Vintage Trains 2016/17 Tours

IMO all this criticism is going nowhere.WCR had got themselves in a rut and become complacent which happens when things are taken for granted.
Lets hope that a new regime there has the desired effect and WCR can prove themselves to be the competent company they are expected to be and we can all live happily ever after!

 

Absolutely agree. In the long run we will be better served by an new clean TOC. Lets hope it happens

 

Imagine you own a business and one of your customers is reported in the press as saying that you had voluntarily closed down for a while until some governance issues were sorted out. Imagine the impact that has on other customers and the uncertainty that throws into the market place. Your customer had not seen fit to correct the alleged statement in the press. Other customer's customers asking if the product was still available - ie RTC tours in this case as a result of that statement. Would you want to trade with that customer again? VT had every opportunity to refute the press statement - they didn't. Public statements deriding a business are not petty and WCRCs response, if linesiders are right, is proportionate.

 

And IF a new ToC doesn't operate vacuum-braked stock...

 

But they will. this mystical new TOC is apparently going to make everything rosy in the garden!

 

If the coaches are dual-braked, you only need to add air braking equipment to the locos. That's not trivial but neither should it be too difficult for an outfit as competent as Tyseley.

 

Think this answers the question above...

 

VT seem to have unwittingly got caught up in all the hyperbole that surrounds anything to do with WCRC on here - and all by the apparent glaring error of keeping those who matter (their customers informed)...

I am sure they will keep those who trade with them fully informed of their intentions, why they should post on here (especially considering some of the things that have been written escapes me) - and forum members wonder why those at the coal face avoid this place?

 

Like many I applauded the initial communication. What was odd was the quote in the local Brum rag that claimed VT had told them WCRC were suspending themselves. Clearly that was not true as WCMEs ran on. No-one from VT bothered to make a correction - if one was needed.

Interesting comment on when there is something to be said etc... I have read posts on here criticising WCRC because they wait until there is something to be said. Seems people are happy to bite the hand that feeds?

 

And in the meantime two RTC tours have run over the Valentine's weekend. Whatever VT's reasoning, it may just have backfired on them where this weekend is concerned. As for the future, who knows?

 

True, but that rather ignores the damage to VT and other promoters business that WCRC caused, as I said earlier, promoters have every right to be hacked off with WCRC currently, would you help out someone who had caused serious damage to your business ?.

Carnforth come across as rather hypocritical currently, causing damage and loss of custom to many promoters, with not so much as a public holding up of hands to admit they goofed and are sorry, but get up in arms and cut all ties to anyone should they get something wrong with them.

People on all sides need to stop acting in such a daft way, get bloody talking, admit mistakes were made and move on, this is a situation that need not have arisen.

 

Certainly they are not tied to a vac braked set of coaches and loco's like VT,....SD, RTC etc could up sticks to DBS tomorrow if required, and have done so on occasions in the past.

As for a new TOC, Im struggling to see why else there appears to a build up of class 47's and coaching stock at the old Crewe Diesel Depot, even if JH wanted to follow the VT model of having your own stock, do you really need 3+ 47's ?.

I must admit I am rather surprised that RTC seem to be showing so much faith in them, given the utter farce of the 2015 Great Britain tour they copped for, again through no fault of their own.

 

Oh come on! The SPAD incident resulted in WCRC being banned from the mainline temporarily. WCRC will be held responsible for the actions of the driver . But it was the driver who made the mistake. If a truck driver made a mistake, he would face sanctions but it is unlikely the whole carrier business would be taken off the road. Such is the gravity of safety on the Railway. We should be thankful that safety is valued so highly.

That WCRC could not run trains was a result of that incident. Promoters knew that. We had bluster about DBS taking up the slack. Anyone with two synapsing neurones knew that they did not have the capacity. Yes this hurt promoters, but what could WCRC have done in the short term? It was not a voluntary ban.

Promoters took risks, the greatest being Great Britain and it became a washout. Faced with the circumstances, the promoters should have postponed trips pending the return of WCRC to the mainline. That would have been the honest thing to do. Promoters, like other businesses should have insurance to cover catastrophic failure.

At the end of the day, if a customer traduces a supplier in public, then the supplier is entitled to withdraw their services.

 

Fair point. And for clarification, I was referring to the comments attributed to VT by the local Birmingham newspaper that were never refuted by anyone from VT. Those comments seemed at odds with the email we all received from VT - which I applauded. It is the lack of response to the newspaper report that I base my opinion.

 

Now then Dobbs, Thank you for entertaining us with various big words like 'neurones and traduced'. Sadly it does seem that your knowledge of the more remote corners of the OED does not extend to current affairs so I shall try to explain this situation simply.

Just before Christmas David Smith rang me to say that he was not accepting any more bookings to run trains after January 1st "until the current situation is resolved". That situation remains. Based on this we decided that it was not moral to continue accepting bookings for trains which may or may not run, hence the letter to our passengers. We are not party to what he told other promoters, but it is obvious that RTC are a different story. We are not aware that we have 'traduced' anyone, in fact there are few organisations in this business who have declared more support for WCR and David Smith than us in the places where this matters; and having said that this current thread is not one of them.

With regard to your allegation of traduction, we are not aware that we have spoken badly of or told lies about WCR at any point in this situation, and of course such an unfounded allegation could in itself have consequences which you should consider before making further such outrageous assertions.

In terms of confidence in West Coast, if you would care to read a recent piece in Steam Railway you may just notice that unlike us, some of our fellow West Coast customers are noted as indicating that they could always transfer to DBS in the event of West Coast's demise. Where does that rank for supporting your favourite supplier?

Now the other thing that is of no real consequence is the subject of local papers. We long ago realised that the average local reporter usually has a very high degree of inability to accurately report the facts of any matter, either due to a desire to put some sort of spin on the story, or through an inability to adequately comprehend the sometimes complicated world of preserved railways. Whatever is printed rarely endures, particularly as yesterday's copy quickly disappears from the back of the toilet door or is equally quickly consigned to pulp, and frankly whatever was published by the local press has resulted in the entirely predictable zero contact from any of our passengers as a result of it. Finally, if any errors are taken up with the press in such circumstances, when was the last time that you saw a correction equalling the prominence of the original story printed in your local paper? So to put it bluntly we, along with just about everyone else in this city have long since forgotten what the paper said, and moved on.

Best Regards
Bob

 

They have every right to be hacked off and take their business elsewhere, VT cannot do this really due to their braking arrangements and model of providing all bar drivers and safety case, however the fact that the likes of RTC are sticking with WCRC would suggest that they are a better company to work with than many on here like to suggest (or at least I think thats what was said muffled by the deafening sounds of axes being ground (not aimed at the poster quoted BTW). Has anyone actually jumped ship to the tour operating utopia that is DBS?

So has the rumour of post #52 become fact in around 20 posts with nothing more said regarding the accuracy of the point, we all have no idea of what private discussions have occured?

Entirely agree, but do we know that they are acting in a daft way and not talking, VT made their decision based on any manner of factors and I suspect that they speak to WCRC more often than most on here?

 

Thank you for bringing a voice of informed reason to this matter - hope to see the green flying machines out and about again very soon!