Reducing costs while preserving safety - can it be done?

No, not arrogant, just a statement of fact. You have obviously not been at Sheringham station on a wet, windy day in August! Admittedly there is some competition from a few stately homes, but my point was that railways situated in or near seaside and other holiday resorts have an advantage which is not shared by most inland lines. It is a situation where the location of one end of the railway is uniquely relevant to its success.

 

Playing Devil's Advocate, you can argue that 'seaside lines' are disadvantaged because they only have 50% of the catchment area that an inland railway would have!

 

Isle of Wight manages pretty well for a line that goes from nowhere to nowhere, via nowhere.

 

One day

One day it may end up going from nowhere to somewhere, via nowhere. That is when an extension through to Ryde St John's takes place (one day)

 

Hmmm! Ryde St John's Road is hardly the tourist centre of the Isle of Wight :-(
Better to go the other way - to Newport - or does Fairlee count as nowhere too?

 

A costing for going to Fairlee was done a good number of years ago even then the cost was £3M plus.

I agree that St John's is hardly the tourist centre, how about Ryde Esplanade?

 

This has been an interesting thread with some well thought out contributions. I for one had hoped the instigator, GF-G, would have pulled the contents of these suggestions together. In his absence, he is "spending time with family ", I consider W14 efforts to extract the salient points from comments added to his own observations both worthwhile and commendable. I hope those responsible for the management of our HR will at least consider some of the points raised in W14s synopsis.

 

Agree but to take the holiday resort analogy further, remember that places like Blackpool and Margate thought they had a captive market 50 years ago - and look what happened to their business model.

 

That would certainly raise the profile of the IOWSR!
Veering slightly off topic is there a loose similarity in derogation terms between the GWR Railmotor & its use on certain RT lines and a similar idea re Calbourne & a Terrier or two with stock occasionally venturing as far as St Johns northwards & Shanklin southwards? I know the two lines are not currently connected but they fairly easily could be.

 

That is something that may be possible in the future. The Fact that it is an isolated system is a big advantage and the 3rd rail a very big disadvantage!

 

Back on topic, supervision of staff and volunteers is very much part of my remit. When a new volunteer starts I take the trouble to find out what their skills and aspirations are. I start most volunteers off with fairly easy tasks, usually with a chatty existing volunteer. that soon helps to make them feel at home. I take a very hands off approach to supervision but make it clear any problems give me a shout. It soon becomes apparent which volunteers can be given more skilled tasks. Even some of the more skilled are happy to clean, prepare and paint and don't really wish to do any different. It is possible to find that happy niche for virtually every volunteer, especially if they are part of a team or project, they feel part of the family!

The good part of my working life has been as a staff member at a couple of Heritage railways, on the whole I have found that those who have taken the plunge are those who want to be involved and want to make a difference. To some it is there vocation, a massive part of there lives. They go that extra mile to make sure things happen, that jobs are completed to the highest standard, that safety standards are improved and can squeeze the maximum out of fairly meagre budgets.

 

Apart from the fact that any changes to Network Rail track/signalling seem to come with a price tag in seven figures (eg Worgret Junction, where the physical connection already existed), one snag is that Island Line platform heights were altered when the line was electrified, which would make such a derogation problematical. Another risk is that subsequent track ballasting may have reduced the loading gauge in places. That aside, it is difficult to see what the benefit would be. Would it bring in enough extra revenue to justify the considerable costs that would be involved?

 

This is not true in the case of the WSR. The majority of our passengers arrive for their journey at Bishops Lydeard and we run through 4 "seaside stations" if you include Doniford. So it's not that simple. I think there are lots of other factors involved. You'd think that Minehead with it's captive summer audience would logically be the place that generated most traffic but if you look at how the services operate you'll see most capacity is down from BL in the morning and up to BL in the afternoon. For us it seems that people like to "go to the seaside" on the train.

 

In the case of the WSR reasonable proximity to Taunton & the M5 gives quite a large radius for a lot of day trippers as well as those already in the area so, when the weather is fine, most traffic is probably towards the sea am & reverse late pm. If the weather turns poor though a lot of folk in Minehead at Butlins etc want something non coastal to do so a train ride from the sea inland is attractive. A considerable number of passengers use Blue Anchor, Dunster and Watchet station in particular in the summer. As Aldfort says the traffic patterns are not simple but the WSR really is a "proper" railway which clearly has a role well beyond pure entertainment by having a diverse transport role associated with various leisure activities in the surrounding area as well as being a pure train ride.

I can't help thinking that the lines with a future, if properly managed, are those which are able to offer a diverse attractive range of activities using the railway as a means of transport.

 

Agreed - this is why lines which go from somewhere to somewhere, preferably with places en route where visitors can stop off and rejoin trains, are likely to have the best future.

 

A surprising conclusion, especially considering that the IOWSR has been, quite rightly, put forward as a prime example of a line which has an excellent long-term future- yet it goes from nowhere to nowhere, with nowhere in between!

The original question was "reducing costs while preserving safety-can it be done?" Of course it can and it is, often by some of the better managed shorter lines. They have an advantage over some of the bigger operations, in that management, particularly financial and safety management, is simpler. This makes them able to react faster to changing conditions, whilst they are less likely to be stuck with high and increasing employment costs.

The key is flexibility. It sometimes seems that many in the HR movement/industry-whatever- are obsessed with "bigger, longer, more complex", yet in persuing these goals there is a real risk that railways will become so weighed down with fixed costs and liabilities that they will be unable to react to changed circumstances. There is no shortage of businesses, across all industries, that have fallen into that trap.

 

There has been no mention of the KWVR which has always struck me as well it might not be long and does go from the mainline to a prime tourist location with its film history as well.
They have covered storage for there coaching stock and loco that are out of ticket this seems to have been created by being a well run.

 

now A terrier at Sandown, that wouldbe a sight , you wouldnt be able to get to Shanklin, unless you top and tail, but it might be possible with co operation with Island rail, to run a limited occational service, as far as Sandown relay a loop at brading using the island platform, that way you can do away with the problem of tube clearences,and be clear of the 3rd rail, and at Sandown, use the newport side of the platform again relayed to steam clearence, with a loop next to it in the former yard, only a dream, of cource, but in the future, i can see island line having to have the current tube stock replaced and that might enable a way for the IOWSR to on high days in season run limited tourist trains to sandown in conjuction with vintage tours, around the island, Steam returning to ryde pier, though will need massive infrastucture change and will not be possible , indeed theres no guarentee that in years to come, the electrified line will not itself become history.

 

When we started the Wight Locomotive Society, the precursor of the IOWSR, one of the ideas we looked at for a running line was the disused section from Sandown to Alverstone on the line to Newport.