West Somerset Railway General Discussion

This is the key point amongst all the noise. The WSR has never really been viable because it is just too long - the elephant in the room that all the arguing ignores. Back in 2018, I think it was charging £20 for a round trip, the cheapest per mile in the UK by a long way. The hard fact is that the market will not bear the fares needed to make a profit on 20 miles of railway with a high cost base because there is a ceiling beyond which the majority of customers (who are not railway enthusiasts) will not pay as a day out on an attraction. They aren't concerned whether it's 20 miles or 10 miles so long as they get the experience. Paignton & Dartmouth is £19.60 return for 6 miles - happily paid by many. All heritage railways are facing a perfect storm of increasing costs and the need to rely more on paid staff to get the skills needed to comply with stricter regulation and standards, plus the environmental challenges, and increases in fossil fuel costs. The WSR's geographic location, with its exposure to high rainfall, I would imagine makes its infrastructure maintenance costs even higher than most.
The WSR has been running for over 40 years now as a heritage line, having taken over track that was pretty much worn out when the branch closed. It's no good heritage railways keeping on just running trains and not renewing the track as it wears out - otherwise you inevitably end up with a renewals backlog that will have to be addressed one day. I don't know what the answer is other than accepting that nothing lasts forever, but running fewer but fuller trains with lighter engines at lower cost and track wear seems to be a sensible way forward in the meantime.

 

A very good point that differentiates the SVR financially from most other railways. It doesn't need to make a profit through the operation of trains if it can bring in the customer volume at cost so it can make the money on food and drink sales through its significant retail side (the two pubs and the Engine House).

 

Indeed. I think I once heard that the IOWSR just about breaks even on running trains, but the shop and cafe help push it into profit.

 

They also have depreciation to consider on assets that have time based lifespans, and forfeit support during what season there is.

@Pete Thornhill comments that the SVR made a loss on the reopening trains; my question would be whether that was a cash loss on running them at all (including secondary spend and associated costs), or a book loss when allowing for apportionment of overheads.

Normally, I'd say the book loss is what matters but, in the exceptional circumstances of 2020, any level of operation that is cash positive must be of use to a business that needs to retain competencies and goodwill.

 

Pretty much. Run trains and you have to take your staff off furlough and pay them yourself, re-activate all your overheads on a long railway (turn on the electric, water, skip hire, ash disposal, cleaning contracts, infrastructure support costs etc). Would the people who were willing to travel pay the fares needed to make it viable to carry Covid restricted numbers along a 20 mile railway at a time when we were all being discouraged from travelling on public transport? Still people moaning on Facebook today about paying £50 for a round trip for two on the GWSR, and £40 for a round trip for two from Bishops Lydeard to Watchet. The South Devon and Bodmin & Wenford obviously came to the same conclusion.

 

Same experience here whilst staying in Minehead last year. Whilst sitting eating an ice cream near the station, I witnessed a steady stream of people heading for the booking office, only to turn away disappointed once they saw it was closed.

Meanwhile over at Woody Bay, the L&BR were doing great business.

 

The railways we went on around that time, last Sept, seemed busy and the impression was people were desperate to have an outing of some sort in a COVID secure environment which those we went on did so well. Plus any volunteers we spoke to were delighted to get out of the house for a while and do something different to local walks round the block !

 

Agreed there must be loads of passing trade in Minehead being missed. Selling tickets at Minehead, then putting passengers on a bus to start a train journey at Dunster or Blue Anchor , would arguably have made more financial sense.

 

You are neglecting standing charges and other overheads that you have to pay whether you are running or not. It would have been quite possible to run a much reduced service from Minehead to, say, Watchet, taking advantage of the throngs in Minehead and giving them a destination to visit, so the WSR wouldn't have been worrying about "the fares needed to make it viable to carry Covid restricted numbers along a 20 mile railway". That is, of course, if the Seaward Way crossing infrastructure hadn't already failed by then.

 

Until you get rid of that "GWR pretty line" ethos and face reality then nothing is going to change. There is a chocolate box image there that is widespread among the many factions.

 

I spent many weeks camping outside Watchet in the mid 90s, as my now wife was doing fieldwork on the beach*; I've called in occasionally since. It's improved a lot since then, but if I were staying in Minehead and choosing a seaside town to go to within a middling length drive, it would come a distant third after Lynton/Lynmouth and Porlock.

* - it gave her the chance to seriously frighten an American visitor, who wondered why she was wearing a hard hat and carrying a hammer. She pointed out the fault running through the harbour, telling him it is a reverse transcurrent fault. Seeing his blank look, she said "like the San Andreas", at which point he went white. Telling him it hadn't moved in many million years only went so far.

 

Isn't the point that they couldn't have run from Minehead last year because of Seaward Way and other ORR related issues, the not running was nothing to do with covid, but covid provided useful alibi for not running. 'Sorry we can't run because of covid' is easier than 'we can't run because if we do ORR are going to come knocking at the door'. When they did put out a statement they claimed it was due to unsuitable coaches which one of their own volunteers disproved in 5 minutes.

Had the board been more on the ball in 2019 perhaps the line might have been able to run in 2020.

 

Well yes, obviously, but the Plc didn't admit that, so, in the world they wanted us to believe in, excursions to Watchet were perfectly feasible.

I think their minds were on Other Things.