Project for short heritage railway beside busway Dunstable

To quote from the Dragons Den ...." I' m Out". :-#
It is in the wrong place (not a tourist location) at the wrong time (recession).

 

You seem to have totally mis - read government and local council policy!!!

The idea is to promote Bedfordshire as a tourist destination and especially Luton and Dunstable so that they become tourist destinations - locations.

Dunstable already has a lot of tourist attractions inside the town boundary - look at the links I have just posted in my above postings!!!

Due to recession, there are more UK tourists staying in UK for their holidays and more coming from US and EU due to the weak pound -- £. SO, people will want to go to tourist attractions in UK - and SO they will need new tourist attractions - such as Project for short heritage railway Dunstable!

There is also the plan to extend the heritage railway out into the countryside to the West towards Leighton Buzzard, due to the National Cycle path that is definately a tourist area.

 

Rather than being convinced by interminably long theoretical postings with rather childish 'Ner ner ner-ner ner' comments like...

... the doubters will only be convinced once they see physical proof that the project is underway and viable.

I can only speak for myself, but I'm afraid I will certainly not be trying Luton as a destination in which to spend any spare time, despite the fact that I always holiday in the UK, recession or no recession!

But, in fairness, I have asked around. "If you had a spare day and a bit of spare cash, would you consider a day out in and around Luton?" Most people I've asked wondered if I'd been drinking... :smt119

Cue the next very looooooong post... :smt024

 

To be fair both Whipsnade Zoo and Woburn Abbey are close to Luton but the zoo has it's own steam railway and there is talk of a line being constructed at Woburn along the lines of the one at Longleat. 400 yards in a dmu isn't quite in the same league tbh.

 

The railway is in Dunstable NOT in Luton.

Sorry I did not mean to sound like that.

OK?

Alfred.

 

Thanks.

I am very sorry indeed if I appear impatient with anyone, I do appreciate the help, it is just negative "'name calling'" that annoys me.

When you mention other museums - what they charge and how many visitors do they attract - can you all come up with some figures as we need to get started on the projected use and income figures.

The idea really is really to buy the land with the initial grant aid funding (it is the major cost item in the first stage) .

Sorry, I should have been more accurate in the impressions I gave everyone there.

Thanks - some new cost items. Staff would be voluntary but if the idea for trainees comes around then, yes we'd need some supervisary staff.

Rates - As the railway is a museum it can qualify as rate exempt.

Insurance - is cia £5000 mark for Swindon and Cricklade.

With no £37.5k lease per year - the break - even income per year figure becomes around £60k per anum - still its a lot of boodle...

We really need to do a lot of work on the per anum income and cost figures (you on informing me with your superior resources and me on the plans).

Keep up the good work!

 

You say this as though the places are miles apart. Whilst the good folk of Dunstable will disagree, these days Dunstable is in reality no more than a suburb of Luton. It's like saying the Houses of Parliament are in Westminster, not London.

 

Yes but Dunstable is a lot more posh and a lot more sophisticated than Luton is. The centre with its parkland and well landscaped areas (i.e. White Lion and High Street North - Brewers Hill Road) is very attractive, if the flats behind are 1970s just 'social' flats and if the surrounding roads (i.e. Houghton Road) are a bit grim looking. There is a conservative club in the High Street right at the centre of town.

 

Well that makes a huge difference doesn't it? How could anyone resist visiting somewhere with a Conservative club in the High Street?

 

PMSL :smt041

Now it's all clear! A Conservative club is a mark of a town's posh credentials! Oh, hang on... there used to be a Labour Exchange in Tunbridge Wells, but it didn't mean the town was a hotbed of working class, flat cap-wearing shop stewards!

Alas, I think that this one moment of unintended comedy genius on the OP's part really puts in a nutshell this whole ridiculous idea and it's fabulously detached-from-reality reasoning. :smt043

Coming up next week: Why it's perfectly practical to dig up a significant stretch of the M25 in order to reopen the Westerham Branch. \/

 

No need to dig up the M25, I plan to reconstruct the Westerham line mostly in a tunnel.

 

Brilliant answer "DisusedBranch" . =D> ,
The more I read about this the more loony it becomes.
Expected to open 2012....?????? [-X ,
£37,500 per annum lease...??????? second guess £60,000 [-( ,
Who is paying for the start up costs. ????????????- fencing, security, refurbishing/ relaying the track, station, cafe, shop, visitor requirements such as toilets, rolling stock maintenance facilities :-k ,
Then daily operating costs, rates, fuel, water, tax on admission charges, tools, maintenance,
admin costs, telephone, etc.
Who is paying for obtaining more locos/ rolling stock ???????????
Manpower- ???????? Other railways take years to build up staffing levels.

 

This is the real killer -

Has a grant actually been secured yet? You are talking as if you have one in the bag!

If you are just assuming that the taxpayer will just stump up the cost of your full size trainset, then you are dreaming.

Yet again, someone is proposing a start up preservation scheme, based on the false assumption that the govt, EU or lottery will pay for it all. Speak to the guys from the established railways who have helped to secure such funding. There are some on here. Believe me, you haven't a chance.

Just wondering what the next hare brained scheme will be?

 

I wouldn't be quite so sure, a lot can depend if you are in the right place at the right time. There is a 'starter' railway not a million miles from where I live that has secured multiple grants from various sources on account of being based in a former industrial area, receiving grants to the tune of nearly 200k from the HLF, Coalfield Regeneration Trust and Aggregates (Levy) fund for Wales to help turn a derelict site into a tourist attraction.

http://www.lmmrcoltd.com/

Despite the money, I'm still not convinced that the said railway can develop into something meaningful, but you can't knock them for trying.....

 

Perhaps they could call it 'The Cloud Cuckoo Line'.

The people who propose these lines tend to be anti-social misfits who have fallen out with people at their local line .They then pick a piece of derelict trackbed in the middle of nowhere, or worst, in the middle of somewhere, & assume that they will succeed in opening a venue worth visiting.Get real you chaps - support an existing scheme & then you won't give preservation a bad name with your crackpot plans.

Bob.

 

Oh Christ, don't encourage him!

When this one doesn't happen, what's the bet that he moves a couple of junctions up the M1, and suggests a preservation scheme on the Northampton - Bedford line. Still in situ for a couple of miles - basically from the former Bridge St Station to an industrial estate on the ring road. Doubt if it's seen a train in 20 years?

As for the site in Wales mentioned above... The Americans have a saying for this - "Pork Barrel". It means that the governing party subsidise projects in their core areas, out of the public purse. I wish this group well, and it's nice to see a small industrial 040 getting a chance, but is that really the best use of taxpayers money?

 

I'll look forward to that!
I work from said industrial estate. #-o

 

The simple word "viability" comes to mind in all of this. Albert clearly has the enthusiasm and drive to get his scheme off the ground, but 400 yards of track in an area that few people seem to regard as being desirable raises serious concerns. Surely his assistance in another preservation scheme would be more mutually beneficial?

 

Precisely the point I made a couple of pages ago!

While I wouldn't put it quite as bluntly as Thompson1706 did four posts ago, I think he's definitely got a point.

By the way, D1074, I think you're getting the OP confused with 'Albert Mutton' - another infamous 'character' on railway internet forums who does an equally dogged line in "I'm right and everyone else is wrong" :smt002