Swanage - Wareham / Purbeck Community Rail Partnership October'11 minutes

This is where an integrated transport policy should be hatched. When I last went to the Swanage for the SLL shareholders' meeting last October, I decided to do something a bit different and get off the train at Bournemouth and catch the bus via Sandbanks to Swanage, rather than wait almost 45 minutes at Wareham station for the next Wilts & Dorset bus to arrive. Having done so, I arrived at Bournemouth bus sation, only to see the bus arrive, everyone decamp and the driver walk off, shouting at the substantial queue that the bus had broken down, and they'd have to wait an hour. In consequence, I caught the next bus to Poole, thus catching the Wareham bus. I arrived at Swanage nearly two hours later than planned. The main problem as I see it are that bus services are surprisingly infrequent at around one per hour from Wilts & Dorset, and therefore do not connect with trains. As such, seasonal peak travel would be made a lot easier if the railway had a diesel service to Wareham, and the railway would be justified in charging extra for journeys beginning at Wareham. I can see why locals may not relish using the railway as a means to get to Wareham to do their shopping, but for trips to Poole, Weymouth and Bournemouth, the railway is still the quickest, most direct means of doing so. Therefore, if buses are timed to coincide with the arrival of trains at Wareham, the town would benefit from the introduction of heritage diesel services. However, I feel that locals will still use the bus for their journeys to Wareham out of convenience.

 

A train service to Wareham and beyond (either by connection or better by through working) might at least encourage the local bus company to get its act together, but probably the best reason to reinstate a through service beyond Worgret Junction would be holiday traffic. The ability for holidaymakers to go to Swanage by train without having to change onto a bus for the final leg would surely benefit Swanage's holiday trade.

Local shopping and commuter traffic from Swanage is unlikely to flourish unless trains can run through to Poole or preferably Bournemouth.

 

I realise it doesn't help with SLL's October meeting but during the 2011 Peak season Wilts & Dorset initiated a 30 min interval service between Poole & Swanage (via Wareham) and a 20 min interval service between Bournemouth Interchange and Swanage (via Sandbanks Ferry). I haven't heard if this was successful or if it will operate again during this year's main School holiday period.
I presume W&D operate (generally) hourly services for the rest of the year, from Swanage to both Poole and Bournemouth, as they perceive that frequency covers demand. Also, I believe, W&D receive a subsidy from Dorset County Council for 'social' services [those buses that carry only a few passengers].

 

A bit of news on the Norden crossing...Swanage Railway News Gallery - Page 807

 

Fantastic news! One step closer to regular trains to Wareham.

 

It is indeed very good news. I understand that BP were very conscious of leaving a 'legacy' in Purbeck on the sale of the Wytch Farm oilfield to Perenco, and making such a significant contribution to the future of the Swanage-Wareham rail link is a real and sustainable way of doing so.

 

Yes that is good news about the crossing. Probably only fair that BP pays for it though - there is only a need for a level crossing because of the access road which BP built to their oil field.

 

When BP sought planning permission to build the road to Wytch Farm part of the conditions that were put in place was that they had to pay for/ install a crossing at Norden.

 

and pay for any on going maintenance??? I thought thats what they had agreed to do?

 

Yes that was always part of the planning conditions for BP building the road. They seem to be putting a spin on it to make it sound like they are paying for the crossing out of the goodness of their hearts. In reality they are just fulfilling their legal obligations, and tidying up loose ends now they have sold Wytch Farm.

 

Not sure if I should start a new thread for this but anyway...

The January 2012 minutes can be found here https://www.dorsetforyou.com/media.jsp?mediaid=172701&filetype=pdf. They were approved on the 4th April. Notwithstanding that there will already have been another meeting since this one, there's some interesting stuff, for example in the business plan section,

"JS stated that NR signalling design permits 40 mph running from
Motala to Worgret based on previous remits. BE supported
provision of a service meeting the needs of local people and not the
provision of a ‘top-up’ service to the steam train..."

Could be some squares to circle!! ;-)

Best wishes,
Nigel

P.S. Sorry for the link format but I don't know how to get the URL embedded and just display something sensible for the link.

 

I personally find this a bit more worrying...

No business case ??? How can you move forwards without cost justification and a documented viable plan ?

 

The fact that "SR (presumeably Swanage Railway) will be invited" as opposed to being seen as essential and integral part could also be worrying - remembering who I believe the landlords of the Branch are.

Steven

 

I'd be more surprised if there was to be honest, its no mystery why heritage lines steer away from trying to offer a public transport service even out of their own resources. Hopefully the Wareham service will be run as a trial, testing the market while guaranteeing the Swanage a full mainline connection.

Chris

 

Correct me if i'm wrong, but when I was last down at swanage they do run a "public transport service" in the way of the park and ride from norden. They also run late night dmu services during some periods because of this park and ride scheme. Surely this is good practice so they can get it right when running to wareham.

 

While that's true, from what's been said previously the proposed service will be run by an outside operator, presumably using their own staff and rolling stock - almost certainly making it more expensive to run, especially with the burden of mainline running as well.

Chris

 

Chris,
I'm a Swanage member but not involved with 'management' in any way. I understand it is proposed to progress matters on a "softly, softly" basis and, when appropriate, operate a trial service to see if what was proposed (many decades ago when British Rail still 'ruled') is still possible/viable/etc. on the privatised railway network. Whether an outside operator is used has still to be decided I believe. Peter

 

Award winning Corfe Castle Signal Box was opened formally by Minister of State for Transport (Rail & Aviation) Theresa Villiers MP on Thursday 17th May:
BBC News - Corfe Castle's new railway signal box opens

 

I really should change the thread title!

Paragraph 2.12 in the minutes of a meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Group of Purbeck District Council on 29th May 2012 makes for some interesting reading. I'm unsure to what extent one can copy such documents and I'm rubbish at paraphrasing material so please excuse me for just posting a link. See http://www.dorsetforyou.com/media.jsp?mediaid=173405&filetype=pdf

Best wishes,
Nigel

 

Thanks for the link Nigel - to a large extent the paraphrasing has already been done in preparing the minutes so perhaps best to give the link - interesting times! DH