Project for short heritage railway beside busway Dunstable

BUSINESS PLANS

I suggest you look at the following and then say what your suggestions are for the business plan:

http://www.tedco.org/index/view/268/men ... mplate.htm - word file containing a editable busness plan template

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/ac ... 1073869162 - THE GOVERNMENT'S OWN PAGES ON BUSINESS PLANS

http://www.barclaysmicrosites.co.uk

http://www.teneric.co.uk/free_downloads.html

http://www.business-plans.co.uk/busines ... plate.html

http://www.businessballs.com/freebusine ... plates.htm

http://www.bankofscotlandbusiness.co.uk ... siness.asp

My real concern is that these are not specific at all to a heritage railway proposal. Can anybody suggest ways of constructing a business plan by making these templates fit?

 

Hello,

All that I am saying is that there has been a lot of material on the forumn about the need to do market research, etc, but there has been none on how to prepare a business plan.

I am saying that there is material on the internet (and I have sent in details of other sites with such material on them) but it is not at all specific to how to do a business plan for such an attraction as the proposed heritage railway.

So I all I am suggesting is that you make suggestions as to how to do a business plan for such an attraction.

Kind regards,
Alfred.

 

Okay. Get a professional to do it.

 

Have a look at the WS Atkins website (http://www.atkinsglobal.com/areas_of_business/), they will undoubtedly be able to at least give you an idea of costs and will perhaps be able to tell you what work they have done on other similar schemes.

Other consultancies exist and you would probably need to go out to tender, particularly if you are spending someone else's money.

Perhaps you will ignore this posting like you did my last one.

 

Thanks for that.

The idea is that I should produce a busness plan of my own, and included within that are areas that need further assistance from the councils et al.

Kind regards,

Alfred.

 

I have been involved in public heritage project development for over 15 years. In that time I have learnt that to produce a business plan in support of a new visitor attraction is way beyond my capabilities. Nor, quite rightly, would anyone take the slightest bit of notice of it if I tried to do it myself. I have no track record in business planning so the resulting document would have no credibility at all.

You have two options. You could either try doing the business plan yourself and waste a fair chunk of yours and everyone else's time. Or, you could get organised so that you are in a position to commission one.

So, which is it to be?

 

Further to the above, since it is clearly unreasonable to ask you to produce a business plan yourself, as you don't have the expertise or professional clout to do so, I would suggest that all you need for the council is a 2-page summary of:

1) The remit of a feasibility/viability study with a business/development plan as its output
(Furthermore I'd suggest a 'go/no go' decision at the mid-point review, i.e. if it isn't viable, don't waste any more money on this)
2) How much a feasibility/viability study and business/development plan is going to cost
(Once you have this summary document you can use it to seek quotes)
3) Who you are going to approach for funding for this study
(I have no idea... but you need to know how much you're asking them for anyway)

That's it. And for item 1), don't waste time regurgitating the stuff you've been posting to this forum, it's too much detail and you will turn people off (I've already given up reading the long emails, and I consider myself to be vaguely interested, even if I do think you're wasting your time). All the remit section needs to say is:
- There is a proposal for xyz
- The study is to determine if it is feasible / viable to include issues such as operating methodology, site security, likely visitor numbers, opportunities for urban regeneration, initial construction costs, operating costs, income, potential sources of funding, blah blah blah.
- If the first phase proves it's feasible, the second phase will work up a detailed business/development plan.

There you go, I've written it for you, just type that up neatly, get some quotes and get on with it. But please, DON'T be disheartened if there is no money available for a study, or the study says it's not viable - you can't win 'em all.

 

NEW photos of Dunstable heritage railway proposal are at-

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/573581282SLOKbv

These are my own proposals and views and I do not represent anybody else.

Alfred.

 

Redaing this topic I cannot help but come to the conclusion that this whole Luton - Dunstable scheme is a no-brainer.

The guided busway is, like one in Cambridgeshire, going to be great expence for minimal gain. A case of being clever for the sake of cleverness. What is wrong with orthodox buses bearing in mind that a road already parallels the existing railway for most of the way? Still, it is only our public money that is being wasted.

