Railway Touring Company

Deleted

 

According to the letter received from RTC "we are very sorry to inform you that due to operational difficulties for our stock provider West Coast Railways, we have to postpone The West Highlander Steam Express until 20th - 23rd September 2013".

 

Operational reasons were stated on a letter sent to someone who had booked and was on Saturdays CME. There was speculation that it could have been due to low bookings.

 

Mmm, the old "operational reasons" classic, one that can be quoted to cover a multitude of sins. I can see a pattern emerging here !

 

Properly cleaned and maintained heritage stock is far more comfortable than modern rubbish.

 

I know. Just when you thought it was safe to go in the water

 

Don't worry, they only use boxes I think.

 

No TOC, no locos, no booking agent. Online bookings done through Paypal. Keep well away!

 

ah, u just WON'T keep a good man down

 

Understand the first two points, but what's the significance of PayPal ?

 

After the hit that the credit card companies took on the Kingfisher debacle it's probably the only means of online payment that they could use. Banks probably would not provide the facility for credit card payment again.

 

I most certainly have formulated my own opinion, indeed over the course of several years and with nobody's help. If you take a look through my posts on this site, you'll see that I'm similarly critical of WCRC. Oh, and Network Fail.

 

Indeed. Keep out of the water. Where's Steven Spielberg when you want him? Us cranks knew *months ago* that there was no chance in hell that GRJB could ever run a tour to Aberystwyth and Pwllheli this September, and indeed this was confirmed by Network Rail soon after. Yet it's only in recent days that he's pulled these tours off his site. Can we seriously expect to believe that he didn't know until the past week or so these couldn't run? And that's separate from having no TOC, no locos, or a booking agent. And people wonder why railtour companies have such a poor reputation. Has every former KF potential passenger been recompensed in full for tours that didn't run after its collapse? I don't think so.

 

Completely agree with you there. Mark 2 stock is notorious for developing heating/lighting issues when not in daily use. Is it not significant that UK Railtours, generally regarded as an extremely well run outfit (and the only one to offer a "no cancellation due to low bookings" pledge)normally use good quality Riviera/DBS Mark 1 rakes. Their customers are obviously well pleased with this as many of their tours are sold out weeks in advance.

Besides,I can't think of anything worse than a steam railtour where you couldnt open the window!

 

Ok, thanks for clarifying that

 

I take it the glossy brochure he sent out was funded by the DVD side of the business ?

Why oh why didn't he just stick to doing that ?

 

I was on last years and it was pretty full apart from one standard which was sparse but that seemed to half full of luggage.

 

Well if it is for operational reasons, which we're told RTC have given as the reason to those who booked, the details have not been shared, so yet again people have no choice but to speculate.

This year seems to have been somewhat saturated with tours with more running on weekdays, and from regional starting points courtesy of Steam Dreams. I would say this must have had an impact on RTC this year as SD didn't run as many tours with regional start points last year which has always been RTC's unique selling point to a degree.

Essentially SD have picked up an RTC idea and done it better. They've also been clever in releasing news of "their new dedicated train", (notice they don't call it a set of coaches or a rake, but a "train" which to those not in the know probably makes it sound a bigger deal than it really is), but adds value to SD's reputation.

This further damages RTC who hit back by dangling another clutch of lovely sweet tasting "carrots" in the hope it will entice people into investing them during the latter half of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013. Unfortunately, when you look into it, and read what others, (who have some inside knowledge) are saying about these tours, you realise there is every possibility that some of these lovely "carrots" are at risk of being cruelly withdrawn just as they are about to reach the open mouths of the poor consumers, and replaced instead by a turnip or sprout, that is well past it's sell by date, thus leaving a bitter taste in the mouth that in the case of some will lead them to book with another operator next time, and in others, never go near a main line steam excursion again.

It's worth remembering that SD have released their "Holidays by Steam" brochure as well this year, with a number of alternative tours all of which are aimed at damaging RTC in my view, (note their weekend tour to Scotland in June 2013) as it is designed to divert loyalty, and more importantly cash, away from Kings Lynn onto a new express path to Guildford instead, ideally running as a class 1, and with limited stops only !

 

Steam Dreams: Please come and start further North - we are waiting with wallets ready

 

Apologies for the delay in reply. In one of the cases the intended pick-up point was deleted from the itinerary & a replacement substituted. Since the party included some non-enthusiasts they decided the additional inconvenience & expense were not justified & tried to cancel. In the other case I do not know the full details but it involved Kingfisher who, although they contested the issue, did pay up. This was sometime ago.

I should make it clear I was not a member of either group, but do travel regularly with the originator of the first case.

On a less serious note in my opinion the absence of PA facilities can occasionally be a blessing.