GCR Ending of Lineside Passes, ex-Bridge that Gap: Great Central Railway News

The starting point for discussion shouldn’t be “is driving 30 miles to take a leisure ride on a heritage railway polluting?” - of course it is - but whether it is more or less polluting than what someone would do were that not available, which might include a similar length journey to a floodlit sports match, or a spot of mindless consumerism buying unnecessary goods in a shopping complex.

On that ground, if you assume there will always be a demand for leisure services that go beyond the strictly essential, a visit to a heritage rsilway is probably worse than some but better than many other options. Thirty mile drive to a ten mile long linear wildlife corridor that six times per day sees a coal-burning CO2 generation device travel up and down is I suspect preferable to a thirty mile journey to an equivalent area of concrete car park to visit a shopping centre full of goods transported in from China.

Tom

 

Fair comment - but that does not undermine my basic point that the public transport benefit argument that supports rail travel is inapplicable to preserved railways.

 

35B notes :

Fair comment - but that does not undermine my basic point that the public transport benefit argument that supports rail travel is inapplicable to preserved railways.

I'm not sure that some local lines such as the ELR / KWVR / SVR / WSR would agree where the public transport "argument" could be used to point out that the heritage line provides a service as part of the local transport facility and - more to the point - shows the importance of heritage lines becoming involved with the local community in order to maintain a viable customer base - especially out of season.

 

I'd accept a qualification to my statement, but suggest that such journeys are but a small minority of traffic.

 

When we visit a heritage line it is generally as part of a longer holiday - eg w/e break or longer. This being the case, our preference is to dump the car (we invariably travel there by car, especially if self-catering) and use rail if possible. This works really well at my alma mater, the KWVR, where we stay in a village on the Aire Valley line and commute to the KWVR/Skipton/Stettle/Saltaire etc etc by the very frequent and cheap local train service. Unfortunately this is the exception rather than the rule with many other lines not being so easily accessible. Alternatively we try and stay local to the heritage line itself and use our feet.

 

Don't forget that "public transport" doesn't just cover locals who use the train to go to the shops or work, but also tourists who use the railway to get to another tourist attraction as well, potentially reducing congestion.

 

Indeed, and I certainly wasn’t trying to argue that point.

Tom

 

You are correct on that, I think the point by @nanstallon was more that some people aren't interested in looking at the science or the data, they'll just see it as burning coal and so conclude it must be bad. It's happened in the past few years with diesel cars - if you buy a new one today it will be far cleaner than what was on offer when the government was encouraging people to buy diesels. But it's been completely demonised in the public view, putting people off buying.

 

Polluting for pleasure is a buzz phrase gaining momentum and can easily be applied to heritage railways. I wonder if that momentum will be maintained when it comes down to jetting off to exotic locations for holidays?

 

Meanwhile...it will be interesting to see how many photographers in Hi-viz jackets are spotted lineside at the forthcoming gala!

 

In general a great many people are critical of things when it doesn't affect them. When it does their attitude is often quite different.

 

Or drive up to 100 miles to an airfield to watch as gas guzzling aircraft zoom along and other monoliths trundle past belching exhaust to the heavens

 

Then there's motorsports, there's a vast variety of those where, if you take it to its basic principle, the whole purpose is just to drive gas guzzling cars round and round a circuit. A huge number of people follow, and participate in, motorsports in its many and various forms and all of them avidly follow the fortunes of their favourite teams and drivers, but I doubt if any of them considers the environmental impact. They just enjoy the spectacle and competition of the races.

 

Somebody signing to say they won't trespass onto the four foot etc is not a guarantee that they won't do so. If an accident resulted from such trespass, the railway would probably be held liable for not policing the enforcement of such undertaking. Short of constantly patrolling the lineside, the railway cannot physically prevent trespass, and would take the rap for authorising the trespasser to go lineside.

 

One big difference between lineside photographers and those working on both the big and small railway is that the former is almost certainly a 'want' and the other almost certainly a 'need'. You can't compare the two.

 

It is apparent that the numbers of accredited orange vests lineside on gala days was high and I assume that a very unpopular way of managing the numbers would be by the cost of a lineside pass. A day photo charter on the GCR costs £80 so would a full year lineside pass seem unreasonable at the same cost. Bearing in mind a good number of photographers will attend two or three GCR charters in a year at a cost of £160 or £240 it does make the £35 previously charged for a years access comparatively cheap.

 

You can’t really compare the two, a Charter is managed and you won’t get othe hi vis wearing people in the way. In changeable weather conditions there is also the facility to call the train forward at the right time or pick the locations accordingly. No doubt one day the men in suits will say it’s too dangerous, can’t allow people to enjoy themselves can we?

 

I’m not sure the last two conditions are enforceable

 

The last one would be easy as, if they did this that would be the last time they would be allowed to go line side to take photos.

 

I've participated in photo charters for decades and am well versed in their advantages and their disadvantages for taking photographs what I am comparing is the costs for example of three charters on the GCR as against a years lineside access and the difference is £205.