Luton - Dunstable as either a normal public service railway, or a railway preservation scheme (with the proviso of very secure storage for locos, rolling stock, etc), possibly.

However, there are already established preservation type railways around the area - granted, narrower than standard gauge - at both Whipsnade and Leighton Buzzard, each less than 10 miles away. For standard gauge there is an established site at Quainton, less than 20 miles away. Are the visiting general public going to worry about the track gauge too much?

As for a 1/4 mile run in a deprived area (this means potential vandalism), will the public flock there? Doubtful.

Would a loco or rolling stock owner want to base his/her items there? I wouldn't.

It is doomed. Forget it.

 

I like this idea. I would support it and offer my services in the restoration of the line to working order, should the motion be accepted and granted by the council. Good on you Alfred.

 

Purely for entertainment purposes:

Look at the caption to the picture linked to above http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2491235500102023016JmTkna

Am I right in understanding that the ground level has been changed since the line closed, ie the proposed depot site is on a different level to any othr part of the formation that you would want to use?

Some obvious questions:

1. This is an old oil depot. What soil contamination issues are there?
2. Is the new ground level suitably drained & stable to support buildings & railway infrastructure?
3. How will you create the necessary embankment to move from this site to the parts of the old formation that you wish to utilise?

What amazes me from the photo is that none of the natives have thought of having a bonfire with the contents of the pallet store. Marsh Farm isn't too far away, and they used to be quite handy with petrol bombs round there!

Also, you've mentioned about rolling stock, esp Mk1's above. Has it occured to you that the major societies might just be selling off coaches that are totally shot? They are beyond economic repair, and you could not use them to convey the public without spending tens of thousands of pounds.

 

Please define "beyond economic repair". Most of the locomotive and rolling stock in use within the heritage movement today was disposed of by the big railway for that very same reason.

 

Had you seen the state of 7511 and 7960 on the SVR (amongst others) before work commenced you would have said they were "beyond economic repair using volunteer labour even with comprehensive facilities". http://www.gw-svr-a.org.uk/7960/7960-departmental.html and http://www.gw-svr-a.org.uk/7960/index.html

 

I have been reading through material about how to write a business plan that I referred to in the past.

The methods suggested differ from the suggestions given on Wilkipedia which formed the backbone of my successful formal proposal and previous business plan concept, the latter has been relegated to the 'operational' section of the plan.

There are also differences between sources of advice as to how many sections to have and how to head each section. But all agreed on the need for an executive summary.

I enclose a draft of an executive summary. It incorporates some material I sent last week. and some earlier material, as well as a lot of material I have placed recently on on - line forumns which updates the above.

Executive summary is rather long (2 pages) it does not go into the details of exactly what we would do (this would be later in the plan, in the 'stages' etc I referred to which would be placed under 'operations') but executive summary does give a thorough description of the proposal - context, aims and intended effects.[/

In 1990 Luton Borough Council began promoting the conversion of the Luton to Dunstable railway into a guided bus way. Following a multi – modal study and public consultation exercise Bedfordshire County Council decided to promote the bus way scheme in 1994. In 2003 the Department for Transport approved the funding submission. In 2005 there was a public enquiry. Planning permission was granted in a Transport & Works Order in December 2006 and Transport Minister Rosie Winterton gave the go ahead in August 2008. In April 2009 Luton Borough Council announced that it was seeking tenders for its construction.

The ongoing environmental assessment of the Luton to Dunstable bus way project recognises the heritage potential of the disused railway line and if practicable a short length of track could be retained.

Since April 2008 railway enthusiasts have been contacting Dunstable Town Council, Luton Borough Council Transport Strategy and planning officers of South Bedfordshire District Council about a proposal for a short heritage railway wholly within Dunstable.

