Swanage Railway General Discussion

The development and testing of rural broadband for rural communities perhaps has broader impact than a carriage shed.

 

Well yes, but read the story. The Swanage has apparently gone cashless because of the lack of available banking facilities in Swanage (surely must be a PO though?), which means their cash handling (and insurance) costs have probably risen. To reduce those costs by going cashless they need to be able to take card payments at stations (which could obviously be done with a dedicated line to a payment terminal) and on the trains (needs some form of WiFi). Note also the point about paying for car parking, which I believe, is no longer under their control.

So it does not seem to me to be about making sure that passengers can stay online even when on line, but about mitigating other circumstances beyond their control (particularly the poor WiFi coverage in Purbeck).

 

Post Office on Institute Road in Swanage having relocated from being opposite the railway station. Nationwide Building Society on Station Road Swanage.

One of the benefits of going cashless was that it eliminated a considerable amount of staff time spent counting cash takings, preparing banking (cash collection) and preparing cash floats for the ticket offices, shop, catering outlets (when SRC ran them) and travelling ticket inspectors.

 

That’s why the railway should invest time in the project. It doesn’t explain £163k as a benefit to the railway - whereas a wider rural internet access does.

 

Bearing in mind I can rarely get a mobile signal in the NT car park at Corfe, and the radio often drops out as well it shows how even older style comms are difficult in certain areas.
I would have thought is very useful for remote areas from both habitation and on train on the National Network.
May even help GBR move to instant penalty fares and MG11,s recorded in a central database, or even horror of horrors for revenue staff to look up the rules

 

I tried to buy a ticket from the TTI last time I visited but she had no wifi

 

Reading the article the grant was to Doset council not Swanage Railway for this specific purpose, so not up to Swanage to redirect it ! It may not be people on here perceived priority but surely a good opportunity for Swanage Railway to engage with the council and locals which can't harm long term. Sometimes you have to grab opportunitities as they arise. The way it's worded not sure it requires great effort or deflection of SR resources to set up the trial, I say good on them, someone is obviously aware enough to grab the opportunity, usually a good sign with management.

 

Swanage and Corfe already have fast broadband via Openreach.

This is just for Purbeck park Norden, the Telegraph and also the BBC mention satellite, so wonder if this relates to the Oneweb satellite service, in which the UK Government has a stake.
BT and Oneweb did a successful test to the Lundy Island community, so looks like Oneweb satellite terminals will be installed in more UK locations where Openreach find it hard to provide a fast broadband service.

Looks like a Cardiff based contractor will install the satellite kit at Purbeck park Norden with the council, and also the WiFi repeaters the public will have access to. The public can then use WiFi to pay for car parking and SR tickets.

It's possible the rival Starlink system could be used, but I expect it to be Oneweb as the previous Government invested money in it and wanted to see it used. I expect groups like national trust and other heritage railways will watch to see how the test works for other rural areas Openreach doesn't cover, if the initial cost reduces?.

 

If the 3 Mogul locomotives are no longer needed as the SR may have enough steam locos (with 30053, 80140 returning, 30120 having fundraising for an overhaul) and the once proposed Wareham steam service is efficiently paused and unlikely to proceed. With Eddystone to be available for long mainline charters from London and other places. There was talk of cancelling the expensive Mogul locos lease early?

 

I am less bemused by the question of what the benefits will be than by the cost. How on earth do you get through so much money installing a few wi-fi hubs that talk to satellites?

 

Its a test, presumably of Oneweb, if successful costs will fall for other locations.

There will be some who say the Government should just sell it's 10% remaining share of Oneweb (was 50% at one point) and let the cheaper Starlink survive. But the Oneweb satellites have launched now (ironically thanks to Starlink/Spacex).

 

They need to cancel the expensive Mogul loco lease. Wasn't stated it was 10-20k per year per loco?

Eddystone, Manston, 80104, M7 plus T3 and T9 would be enough. The railway had 5 overall active when they had 2 running during summer and 3 during summer Sat/Sun when they had the dining stock also used back before Covid.
Even if we go back to 2 steam in summer... not needing a 3rd for the dinning set should be 4 overall is fine when Eddystone is away


In terms of mainline, now Southern locomotives are warmer to the idea to go mainline, I'm sure if we remove the U class then Manston or probably 80104 (if not Manston) could be also mainline equipped (with the equipment already paid for).

Thus two mainline bulleid, plus the core heritage fleet of 4 locos with the two big boys helping out when needed.

 

Quite the opposite, we should be investing more to make sure there's some competition in the sector.

 

Sounds like big chufferitis! Still, would be impressive going through Corfe Castle - the first time …

Tom

 

Other than Oneweb or Starlink the alternative would just be for Openreach, to run out broadband fibre on poles. But looks like Purbeck park, Norden will be a test of satellite.

 

There's always going to be some places that are difficult / too expensive to get a wired connection to though, so having alternative satellite providers would be very useful.

 

You cannot just go around "cancelling contracts" unless you have either:
1) A break clause that allows you to, which I believe was said is sometime in the future
2) You negotiate with the lessor to cancel, and why would the lessor give up that revenue stream? Please tell me what the incentive to them would be?
3) You fancy a day in court along with some legal bills.
4) You have some "magic solution" that makes the lessor in the same or better position as now.

 

Im not sure how the total comes out at £163k but wi-fi is practically de rigueur for a tourist attraction these days and was even over a decade ago. Especially rural ones. There are many reasons to be using such devices, ticket buying is just one of them. We sold our bosses back in about 2011 on it that visitors want to upload photos of their visit (this was before decent international rates(we had a lot of international visitors)) and it can often be more reliable than local 3/4/5g networks. It meant the staff had wi-fi as well. I'd like to see how this adds up though. I don't get to a lot of railways but Im curious how many have any at least at stations let alone aboard.

 

When the lease contract was done, it was probably thought the locos will earn revenue from picking up visitors off the mainline at Wareham, or doing mini tours. But has not happened, and only one Mogul out of 3 is working and might be soon surplus to requirements. So might be a good time to renogociate the contract. But agree legally could be messy.

 

And if you are going over to not producing leaflets then people will either need to download before they come or whilst at the attraction. If done right you can out so much more into an online guide compared to paper one and easily update it , even temporarily customize it.