West Somerset Railway General Discussion

I don't have any inside knowledge as never been a member or involved in the WSR, only been there as a visitor a number of times, but is was widely reported in the rail magazines at the time
http://www.rail.co.uk/rail-news/2014/no-sale-of-wsr-freehold/

http://www.somersetcountygazette.co...candalous__West_Somerset_Railway_sale_U_turn/

just google "west somerset railway buying the freehold" and you will see lots of articles on it. The gist seems to be that both the WSR plc and the WSR association both put in rival bids for it (instead of coming up with a" joint railway approach" and eventually the council changed their mind and it seems to have caused animosity between the two organisations and with councillors themselves Presumably they didn't want to decide between the two so just withdrew it.

 

Must have been a fairly minor affair - for the life of me I can't remember any mention of it ever being made on NatPres ...

Tom

 

Well, if Exeter - Taunton is a "short distance line", how about Exeter- Westbury, stopping at Cullumpton, Tiverton P'way, Wellington, Norton Fitzwarren, Taunton, Langport, Somerton, Castle Cary, Bruton, Frome and Westbury?

If saving money is the name of the game, then why not shut down the entire network and save billions, not to mention the money that could be raised by selling off the land? Anyway, how do you know it will be "hugely expensive"?

 

Rents just consume what is left after business rates are taken into consideration. A reduction in BR will simply end up in a rise in rents and vice versa. The reason why pub owners try and get permission to convert is that business rates are much higher than council tax and this is reflected in the value of the property at sale. If you can buy a business property and convert it to a residential one, you stand to make a large windfall gain. Pubs are perfect for this particular scam. The high rent is probably just to "prove" that the business is not viable.

 

That makes sense to me. The management of the WSR have always been worried about being forced into bankruptcy by the pursuit of a line into Taunton against financial sense. I recall an AGM many years ago that degenerated into a shouting match over this very matter and this was not an isolated incident. Getting NR to lay signalling cables along the trackbed is likely to have been done in an effort to try and put an end to the whole "Running into Taunton" saga. AFAICS, the opportunity to run into Taunton was lost when that part of the line was not included in the sale of the rest of the trackbed.

 

As a WSR staff member I went on one of those trips from Minehead to Bristol and back. Staff were charged £5 return (I think) and we far outnumbered Butlins folk. I can't see under what criteria these trains could have been regarded as successful. I'm sure Butlins would like their visitors to arrive by public transport as that would make them less likely to leave the camp, and they would therefore spend more money inside, but perhaps not enough to subsidise them.

More germane to this discussion was the later Christmas shopping trip that ran one Saturday from Minehead to Bristol and Cardiff; this was a regular Taunton-Cardiff service that was started from Minehead that one time. That was well patronised, and I'd think it was something that could be repeated occasionally, perhaps a couple of times up to Christmas, but should not be seen as a blueprint for a year-round service, for which nobody has yet shown a justification.

 

ROFLMAO! Good one!

Noel

 

Are you a WSR PLC shareholder?

 

West Somerset Railway - Then and Now #143

Stogumber 1895 / 2017

The ‘Then’ photo records the building of the Railway Hotel adjacent to Stogumber Station. This survived the Railway’s closure until 1973 whence thirsty locals had to do with the White Horse and Carew Arms in Stogumber and Crowcombe villages, both over a mile away.

The building still stands, now known as ‘Railway House’, not easy for New postmen given that there is a ‘Station House’ and a ‘Railway Cottage’ both within letter-throw...

1895


2017

 

You have selected one sentence out of the whole post. And your point is? Who are we?

 

Indeed, a very interesting question that reinforces the issue of what it means to be a heritage railway or a public service railway. And you just know that if there is a two tier pricing structure, someone is going to get it wrong and complain at the consequences.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

That assumes that the project ever gets beyond the pre feasibilty stage.

 

That is a question that needs answering at pre feasibility stage, as fares are vital to the feasibility of a commuter operation and the existing operation.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

That seems to have escaped most of the proponents of the scheme as has the fact that the WSR PLC can veto the whole thing. Persuading the shareholders to completely destroy the entire ethos of the line, and how it is operated, will be very difficult indeed. About as likely as a treacle mine being discovered in Robin's back garden IMHO.

 

I'm assuming that, as your location is 'West Somerset' and you are 'an active volunteer ' that the two go together. May I suggest that you spend some time in a ticket office on the WSR. You will soon see that there is a huge number of tickets most of which have their own fare. Adding off-peak fares to that would double the chance of confusion, both to the passenger and the booking clerk! Having said that, trials have been made in issuing a cheaper Bishops Lydeard - Watchet afternoon return, although I've no idea how successful that was.

 

It has been tried - I recall the FFestiniog offering off-peak fares back in the 80s, and a quick check of a couple of books suggests that it was an Allan Garraway innovation. The website has no mention of it nowadays, so it would be interesting to find out why they stopped.

 

Interesting, I hadn't realised that that building was originally the railway hotel.
Actually, it had never occurred to me that a station as small as Stogumber would even have a railway hotel.

 

+

We are the WSR are we not? As one who works on the railway I feel that it is not unreasonable to associate myself with the WSR while also being fully aware that WE have as many opinions as we have members/workers.

And the point is that differential pricing is a fact of life these days. We already have residents' railcards.

IWBN if as much thought went into how it could be made to work as is put into finding reasons it won't. I doubt there's a railway in the land that would have been built if Nat-Pres had existed in the 1800s.

And I'm still not advocating a full year-round daily service in the short term.

 

Of course, those with a passing interest in the fortunes of the railway since 1976 will know that the WSR did have a two-tier ticketing system for many many years - cheaper on the DMU than the steam. And it was a nightmare for staff and travellers. Just imagine someone returning on a DMU but with a full 'steam' ticket demanding a refund from the TTI. Yes it did happen and led to awkward situations and unhappy passengers. Not the thing any of us wanted.

If a TOC ran a regular service with modern, clearly branded trains then maybe it might be easier/better than back in the day as passengers might find it easier to suss out which is which.

I'm interested to learn of other railway systems which operate two-tier pricing for 'walk-on' heritage and non-heritage services on the same day on the same line, and how they explain this to passengers when it all goes wrong. Can Nat Pres folks help?

(Apologies for the messy 'Quote' above but I wanted to make sure it was part of this reply)

Steve