In 2002 - 2003 the East of England Development tourism surveys identified Bedfordshire (from Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Essex and Bedfordshire) as being at the bottom in terms of public awareness and perceptions. Bedfordshire does not have good perceptions for tourism; because of negative perceptions of the county and poor attractions, restaurants and hotels and because it is easy to pass through on the way out from London. Only 5% of jobs in Bedfordshire depended on tourism in 2003, most visitors were 'day trippers' (which create the maximum impact in terms of congestion and loadings on buses, coaches and trains etc) and a much higher proportion of visitors to the county were coming on business travel or to visit friends or relatives, than was the case elsewhere in East of England.

Luton Dunstable was found to have particular problems with its image in the tourism surveys. Luton Dunstable and Houghton Regis are de – industrialised industrial towns, with a lot of social problems and social housing or council estates. The area has been regarded as a tourist’s wasteland for many years. Dunstable, de – industrialised since the late 1980s, has long been seen as an area with high crime levels and large areas of the town suffer from deprivation and lack of opportunity.

Bedfordshire and Luton 2007 - 2012 tourism growth strategy intends to address these deficiencies.

Luton Dunstable and Houghton Regis have ancient histories and are not solely creations of the Industrial revolution. Luton dates back to Saxon times, Dunstable had a small settlement in Roman times with evidence or Neolithic settlements in the surrounding hills and Houghton Regis is mentioned in the Doomsday book. There are some very ancient buildings in Houghton Regis, and in Dunstable several historic buildings still exist although the remains of others are hidden within modern buildings. The ancient roots of Dunstable and its setting on the edge of the Chiltern Hills show, because there are well – heeled areas and there is a Conservative club in the town centre.

Since the East of England Development tourism surveys the local councils have made concerted efforts to build up tourist attractions despite the poor image of the Luton Dunstable conurbation. Dunstable Town Council now runs a heritage centre at Priory House, substantial sums of money have been spent in the area on creating tourist attractions i.e. Grove Theatre (Dunstable), Carnival Arts Centre (Luton) and Chilterns Gateway Centre (midway between the two), which add to the established attractions such as the Whipsnade Zoo, Priory Gardens and the renovated Priory Church. The Dunstable Town Council website gives a history of the town and geographical details of the surrounding area, similar material is available on the Houghton Regis Town Council website and there are more detailed histories of Dunstable and Luton available on – line.

Existing historical or natural features of the area have been harnessed to build up tourist attractions (the Dunstable heritage Centre is housed in one of the old buildings there, the Priory Church has been renovated, the Chilterns Gateway Centre is in Chiltern hills nearby). Extensive use has been made of grant aid funding in the process.

The proposal for a heritage railway (harnessing the long disused railway line as a foundation to build up a tourist attraction) proposes to continue the above trend and will require some similar grant aid funding.

The proposed heritage railway would be the only standard gauge heritage railway in Bedfordshire and near to Hertfordshire (which is only a few miles away from Dunstable and literally borders Luton) and so the unique nature of the attraction in the area would provide a major boost to tourism in Luton Dunstable.

The proposed heritage railway would provide a large ‘all weather’ tourist attraction which would be built on swathes of development land or derelict land which was formerly used by the old railway or heavy industry. The heritage railway would aim to add greatly to the efforts to boost tourism in Luton and especially Dunstable, to educate the public about the old railway line, to provide volunteering opportunities, and to assist in economic regeneration by participating in training and employment schemes. The proposed heritage railway would aim to attract custom for local businesses, and inspire people to go to the other attractions in the town.

The proposed heritage railway would aim to recreate a reasonably accurate impression of what the trains, which ran along the Luton to Dunstable branch line looked like by operating antique rolling stock on an occasional basis. It is not possible to rebuild the entire railway, every station or to use exactly the same trains, but enough buildings and vehicles do exist to recreate a reasonably accurate imitation.

The proposed heritage railway would have a compound approximately ½ acre in area with road access opening off Tavistock Street at SW corner with access to the disused railway line from NE corner. Currently development land is a pallet store. A 400 yard section of the old line starting beside the compound would initially be operated with a DMU, with loco haulage and steam haulage following later on. The land surrounding the disused railway line is designated as ‘open space’ in the bus way planning permission which would provide the proposed heritage railway with a very different environment to the housing and industrial estates and derelict industrial land nearby.

