Swanage Railway General Discussion

What a golden opportunity for the Swanage Railway to broadcast its Swanage-Wareham service with its network compatible DMUs. (Or even SWR running a direct Bournemouth-Swanage service.) Sorry? What's that you say? The DMUs are still(how long?) at Eastleigh!!

 

The words AT LEAST are the key. Today Tuesday, the ferry is still at the Shell Bay side of the crossing and no sign of a tug to tow it to Southampton. The normal tug "Handfast" is moored in Poole and has been for a couple of weeks. To quote the Sandbanks Ferry's website, "It is difficult to put a timescale on how long this work will take, considering the shaft must be specially made" I think that this will be the key to the words AT LEAST. Wouldn't be surprised if that didn't double the outage time at least.

 

The Buses still run to Bournemouth BUT what they do not do is to run to Sandbanks - neither does Swanage Railway so DMUs would have little effect

 

Exactly, and whilst a Wareham service may be fed by passengers who use SWR or even at a stretch XC via Bournemouth it would be of limited to use to those who do not come from those catchment areas or families who are unwilling to pay a large amount in National Rail fares to get to Wareham. Also as a lot of folks seem to take an amazing amount of stuff with them as they walk between the main car park and beach I would not see them using a rail connection either.

 

The yellow peak service is now steam/diesel rather than 2 steam services, what's the reason for the change?

 

Must be a recent change. I expect Rumpole will tell us but I would guess, even with the Ivatt coming an intense two train service is a bit tight to operate with only 3 working locos. I say 3 because I am assuming 257 is fit although it appears to be being worked on in some way most days, so no idea if there is an issue r it is just general fettling.

 

Although I have only seen it on the webcam, as the steam service was at the other end of the line when I was down the town, the new restored Maunsell coach now appears to be at the Swanage end of Set A. There was a major shuffle of the coaching stock yesterday evening.

 

When you say towed to Southampton, to be more specific do you not mean Eastleigh works via the river Itchen?
Placed in the queue behind the DMU's

 

HA HA The tow is just commencing 9.30 on Wednesday.

 

Given some replies it makes one wonder what all the fuss was about reconnecting with the National Network and spending infinite time and money on the DMUs . The Norden is the "end of our world" thinking will seriously effect the future opf the SR

 

Thanks - I'll have to keep an eye on the Haven Hotel's webcam. I don't know exactly how it works, but they would have to disconnect the ferry from the chains before they can tow it anywhere. I imagine that, although they must do it fairly regularly, it still takes a while.

 

I do not think anyway is saying Norden is the end of the world. Just that a service of any sort,steam or diesel,is not suddenly going to make everyone come by train.
If I still lived din Hillingdon in West London and wanted at day out at the railway I would drive and here is why because of what the journey would consist of.
Drive to a tube station, tube to Waterloo train to Wareham, SR train to Swanage. Total cost of that lot whilst arriving at a decent time to enjoy a day (which would mean leaving home at around 06:00 and back about 23:00 ) around £85 (disregarding SR fares)

Car journey is about 3 hours each way so to get to Swanage leave at 07:30 may even get 10:40 from Norden & have the car all day to use for other things in Purbeck, costs may be half rail fare, if two of us go then the maths become even more obvious.

 

Not at all surprising the Ferry Company refused to give BBC South a statement let alone an interview yesterday.

 

your reply indicates the bias against public transport currently extant.does the Swanage Railway want to attract customers from the National Network ( i think DCC gave us the money for the DMUs for that reason) or did we reconnect at Worgret for the benefit of charter operators and a SO service from Salisbury? This would have been an ideal scenario for rail to shine.
Lets argue that I live in Swanage and without a car . The ferry is out of commission so my only alternative to get to Bournemouth is to go on a very long and indirect bus journey. Using rail I can be there with a change at Wareham in half the time and done my
environmental duty.the original thinking was not to build more roads into Purbeck.which is fact that continues to make the area unique and desirable

 

No the reply is that public transport is too expensive (with a Senior Railcard and a bus pass) and not convenient enough. Remember I prefer rail travel to driving as I am an enthusiast, what do you think Joe Public make of it?
The Bluebell were surprised so many still drove to Sheffield Park when their mainline connection was opened, and I never see vast armies coming off SWT at Alton. Whitby is slightly different as it extends an existing line to a town that is a destination in its on right for those already in the area, again the Northern connection is not really viable unless you are on the Middlesborough line.

 

Correct, and very nice it looks too! A credit to those who have worked so hard on this latest addition to our heritage fleet.

 

You are arguing for a public transport function though. For that to be viable (i.e. make regular journeys from Swanage to Bournemouth viable without car), then you need a service that starts earlier and finishes later than then current heritage service and that runs 52 weeks per year, 7 days per week. That is completely antithetical to the business model of a heritage railway, which relies on extensive volunteer labour and frequently needs winter shut down periods to carry out necessary maintenance work ready for the peak season.

None of that works with a 52 week per year operation that might require operating days of well over 12 hours to meet the early / late requirement. At which point, the business case for running trains at all evaporates, which is why everywhere else in the country outside the major cities, if it has local public transport at all, has it provided by bus.

Tom

 

Absolutely right Tom, the previous company (BR) tried to run it with government subsidies and could not make it pay, I doubt if Swanrail can.