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Coronavirus, galas and your attendance

Discussion in 'Galas and Events' started by Sidmouth, Mar 13, 2020.

?

are you still planning to attend gala's as normal ?

  1. Will attend as normal

    45 vote(s)
    40.5%
  2. Less likely to attend

    17 vote(s)
    15.3%
  3. Will not now attend until the situation has eased

    49 vote(s)
    44.1%
  1. johnofwessex

    johnofwessex Resident of Nat Pres

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    I suggest that if The Government wants to close 'tourist attractions' whatever then the operators should lobby for a ban rather than a 'closure by stealth' so that they can make insurance/compensation claims
     
  2. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

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    I think it's just as likely that railways will be forced to close as the volunteers don't want to come in and work the railway, if this poll is to be believed, a sudden drop of over 30% of your volunteer workforce is going to be significant, I know as a roster clerk I really notice even if just a few people don't put in availability when they normally do gaps suddenly start appearing in the roster.
     
    acorb, michaelh, Matt78 and 1 other person like this.
  3. Pete Thornhill

    Pete Thornhill Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Administrator Moderator Friend

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    Yes there is that problem as well of course, totally agree that could also be a potential issue.
     
  4. JBTEvans

    JBTEvans Well-Known Member

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    Median or mode average? I'd go with median.

    GWSR had a war weekend and of course Easter school holidays which would've bumped up numbers I'm not going to despute that - which is what I'm saying. 500+ means shut.
     
  5. flying scotsman123

    flying scotsman123 Resident of Nat Pres

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    I'm not sure if the war weekend numbers were included, I wouldn't like to say. But in any case, my main point still stands, there are railways that attract significantly more passengers per year, and hence per day, than the GWSR, so will likely fall into the 500+ category on many days.
     
    michaelh likes this.
  6. Pete Thornhill

    Pete Thornhill Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Administrator Moderator Friend

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    We don’t actually know that yet do we?
    Personally I am waiting for the official announcements to see what restrictions are actually put in place as if you think about it large supermarkets could have more than 500 in at a time, are they going to close them to?

    It remains to be seen if it will be a blanket ban or if there will be some exceptions. I’d argue that Alex made a sensible point that on a railway the 500 people are not all in the same place. That I a world of difference to a concert for example.

    The government have to strike a balance in trying to deal with the virus while not destroying the economy at the same time so it wouldn’t be a complete surprise to see some sensible exemptions especially given the real reason for a ban is to try to conserve emergency service resources.

    The trouble is no one really knows what is going to happen at the moment, I guess we will have to wait and see.
     
    michaelh and flying scotsman123 like this.
  7. steam_mad

    steam_mad Member

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    I would be very surprised if many organisations had insurance policies in place which covered such events.
     
  8. free2grice

    free2grice Part of the furniture Friend

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    I appreciate that we would dearly like our hobby to continue as normal but keeping supermarkets open for the public to buy food and essentials is far more important than running a tourist steam railway. <BJ>
     
  9. City of truro fan

    City of truro fan Member

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    I expect that they used the mean average for this as it is quite accurate and wouldn’t need more complex operations for this job
     
  10. Pete Thornhill

    Pete Thornhill Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Administrator Moderator Friend

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    Yes I would agree but that wasn’t the point I was making, perhaps I used a bad example though.
     
  11. Greenway

    Greenway Part of the furniture

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    I am sure many heritage/tourist lines consider the welfare of their staff and volunteers. Given the higher age of many, if not most, volunteers I hope they are looking at how things may well develop and if they will be able to operate with a probable lower number of people.
     
  12. Davo

    Davo Well-Known Member

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    The only problem is if anybody attended such railway galas infected with coronavirus and nobodys aware of the infected person without having screening tests in go which is highly unlikely at galas which us rail buffs wouldent expect in the norm anyhow, Do people just attend these events on pot luck or is just wise to have precautionary measures in place with any large public gatherings such as football music concerts, and what about when people have to go out shopping in general that cant be helped when someone is in need of going to the supermarket stocking up the cupboards these new by laws may be for the goverment to slow down the spread of covid 19 fortunatly in the U.K. where not on lock down as of yet like Spain and italy but it could come to that.
     
  13. Ruston906

    Ruston906 Member

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    I will be staying at home with elderly relatives its not worth the risk of me passing it on to others who could suffer worse effects.
     
  14. jackshepherd

    jackshepherd Member

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    Chasewater Rly have postponed all events.

    Notice:

    It is with the best interests of our volunteers and customers that we have decided to post pone all our events until June due to the Coronavirus outbreak. This includes the pits to power stations weekend and Snow Queen events. Mother’s Day will continue on March 22nd with any afternoon teas and cream teas booked at The Sidings Tea Room taking place as normal.
    However, we will run our normal scheduled timetable at the weekends for as long as we are able to. We are taking daily advice from the government and will keep updating you as often as we can.
    Thank you for your cooperation at this unprecedented time.
    Chasewater Railway.
     
  15. 6026 King John

    6026 King John Well-Known Member

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    I suppose my answer to the poll question would be "less likely to attend." My preferred answer would be "wait and see how things develop". I rarely buy tickets for these things in advance anyway and often make a last-minute decision as to whether to go or not. None of us knows how this situation is likely to develop and no-one really knows what the best way to deal with it is. It has the potential to escalate very rapidly, but then again it may not. I feel that to go into "lockdown" at the present moment is over the top, but on the other hand I feel that we should all take responsibility for not exposing ourselves or others to unnecessary risks. For that reason I favour the approach of suspending mass gatherings. I know it's debatable whether a steam gala spread out over several miles is a "mass gathering" but being stuck in a crowded railway carriage when there is no pressing reason to be there does strike me as an unnecessary risk.
    So, I don't know my answer right now, but unless things improve before April which seems unlikely I may give the galas a miss. Hopefully this will all be over before too long and we can reconvene in the Summer / Autumn.
     
  16. 45076

    45076 Member

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    Even if it reduces by the summer it is expected to return again next winter. When a cure is found months of testing has to follow before it can be released to the public. So not going to get it until summer 2021 at the earliest.
     
  17. Gladiator 5076

    Gladiator 5076 Part of the furniture

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    For those who have accomodation booked for galas I understand Premier Inn (whom my wife had a non refundable room with at Gatwick tonight) are allowing date changes to non refundable bookings. Not sure if it includes just cancelling but I guess other hotels chains may follow as well.
     
  18. Sidmouth

    Sidmouth Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Moderator

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    many thanks all . Keep the votes coming please , useful benchmark . I've canned my gala attendance this coming weekend
     
  19. DragonHandler

    DragonHandler Well-Known Member

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    I've just seen this on the BBC website.

    "Now is the time for everyone to stop non-essential contact with others and to stop all unnecessary travel," the prime minister says.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51917562

    Gala visits are out for a while now.


    Edit: new url link.
     
    Last edited: Mar 16, 2020
  20. 35B

    35B Nat Pres stalwart

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    Indeed - and I suspect railways will now be starting to think about their event insurance policies given that the government is forcing their hand.
     

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