Vintage Trains 2015

There's no right answer to this. An outline time does indeed allow one to assess the practicality of getting from one's home to the starting point (or one of the other pickup points) but sometimes that assessment can be misleading. One very bad instance, which caused me to cancel my booking, was Steam Dreams' trip to Bath and Bristol on 2nd December last, advertised as starting from Victoria at (I think) 09:45 and eventually starting from West Brompton at 07:39. This is one of several respects in which VT are different from the other railtour operators, and I can't say that they're wrong.

 

Very much agree, what is the point in giving outline timings if there's a good chance they will be different on the day ?You might say people could be put off booking where no outline times are given, but equally, you could say that those booking on the strength of outline times, which then turn out to be wrong, and who subsequently have to cancel could be put off booking again in the future.

 

To some extent, I understand the reasons for not giving outline timings, but for those of us who don't live in the West Midlands and have to rely on public transport to get to/from VT tours (especially those starting/finishing at Warwick Road), it can make it a bit of a guessing game as whether we can safely book without the need to worry about booking accommodation for the night before and/or after the tour. For this reason, unless it's a "must do" tour, I tend to wait until the times appear on uksteam or realtimetrains before booking. What's VT's policy if somebody books on one of their tours and subsequently finds that they are unable to get to or from any of the pick-up/set-down stations?

 

The official answer is if you are in doubt about being able to make the tour, then do not book until the confirmed times are available from us. This is exactly why we do not give out provisional times - if we did give you times and then revised them, it could potentially get a bit sticky about who was responsible for amending the customers travel arrangements.

My best advise would be to ring the office or send us an email (tickets@vintagetrains.co.uk) We can offer you provisional times based on previous runnings of the same or similar tours or at least tell you what we have requested from Network Rail in the spec.

I understand that this can be frustrating, but we would rather wait and give you accurate information vs having you upset and disappointed when the final times arrive with your tickets and you have to re-arrange your plans.

Is this the correct way to operate? We believe so, but I can see the other side as well.

A footnote: Please be careful about relying 100% on RealTimeTrains or UK Steam. Both are run by good honorable people, but if there is an error Vintage Trains are in no way responsible. We have had people miss trains based on errors. Please see my posts in the RTT thread.

 

I agree 110% with this statement. VT seem to me to represent the Gold Standard for just about everything they do to do with planning, promotion, pricing and operational delivery within the UK mainline steam Day Trip market, and the frequent posts from Ben and Bob Meanley on this forum really do, IMHO, enhance that special sense of involvement with everything that they do from the customer's/ layman's perspective .

(To add a minor codicil to that general statement, I would just like to think that there might be a small corner on that same podium for UK Railtours, because, as infrequent as their main line steam programme may be, what they do offer when they do venture into this market is usually something very special...and usually diesel free too, IIRC.)

But I do just wonder whether there might be just one element missing from VT's published programme through to October - intentionally at this stage, or otherwise. And what prompts this muse is this. It occurs to me that every time Chiltern Railways has had something special to celebrate, VT has been involved as its natural partner to run an excursion to ceremonialise that occasion. Think the Chiltern Centenary Express with Pannier 9600 in July 2010 for the Bicester Cut-off anniversary. Or the First Moor Street Express in December of that same year for the (re-)opening of the terminus side of that station. Or the Chiltern Champion last year, as a farewell to the old Claydon-Bicester London Road-Oxford infrastructure.

Every week, I look at the physical evidence of rapid progress towards completion of the new Oxford Parkway station, as well as the Bicester Chord, and I ponder whether there might be something in the railtour planning crucible at Tyseley that might be being contemplated, or even scheduled, to mark the opening of the Oxford-Bicester-Marylebone link later this year. As much as I might hope, clearly on a densely trafficked main line like the section south of Bicester, this may no longer be the sort of environment where, say, a Pannier Rambler type of tour, or something of this nature, could be successfully integrated.....or could it??

I suppose this is really more a piece of daydreaming speculation rather than a suggestion about something I really have no idea of the feasibility of doing. But I would still ask - could there be any possibility of something around all or part of the Oxford-Bicester Chord-Princes Risborough-Aylesbury-Claydon-Oxford circuit to grace the re-commissioning of this significant piece of infrastructure?? If nothing else, at least geographically it would seem to make sense.

 

I've been thinking along the same lines lately. My nearest station is Islip, which has been demolished and is undergoing a complete transformation. Of course, the full circut won't be ready immediately, since the section from the new Park & Ride station at Water Eaton, on the edge of Oxford, to Wolvercote Junction and into Oxford Station won't open for, I think, 6 months after the rest of it. Even so, there's an opportunity for something special involving steam alongside the modern Chiltern units the weekend before the commuter service starts.

 

Your damned if you do and damned if you don't Re: outline times, if you don't, people say they have no idea if they can make the tour or not, and if you do, how many people will have to cancel when NR hand you something that bears sod all resemblance to the timings you requested.

 

But it's the third as 5043 did the trip in 2013 too.

 

This is a cut-and-paste of the first sentence of a review on TripAdvisor (not a review of Vintage Trains thank goodness!)

"We were disconcerted when we received the tickets on Thursday (just two days before the trip) to discover that the start date was over an hour earlier than the original time."

This is EXACTLY why we do not give out times until we are 100%.

 

Ben, that's all fine and dandy z and I'm with you 100%, BUT, what about those that don't book due to absence of timings ? Got to be an issue no ?

 

You're between a rock and a hard place on this really. There's probably no point giving outline timings if there's a chance of them changing. I think on reflection, your approach to managing expectations seems best, but it would be good in the longer term if the various Promoters / Operators could work together to put pressure on NR to provide reliable timings when tours are first submitted for consideration. I know, we're in pipe dream territory now, : )

 

No outline timings is ok for locals, but for someone two hours away-a 0700 start and 2300 finish or 0800 start 2100 finish is the difference between 2 or 0 nights accommodation near Birmingham, and rates cheaper the earlier you book...

 

Well quite, but presumably, so long as VT can do sufficiently well with locals, does it really matter if those who'd have to book a night in Birmingham, or patronise the 24 hour McDonalds, look elsewhere ?

 

Maybe it's the second opportunity in 2015...the first being behind the Duchess?

 

The trains and routes that we run regularly (Cotswold Explorer, Welsh Marches, Llandudno, York, etc) we can say with some certainty what the times will be based on the previous years.

New routes (Poole 16th May for example) we do not know - I can tell you what we ask for on the bid. If this policy upsets or deters anyone from traveling with us, then I apologise but this is the way we operate.

We have the same policy with the locos assigned to the railtours; I am not going to put something speculative (or even fantastical) in the brochure only to disappoint down the road.

Right or wrong....this is the way we do business.

 

And I hope it's how you continue to do so. If I plan on joining any mainline trips, VT Brochure is the first one consulted. Still waiting for 5043 re-aquaintence with a hill North of Carlisle mind, and I do dream of seeing the Pannier pair come North and run along the Colne / Blackpool South / Ormskirk branches. In the meantime though, the Welsh Marches is looking rather tempting in the autumn. Gutted I'm engaged for 5043 via Cumbrian Coast, hope with it selling out so fast though there the chance of a round two...

 

Speaking for myself, the jaunt to Liverpool is a must, but I'll have to wait a bit before I book it to ensure my finances don't go completely down the pan- I already have four tours booked with 'another place' between now and the end of March.

 

RE: Coastal Explorer 18th April - It was showing as Sold Out - we are adding an additional TSO so we can accommodate a further 64 Standard seats as of now.... Cheers!