesnt connect to Wareham (not saying the SR should do it on its own if it cant fund it) but for the wider community to have a service. The railway, signals and 1/2 dmu unit are all there available.

 

.... they just need enough passengers to make the service worthwhile. And therein seems to lie the problem!

 

As regards Swanage
(1) Demand for a service at "commuter times" has not been tested. This would be quite difficult (and potentially costly to test) because it would have to run at least five days a week for an extended period of time (say a whole year) and require the appropriate resources (not least the staff for the mission critical functions e.g. signalling staff, train crew as well as rolling stock).
(2) Demand for a summer only tourist service has now been tested twice (2017 and 2023) and on the face of it - without access to the full revenue and cost figures, passenger numbers etc- it appears to require considerable revenue support when calculated on a per passenger basis.

One has to question the desire of politicians to spend considerable sums of money (tax payer money) to provide services which the consumer has managed to do without for many years and for which there has been little evidence of demand or local population agitation.

 

Well, that is a matter for the production company who have Hired the train, so rather on the same principal like when various people have photographic charters on Heritage Railways.
It would be interesting to see how other Heritage Railways are doing with their Polar Expresses!

 

No. The platform lights should have been on, sounds like something must have tripped out. Will take a look at the Corfe webcam tonight to see if
their on or not.

 

Is there any demand for a commuter service from Swanage? The fact that it's only an hourly bus service throughout the day would indicate there isn't the demand there. Oxenhope - Keighley is quicker by train than bus, with frequent connections to the big cities of Bradford and Leeds.

 

The general consensus is that there is insufficient demand for a commuter service. There is a steady stream of cars (and vans!) departing from and entering Swanage during the commuter hours but little of this traffic would switch to rail for many reasons.

 

Well, quite! One might also question the willingness of the general taxpayer to subsidise a service that will be used by very few people, and for which adequate alternative public provision exists.

I wonder how long people are going to continue to flog the dead horse of expecting either the SR or Dorset Council to subsidise a loss-making service for which there is clearly little demand, when on the one hand the SR is at the same time appealing for funds to survive, and on the other Dorset Council has a budget deficit of millions per year even just to continue providing statutory services.

Tom