The proposed heritage railway would operate during weekends, during the daytimes, from late morning to early evening, over the summer period and over the Christmas holiday period. Some mid week operation could be possible during schools weeks and over school holidays, some evening operation could be possible at Summer Solstice, Halloween and Bonfire Night. The proposed heritage railway would aim to attract the patronage of patronage of local people and of tourists from outside of the area and school parties (especially during schools weeks and the like).

The proposed heritage railway places great emphasis on assisting economic regeneration of the surrounding area and the conurbation in general.

None of the deprived areas of Dunstable have any of the tourist attractions in the town. The proposed heritage railway would be located in one of the deprived areas in the North of Dunstable (Northfield ward). There are many closed premises and much derelict, vacant or recently cleared ex – industrial land nearby. By attracting tourists, and boosting patronage of local fast food takeaways, shops and pubs, the proposed heritage railway will help to regenerate the deprived area in which it is situated. I have deliberately designed the business plan for the proposed heritage railway to maximise the number of passengers who go on to use the local businesses nearby (along High Street North – Houghton Road - Tavistock Street – Brewers Hill Road), and to use the space released to maximise the potential for public education facilities at the proposed heritage railway and maximise the number of passengers who become curious enough to visit other attractions in Dunstable such as the town council’s heritage centre at Priory House or Chilterns Gateway Centre.

The concept is that the railway will provide a railway museum and educational facilities to educate the public about the railway line, and an available shop, selling souvenir of relevance to the railway, but catering facilities provided at the site near to High Street North would not duplicate those already in the area. Instead passengers could visit local businesses, which would thence benefit from increased custom.

For the proposed railway to go ahead the funding must be raised by next year. Although the proposed heritage railway has none of the high modern construction costs of attractions such as Grove Theatre and Chiltern Downs Centre, there are costs such as land purchase, legal fees, changes to open space design and cost of retaining items from the disused Luton to Dunstable railway as it is removed. There may be some funding calls connected to the programme of public participation (volunteering and training). The bus way project has finally gone out to tender, a contractor will be appointed at end of 2009, and all the undergrowth is to be cleared from the long disused Luton to Dunstable railway line and the track lifted from mid - 2010, before construction of the bus way can begin.

The Luton to Dunstable branch line is in a highly unusual position in that the track was not lifted after closure in 1989 but has been left in situ for over 20 years. Luton Borough Council will be responsible for removal of undergrowth and the old railway tracks once they have bought the land from BRB Residuary LTD.

Due to the high costs - of removing the track and disposal of old steel rails, wood sleepers and concrete sleepers, of removal of and disposal of the fence posts, of removal and disposal of the level crossing at Court Road, of demolition of bridges and of disposal of old bridge components - the cost implication of the retention of the track between High Street North and South Apex in situ, and for the retention and movement to storage at compound of other track and civil engineering items; is of little intrinsic value - save for considerations such as haulage costs etc.

The plan that has been agreed with Luton Borough Council is for them to instruct their contractor to retain in situ the track between High Street North and South Apex, then to remove and move to storage at the pallet store land the items that it is agreed be retained. When the track is removed these would include the track needed to lay sidings at the depot area, replace points removed, re-sleeper the line and carry out any outstanding track renewals; and when the remaining infrastructure of the branch is demolished, to remove and move to storage the civil engineering items needed to provide fence posts to build fences, provide a footbridge at South Apex, a level crossing at Brewers Hill Road and a bridge over High Street North etc.

Although the task of retaining infrastructure from the disused Luton to Dunstable branch line as it is demolished will be for the Luton Borough Council bus way contractor in the first instance, the work of rebuilding a section of the original railway in to as accurate a representation of the original railway as practicable as a tourist attraction will depend on an extensive programme of public involvement (via volunteering opportunities, trainees from local FE colleges and by participants on DWFP and Employment Service schemes and participants in work schemes run by the probation and community service organisations). Such an extensive programme of public involvement would provide volunteering and training opportunities that would be unique among the other tourist attractions in the area in terms of scale, scope and the opportunities to learn and practise a wide variety of trades. This programme would provide training and volunteering opportunities that would be of great benefit to the people from more deprived areas of Luton Dunstable and greatly aid economic regeneration and recovery from the recession.

