What Tripadvisor thinks of Heritage Railways.

The line in question did have a larger amount of reviews than that this is the only independent source of information most people can get and where they go to check out if a place is worth visiting.

 

we will. It;s clearly only reliable if you adjust the findings to weed out the duck-eggs

 

Indeed - all of the lines I worked out an exact score for had a headline figure of "four-and-a-bit blobs", which many hotels or restaurants would kill for (did anyone see the news story the other month about the dodgy hotel who tried to surcharge a visitor for posting a bad review?)

Incidentally - as a bit of an aside really - I noticed one of the WSR's bad reviews does reflect some of the issues that affect that railway that have been raised on their very, very long thread, both by insiders and outsiders.

 

Any reviews on TA complaining that the loco wasn't in the right livery....?

 

You do get some of that sort.

"I checked the website and X was booked to work the diesel turn. I paid for a day rover but Y worked the diesel turn. I will not visit again" - genuine 1-star review, paraphrased.

"Chose to travel on train A as it was shown as rostered with [a large freight loco]. For reasons not known to anyone at [the station] it was actually [a medium sized tank engine] which with the number of coaches behind it seemed to struggle and slip on the gradients. Very disappointed." - 3 stars; I took out loco details and place names to hide the location.

"The only reason I booked a 3 day holiday was to see one particular locomotive and as it is the railway's flagship I was sure it would be on view. I was wrong. It was inside a shed and the gate was locked with nobody available or willing to let me see it. Had I known that the loco would not be accessible I would have gone elsewhere for my holiday. It was an extremely costly, bad mistake on my part" - 3 stars, but personally I'd say he has no-one to blame but himself!

These are all from the same railway, incidentally. And most of the bad reviews unsurprisingly are of the "train dirty; staff rude; too expensive; dull if you don't like trains" variety.

 

Actually these are the reviews which should be taken really seriously as they are issues within the railways control, save for the scenery.

PH

 

Although "Dull if you don't like trains" is a bit like saying that a zoo is dull if you don't like animals. It sort of makes you wonder what the reviewer was expecting.

 

I see the point of your posting but, in theory st least, the railways can avoid having dull trains! Rather a lot of them are I fear.

PH

 

How do you suggest you make the trains themselves more interesting? I don't think more interesting stock would do it in this case, before you say that. I agree that museumy type things can be made more exciting, but you.can't make the actual object itself more interesting if you don't like that thing in general.

 

Not entirely sure, but think PH was making a pun on the other meaning of dull...
If so, he is quite right (as he generally is).
My own experience in recent years (and I don't get to many railways in a year) had been very good as regards cleanliness of carriages, ditto toilets, and tearooms not bad.
Main problem I have is I always head for the oldest carriage (obviously), then remember too late it isn't heated, and my poor wife (not a steam person so there on sufferance anyway) gets chilled to the marrow. Although I could argue it is her fault for only agreeing to go on a railway because the weather is no good!

 

Could point you to some centenarian vehicles that are really cosy in the steam heat season. My problem is with the sort of vehicle which appears to have been the inspiration for the title at any rate of "Fifty Shades of Grey". One doesn't have to be a gricer to recognise an uninteresting vehicle and there are lots of them about.

Paul H

 

Really? I suppose anything that isn't a Swindon product might be classed as dull though.
Oh dear, to quote "good morning Vietnam", "You'll go straight to Hell for that one!"

 

Another oblique reference to recent events at the Epping-Ongar Railway?

Read this post quickly, before the mods remove it!

 

Most bad reviews, as Paulhitch says, are in the control of the railway from which they need to read and learn: my worst experience was on the WHR due to lack of on-board advertised refreshments and which completely spoiled the experience especially for my wife.

 

And how does one define a "dull" train in the first place? I suspect the general public have views that are somewhat different to the enthusiast.

 

Idea for a non-dull train? http://inventorspot.com/articles/japanese_maid_trains_hope_miniskirts_will_maximize_ridership_39000

 

An interesting use for TA is to look at their overall score and the comparative score for events (Santa, Thomas, Peppa Pig, 4os etc). Public expectations and/or the railway's delivery can mean markedly different scores.

Ranking all railways' scores for similar events (say, Santas) can also be a useful guide to 'how well are we doing'. No names but one railway scored 90% of reviews at 4 & 5 but for a particular special event (where the reviewer mentioned it) that dropped to 65%. Ranking that against other railways' results also showed it wasn't performing so well on that event.

Important to note this is against public expectation, which may be higher for some railways than others.

Note: a personal view. I'm not involved in the running of any railway, although I do volunteer

Patrick

 

Oh indeed I don't disagree with you; just that you do also see enthusiasts posting their own idea of a bad review, such as "I travelled a long way to see a particular loco but it wasn't there".

The proportion of such, compared to the "dirty train" or "rude staff" reviews, should be a clue to some railways, or for that matter some enthusiasts, as to how important the enthusiast market actually is compared to the "regular family".

 

The other thing to keep in mind is timescale. I have just looked at the reviews of one line and was pleasantly surprised by the comments and the average score [nearly 150 reviews and 4.5 average]. I did however look at the 'terrible' comments and found that by and large they were dated 2010 - 2012 so it looks like improvements have taken place.