Quiet January

Looking at UK Steam I'm surprised at how few tours are running next month, so far.

Is it usual for this time of year what with engines needing some time to be maintained and a quiet market post-Christmas or is there normally a few more bookings once the New Year is over?

 

Most people have other things to spend there hard earned on at this time of year so most loco owners use the period between mid December and February to carry out maintenance work. And it's always been this way on the mainline. The engines have been hard at work all Spring, Summer and Autumn and like all old ladies they need a rest now and again.

 

I think the long winter nights put a lot of people off too as there's no fun looking out a window into darkness for 90% of your day, ok you get that in December but that has some nice Xmas destinations which post new year are not the same.

 

Always quite in January - normally a blip around Valentines and then the season starts again in March

 

Been a few years when the only thing that's moved in January has been a VSOE.

 

Normally not any january tours,although normally something happens right at the end of the month.

Feel sorry for you and the others Ralph,you don't deserve it but as you are the only people the general customer sees as been in charge you take the flack,sad really but what can be done.

Cheers,
Mark

 

Looking over UK Steam, last time was 2003, but that was only due to 2 cancelations..some years were very active in January.

Looking at 6 bells.. it was 1988 that last time no steam ran in January (predates VSOE Steam)

Interesting reading back over those pages and seeing locomotives like 30053, 45110, 31625, 75014, 46203 on the mainline

As Salty says, it's good to have some down time, this year has seen a large number of failures, substitutions and cancelations,

I think I calculated as many as 32 locomotives mainline registered in 2011...

here's my thoughts:
GWR (8)
9600
9466
4965
5029
5043
5972
6023
6024

Southern(4)
30777
34046
34067
35028

LMS(11)
5690
6100
6201
44871
44932
45231
45305
45407
45699
46115
48151

LNER(6)
4472
60007
60019
60163
61994
62005

BR (3)
70000
70013
71000

 

Ralph, you and all at Lime Street have my sympathies. It was not a pretty sight almost from the first announcement the way people descended on the staff. We decamped to Costa Coffee for a while and it was even worse when we came back. It was wrong!

 

Add 4936 Kinlet to the GWR list. She should be back for late spring. Work progressing well.

 

January tends to be the time we do some work on the coaches. We can rotate the engines around, but the coaches get used every time, especially the kitchen and support.

We did a private charter in Jan last year, but have nothing planned for 2011 until our St Valentines Express on 12 Feb.

 

Let's face it; the British are on the whole pigs. The effect of modern culture is a generation of hopelessly spoilt adults, all talking about rights and entirely forgetting about obligations even if just a general one to listen to people. And their kids follow suit.

 

If paid representatives of RTC did not step in and take the pressure off unpaid volunteers who are good enough to look after RTC's paying passengers week after week, then that was completely wrong. RTC is a business, after all, not some kind of preservation activity, and should be capable of honouring its responsibilities to its clients as befits a responsible promoter.

Given the passengers' three hours of freezing frustrations that day, would anyone have been a happy bunny? Please remember, they had paid for a shopping trip and afternoon in York, many as friends and family, rather than enthusiasts, and been provided with a mere round trip, largely in darkness, with just about enough time to grab a coffee and a cake at York station before the diesel hauled return which was imposed to retain some semblance of a reasonable return time, (better than a round trip to nowhere as per ten days before perhaps)

If that had happened to me, then I would not have been happy, and I would most certainly have been looking for my money to be on its way back to me after this shambles. The failure was, after all, before the tour commenced, not after departure and en route, and a different and more realistic decision could have been made, reflecting the clientele and marketing.

I have to say that I have never received the courtesy of a letter from RTC when as a client I have suffered delay, or worse, unlike other more customer friendly promoters; let alone any gesture of goodwill, (and they have had some £5,000 from me over the years) so for anyone to describe paying clients who had been badly let down as "pigs" simply indicates an utter failure to appreciate the need for customer care, and hopefully retention of some goodwill with an eye to future tours out of Liverpool.

 

TBirdFrank - I can understand that people felt angry at RTC letting them down (and my own opinion of that organisation is pretty low after a very disappointing failure to deliver in France a couple of years ago), but I despise the mentality of taking a pop at the people 'at the coal face' when blame lies higher up the food chain, but you can't see the real culprits face to face.

Other than that, I'm totally in agreement with you on the need for better customer care and keeping goodwill.

Have a great festive season.

 

The problem is that RTC put volunteers on the front line, and on the day - to the paying customers - they are people "in authority" and therefore representatives of RTC.

As such, they become the first people with whom to voice complaints, whether or not that is the fair course of action. Be honest - when someone has had over £150 pounds from you and is falling down on the job - would you believe the company's appointed representative for your coach saying - "nothing to do with me - I'm only a volunteer" You wouldn't would you? The paying public in all probability don't understand the concept of working for a profit making organisation for nowt, and I must confess - given RTC's track record, especially this last quarter - stewarding must be becoming a post with a high risk of getting agro.

You and I appreciate the niceties of the situation - but Joe Public doesn't and is unlikely to accept education on the day, as tempers in a situation like this are fraught - and patience in short supply - so anyone in authority gets it. Let's be honest - we have all heard the instruction to staff to "keep a lid on it" when sometimes owning up to a situation and openly and honestly describing it can defuse issues.

This is another tour that should never have run as it could not meet its advertised potential of an afternoon shopping in York and steam both ways - but running it put another £50k or so into RTC's coffers based on a sell out budget - so - it ran.

 

OK, I take your point, TBirdFrank - I guess I'd be pretty steaming if I'd been a punter -just feeling sorry for the stewards. RTC may have made a profit, but damage to reputation can't be ignored by any business for very long.

 

Yet, you could listen to complaints year-after-year about RTC but they still soldier on, must tell you something?

 

PR stands for proportional representation and nothing else, head in sand or just thick skinned??

 

If they're such a bad company then why do they keep on running rail tours?