Depending on funding levels there could be the need for a few paid staff (for example supervision for those on the various schemes, or full time fitters or platelayers / or etc).

The factors of location (in a deprived area), the composition (from infrastructure recovered from the disused Luton to Dunstable branch line as it is demolished and stored), the method of construction (depend on an extensive programme of public involvement for the manpower) and considerable opportunities for expansion (not only the building of the attraction but the potential for extension) mean that the proposed heritage railway is well qualified to aid in the regeneration of depressed areas of Luton, Dunstable and Houghton Regis by involving the public.

Once A5 bypass is completed there are proposals to extend the running line across Dunstable High Street North (A5) and Brewers Hill Road then beside the driveway along the old railway leading to industrial premises, towards Sewell Trail. These would enhance the attraction (as there are concerns at the short running line for the longer term) and then the proposed heritage railway could continue the programme of training and volunteering opportunities.

 

Forgive me, but unless you are extremely experienced in this kind of work, you cannot produce a business plan or feasibility study for a proposed heritage railway yourself, and neither is anyone expecting you to. To attempt to do so will result in nothing more than a colossal waste of your time and everyone else's. What is stopping you getting a group together that, in partnership with the council, could commission the research you need?

 

This is a truly shite location, why not pick somewhere vaguely attractive?

 

Alfred

Business Plan

A couple of points for you to consider:

1 I think your summary is too long. It needs to fit on half of an A4 page. It is, after all, a summary. Just needs to say what it will be when the railway is finished - 400m of railway, DMU, platform, buildings(?), volunteers, educational, workshops. If I was a councillor I would not want to wade through and try to understand everything, including the recent history, in the first pass. All that can be made available later.

2 If I was a town councillor being asked to consider this, the first thing I'd want to find out is "how much will it cost". More to the point, "How much will it cost the Council". And what guarantees are secured on the rest of the cash. If you put no figures in the Plan, then as a councillor, I'd not bother to read the rest. So, the other half of the A4 page needs to show the costs - £1M from the local council; £2M from EU; £3M from Mr Ben Evolent; and so on. Just the big numbers.

The rest of your extensive tome can be made available if anyone is persuaded/enthused to read further. Hope you see these comments as constructive.

Steve

 

I agree with the Wizard. He's described the required content spot on. Also, from a communication point of view, you will need titles and numbers for your different sections. What I've just read (well, skimmed actually as the length and density are just too forbidding) was a "compleat historie".

I'm sure there are councillors concerned enough about regenerating Luton & Dunstable to help you. Just let them know that you have a feasible idea, with perhaps an option for future expansion if successful, and what the cost/benefit will be for the Council. They'll get back to you if you've succeeded in interesting them.

I think a lot of the "lively" tone you got from some posters might have been because in their heart they want to see a restored rail line and not a guided busway, while your scheme accepts the future existence of the busway concept, thus knocking on the head any chance of a railway linking L & D.

 

You're honestly expecting Alfred to write less than a minimum of 10,000 words on anything? Jeez! :smt103 Have you not read his postings on rest of this thread? :doubt:

Must admit I am starting to wonder when the thoroughly well-meaning, well-intentioned users of the forum who continue to offer Alfred good advice will finally realise that he comes on and asks for advice, but completely ignores everything that anyone says.

Despite his endless questions he is obviously convinced that his way is the right way and, however much good advice is offered, is absolutely determined to ignore it all and stick rigidly with the Alfred Principle of carrying on in his own, er... unique, fashion.

Has nobody worked that out yet?

Honestly, chaps and chapesses, save your breath and let him get on with it - there are far more rewarding ways to spend your time, much better ways of using your reserves of patience and goodwill. Like watching grass grow, or manufacturing tartan paint...

Because it's Alfred. And he doesn't change his mind for anyone. Because he's always right... :roll: