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SVR General Discussion

Discussion in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' started by threelinkdave, Aug 20, 2014.

  1. 3ABescot

    3ABescot Member

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    I agree to some extent, but they didn't have to lurch to the extreme.

    The Gala could have had the first day or two Covid-safe and the others free-for-all.
    Similarly with the regular timetable, which goes free-for all when the schools go back. Just when my wife and I were thinking of a round trip!

    The recurrent theme at the SVR now in this Forum, is failure to consult and apparent failure to weigh alternatives. Shareholders, volunteers, charter groups etc - as well as bog-standard members like me.

    Yet they did have such a stellar reputation for listening, and they carried out an admirable consultation before recommencing services after the initial Covid closure.

    They are still up there with the best, but they do need to consider alternative views before making radical changes.
     
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  2. Monkey Magic

    Monkey Magic Part of the furniture

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    Yeah, how dare someone have a critical view of railway management on a discussion forum. You really do struggle with the concept of a discussion forum don't you. People have views, and not all of those views are going to be fawning and arse kissing. Maybe I am and maybe I have, but by your logic that would be between me and them no?

    It is ironic that you spend all your time on this forum complaining about people complaining on this forum. Have you written to the forum owners about it?
     
  3. Andy Williams

    Andy Williams Member

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    The debate was not about the shareholder benefits, but about the rather crass way in which the changes were announced. The Facebook page was a private one whose membership is made up of a large proportion of the working members plus supporters most of whom happen to be shareholders. Of course it is not a good thing to upset the people whom you rely on for continuimg financial support.
     
    Last edited: Aug 23, 2021
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  4. dingding

    dingding New Member

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    My poor old Mom, now in her late 80's, is a SVR shareholder.
    She doesn't hold many shares just under 500 and has built up this shareholding since the mid 1970s.
    She has these shares purely because she wanted to support something which has always been important to the family.
    When she bought her first shares my sister and brother were still at school and it would have been a very big chunk of money to commit to the future of the SVR in those days.
    There must be a lot of these small shareholders around people who just gave their hard earned money to save something they loved.
    Mom has supported the railway every time a new appeal has fallen through the letter box whether these have been made for locos, stations, non existent named bricks on viaducts you name it a cheque went in the envelope to help.
    Imagine now how she feels when she hears from a close family friend not to give money to the railway anymore, a family friend who is also a member, a shareholder and a working member for most of the last 40 years who says the railway can't be trusted to spend the money wisely any more.
    Not a good look is it but this is exactly what has happened. Word soon gets around I'm afraid and this is before this latest episode.
    I too have been a member (what is called an armchair member) since the days of Michael Draper who also held a lineside pass for all of that time.
    So what we say well for many of those years I too was raising a family and money was very tight but I still paid thinking I was contributing a little bit back into the railway and had that feeling of belonging to the line and getting out along the railway without the impossible commitment of time to volunteer.
    I've tried to communicate via email with the GM on this issue suggesting that if additional full SVR PTS safety training and or medical is required (not that I have ever heard of one single safety incident involving a lineside pass holder) to retain my permit I am more than willing to pay for and undertake this training but the reply was a simple 'we will not be changing our mind on this decision'.
    Think that says it all!
     
  5. Gladiator 5076

    Gladiator 5076 Part of the furniture

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    I am not a shareholder in the SVR but I do not see anything really wrong with this policy. If your shareholders disagree with you why would you want to have that discussion on a public forum?
    As for the comment shareholders and volunteers are low down the food chain I am sure there are many employees who feel like that in their normal day job.
    I was a reasonable sized shareholder and at times a willing (and other compelled) volunteer at BA but never felt anything other than way way down the foodchain.
     
  6. Graham Phillips

    Graham Phillips New Member

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    Apparently, less than 1% of the 15000 shareholders have emailed the SVR regarding this matter, and only around 1/3 of those were 'not happy'.
    With three trains a day with ~350 seats on each, I can see why appeasing <50 people might not be seen as a priority.
     
  7. Monkey Magic

    Monkey Magic Part of the furniture

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    BA is a large multi-national, the SVR is a sme which is dependent on volunteer labour and donations from the public in order to survive. That makes a huge difference in relations between management and staff/volunteers/shareholders.

    Fundamentally it is about management attitudes and styles and I don't think the current approach is right.
     
