NEWS ON: 'The Lakes and Borders Explorer' charter on 17th August

And it worked! Today it seems all companies run on the same principle, run on the bare minimum of staff. That is why public service is so poor & no jobs out there.
This is not just railways as highlighted above.

 

True, but why should the paying customer subsidise a business model weighted in favour of paying Directors bonuses, and shareholder dividends when it fails to deliver the services it's contracted to provide ? Surely DBS is trying to have it's cake and eat it here ?

 

I am sure you are correct when you say that charters are a marginal business,but I don't really understand the point you are making in your first line. Surely if a loco fails an FTR, its always on the day prior to travel and thus regarded as too late to cancel the trip - it will run,just possibly hauled by another steam loco if a support crew ect can be organised in time,but much more likely diesel hauled. The SD trip to Exeter on 30 June is a case in point, 35028 failed its FTR,the train ran hauled by a 67. Anyone booked who is on this forum was obviously bitterly disappointed, some others were probably a bit disappointed,a fair few probably were not that bothered. Everyone got a small refund or twice the amount if they rebooked on another trip. So why or how would it make sense to sue the MNLPS? and for what?

I don't see how you can compare the failure of a loco in its FTR with DBS just merrily cancelling a trip they have contracted to run months earlier.

I do however think there is a strong possibility that if the lawyers are brought in,and if DBS were sued ect ect we would probably all be the losers and the results could be catastrophic for the charter market

 

So what are you trying to say?

 

I have to wonder if DBS will actually continue in the charter market long term anyway.

For them its only worth it, if there's no pain, financially, politically or legally.
They could drop the business tomorrow and would be no worse off.

 

I you were booked to go to a concert by a particular "star" and said "star" fell ill and the concert was cancelled then, fair enough, you would be very disappointed but would accept it, even if it meant you lost on accommoidation etc that you had booked . However, if it was cancelled at the last minute because the concert organiser suddenly realised they had not booked a piano player, you may feel very aggrieved and may rightly have cause to seek compensation for your loses.

 

I'm not sure DBS as a company excluding charters are running that healthily recently anyway, losing plenty of freight and pway work to competitors, their problems run far deeper than just charters, charters might be a drop in the ocean to them, but losing a RHTT turn here, an intermodal flow there, is non too clever, plenty of their former work has gone to Freightliner, GBRF, DRS etc.

 

Sadly, it seems to me that the owners and operators of mainline steam need DBS rather more than DBS need them. How many other TOCs, apart from WCRC, still have any steam-qualified drivers on their staff? What sort of refresher courses and assesments would be required before they could take on steam charter work? Would it be worth any TOC's while to start from scratch like that? Only if they get a "feel good" boost for their staff and some good publicity as a result, in my opinion. Over the years there have been rumours of DRS, Victor Rail and Devon & Cornwall getting involved, amongst others, but nothing has actually happened (except that I think 61306 may have made one L/E move this year with a D&C crew?)

One positive bit of news, though: it's reported in the Torbay thread that a new DBS steam driver was passed out on yesterday's train.

 

Staff being paid a retainer to be "on call" may be an old fashioned concept but it's one that is used in the airline industry.
Ask my daughter. She's on standby today. <BJ>