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  8. ross

    ross Well-Known Member

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    It appears that those with a smaller shareholding are least affected by the changes, and obviously they also have least money at stake. Those with larger holdings, who to maintain their current benefits will have to chuck another £1000, are the people with a) A lot of voting power, b) have already funded the railway to the tune of many thousands of pounds.
    The people who have invested the big money are serious supporters who might be relied on to keep on supporting the railway they clearly love.
    Saying that 1% of shareholders have contacted the management, but ignoring whether those respondents hold 50 shares or 50,000, is facile. It is a vague rule that people who actually write and complain are about 5% of those who actually do object. So if your half of 1% who are complaining really represent the 10% who hold the biggest numbers of shares would if fact mean that you have pissed off and then ignored an awful lot of votes, and an awful lot of more moneyed supporters.
    Furthermore, comparing voluntary stakeholders with company employees is also an error. If you work for a company there is a cost/benefit balance for both parties. "I don't get listened to/I get paid well" does not compare with "I don't get listened to/shall I give more money "
     
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  9. 35B

    35B Nat Pres stalwart

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    Do we know how many shares those who've written represent? I don't argue with your maths, but it only holds if your initial assumption about a correlation of complaints to shares held is correct.
     
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  10. ross

    ross Well-Known Member

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    Well I did say "if".
    My strategy is, when you are receiving complaints, you want to react as if it were the worst possible situation. Biggest/most influential opponent, with the most offended reaction. It might not be that bad. It is worse to underestimate the strength of opposition and fail to respond correctly
     
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  11. Gladiator 5076

    Gladiator 5076 Part of the furniture

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    Sure BA was a big company and it was paid staff but there was a great company loyalty and people were prepared to volunteer their own time for no pay to help out in times of strikes, bad weather, volcanic eruptions, terrorist disruption etc.
    Then the comapnay decided this loyalty meant there was a workforce they could use just because they did not have/did not want to recruit sufficent front line staff. They kew people would bitch but keep volunteering, even when that "volunteering" beacme a mandatory 12 days for managers each year.
    I see the SVR issue as little differnt, most shareholders will have invested because they wanted to see the SVR prosper. Many will bitch, a few may stop going or volunteering, but at the end of the day give it a year and it will be just a small blip in the past.
    People still appear to turn up an volunteer at the WSR and look at all their issues.
    Someone said on the Swanage thread on the endless why are they not running to Wareham discussion, "it is not all about the money". But actually whatever business you are running the bottom line is is.
     
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  12. Monkey Magic

    Monkey Magic Part of the furniture

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    It is about the bottom line but the end does not automatically justify the means. I work for an organisation which relied upon similar loyalty, but the problem was that successive managements assumed that this loyalty was inelastic. It was not and they got themselves in a mess. Maybe as a manager you shrug your shoulders and say 'collateral damage but look at the bottom line' however, IMO it is a slippery slope. It isn't obligatory to manage like Michael O'Leary or a poundland Alan Sugar.

    No one has disagreed with the fact that shareholder benefits or lineside passes needed to be revisited, but the issue is the lack of consultation and the poor communication.
     
  13. ross

    ross Well-Known Member

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    I'm sure you are correct and this current issue will pass. It merely seems silly that better wording and a less condemnatory tone in the initial communication would have meant no issue at all. And responding to the facebook storm by stating "we are mindful of the comments, but cannot respond on an unofficial channel. Concerned parties could contact us direct via..." would also have been a rather better response.
     
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  14. Sidmouth

    Sidmouth Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Moderator

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    A lot of shareholders supported the railway to buy Kidderminster, recover from the flood or even Covid , ie put their hands in their pockets in the railways hour of need
     
  15. MellishR

    MellishR Resident of Nat Pres Friend

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    The recent criticism has been about changing the scale of benefits for shareholders and how that change has been communicated. What's this about "the railway can't be trusted to spend the money wisely any more"? What unwise expenditure has occurred?
     
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  16. 35B

    35B Nat Pres stalwart

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    I think the clue to the motivation is in the reference to lineside passes; I’m not at all sure how the logic of that post works.


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  17. Dead Sheep

    Dead Sheep Member

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    Quite!

    The is a deliberate attempt by the SVR officials to quash any discussion. Even if you heed the so called 'advice' to contact them directly, you might as well be speaking to a brick wall as they never respond!
     
  18. 35B

    35B Nat Pres stalwart

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    Which is an interesting assertion, as there has been evidence posted on here of their responses.
     
  19. echap

    echap New Member

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    I cannot but wonder that so much of this miscommunication and bad decision making has occurred since the latest GM has arrived. I note that the GM does not have a railway background. Does this explain some of the unhappiness?
     
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  20. D1039

    D1039 Guest

    I’m not sure how much “bad” decision making there has been, as opposed to decisions with which some vested groups disagree.

    I can understand rationales for recent decisions, even if I might have made different ones or have announced or handled them differently.

    The previous GM too came from a non railway background. Equally GMs with a railway background hasn’t always been a guarantor of behaviour or judgement.

    Patrick


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