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West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Discussion in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' started by gwr4090, Nov 15, 2007.

  1. Miff

    Miff Part of the furniture Friend

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    Or less, i.e. a proportion of the debts, so long as the offer gives the creditors more than they could get from a liquidation.
     
    Last edited: Oct 7, 2021
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  2. Ploughman

    Ploughman Part of the furniture

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    Have they got 2 engines the same ?
    For other relationships.
     
  3. City of truro fan

    City of truro fan Member

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    There was a very good epersode of salvage hunters that had the western Somerset on it if anyone missed it worth a watch.
     
  4. free2grice

    free2grice Part of the furniture Friend

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    This has been kindly posted at wsr.org thanks to Steve Edge. <BJ>

    Seaward Way Level Crossing.

    The article in the WSR's latest 'The Platform' newsletter mentions the date of 21 October being the target for the handover of the all-new Seaward Way Level Crossing by contractors to the Railway, but this does not mean that the WSR is able to run passenger trains from this date. Final clearances have to be undertaken with both Somerset County Council and the Office of Rail & Road (ORR) along with completing the all-important staff training and competency testing for those railway staff using the new crossing, which is totally different to the one it replaced, plus completion of the nearby track relay works too.

    The WSR is coming to the end of the current operating season and then will focus on getting everything ready for the 'Santa Express' and 'Winterlights' festive trains. As a result, Seaward Way Level Crossing will not see passenger trains running from Minehead this year other than occasional stock moves, testing and training. Regular normal operations should start early in Spring 2022. The Railway is looking towards restoring its usual services from Minehead for 2022 and understands and apologises for any disappointment some local people will feel about this, but the Railway has had no choice in following this approach.
     
  5. gwilialan

    gwilialan Well-Known Member

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    Absolute and utter rubbish! The management and co ordination of works on this project has been an absolute disgrace.

    The designs and specifications were complete two years ago, construction started (off site) two years ago and yet the work is still not finished. And did no one even stop to think that operator training should be part of the project timescale before the hand over date was announced? or was that date just another example of figures being pulled out of thin air?

    At least saying the railway had no choice is correct, 'The railway' didn't - it is the board that must carry all the responsibility for this
     
  6. Steve Edge

    Steve Edge Member

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    No probs. Hope the story and recent pics were helpful. Here's a pic from today:

    096.jpg

    [Edit] Apart from the Railway itself, the hills, the house on the hill, everything else in the pic dates from the early 1990s - the road, the retail and fast food places. Before that, it was fields. Given the "new" things can be seen anywhere, the pic could have been taken anywhere - so much for local identity :(

    Steve
    wsr.org.uk
     
    Last edited: Oct 8, 2021
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  7. 35B

    35B Nat Pres stalwart

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    I think that may be a wee bit harsh. Given the external delays they’ve encountered this year, and the need for people to be trained on what’s actually been installed, that decision seems logical.

    None of which excuses the delay in actually implementing the project, which ought never to have been allowed to be derailed for two years in the first place.


    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
     
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  8. 34015

    34015 New Member

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    This does seem an odd statement, but there again the railway seems to be in an odd situation.

    For all the level crossing projects I have been involved in, the ORR (HMRI in old money), normally inspect the crossing after it had been brought in to use.
     
  9. FrankC

    FrankC Member

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    I agree: it was not well phrased. The comment was part of a statement put out following very urgent enquires from a particular local newspaper. The ORR have approved the crossing design in detail, and will be inspecting the crossing in due course. Somerset County Council continue to be fully involved in the crossing development and any comments or considerations regarding the highway are made as the work continues.

    For information the work is now in its final stages and all concerned are fully engaged. For example, the WSR signalling team worked through last Saturday and Sunday. Saturday in West Somerset was one of those days where the rain was horizontal coming either direct from the Welsh Mountains or the North Atlantic. The Amey team worked through Monday night to retrieve the old barriers, working through the night to minimise road traffic disruption.

    Once the crossing is complete, training will commence on the new arrangements involving mainly signalmen, drivers and guards. Given the frequency of use of the crossing by passenger trains, and also the call on signalmen, drivers and guards for the Christmas services in the Bishops Lydeard area this will be phased reaching a peak after Christmas. (There is no point in training staff, for them to have no experience of operations of the particular new arrangement for two or three months.)

    Frank Courtney
     
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  10. nick813

    nick813 Well-Known Member Loco Owner

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    Attached Files:

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  11. jma1009

    jma1009 Well-Known Member

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    There are a number of references to Washford and the SDRT in the above that will no doubt be discussed in the 'other' thread. I'm still after a transcript of the previous year's AGM Zoom when Steve Williams got allegedly quite animated and said lots of things that he no doubt regrets. If anyone has a transcript of same please PM me.
     
  12. JoeMxn

    JoeMxn New Member

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    Is the Minehead crossing work just upgrading the signalling, gates and surface? There was some talk at one point about reinstating double track from Minehead to Dunster and they would have needed to double track the crossing obviously.. I assume thats been put in the bin for the foreseeable future due to the state of the railways finances.
     
  13. The Dainton Banker

    The Dainton Banker Well-Known Member

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    Interesting that the Board closed the meeting and then took questions from the floor so that they were not recorded as part of the meeting. Normal practice is to include such questions and their answers under the "Any Other Business" section of the meeting. Once again the Board displays contempt for its shareholders and ends up looking as if it has something to hide even if this is not the case. Hardly a confidence builder !
     
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  14. D1039

    D1039 Guest

    The SVR does this too. I disagree with it for the reasons you state.

    Patrick
     
  15. 5914

    5914 New Member

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    I would have thought that normal practice nowadays is for there to be no 'any other business' in the context of and Annual General Meeting - certainly that has been my experience of the direction that has taken place in the company articles and charitable constitutions that I am aware of over the past couple of decades. Over this period, the general tenor on good governance has moved in the direction of not having business that is not specified on the agenda included within the meeting (though it is not specified in the Companies Act). The root reason is that any formal business transacted should have been brought to the attention of all those entitled to attend - and that an item under 'any other business' should therefore be truly exceptional. As seems to have been reported from WSRplc, it is increasingly common practice to have a separate opportunity, though often coterminous, for shareholder engagement and dialogue with stakeholders that is separate from the formal business of the meeting. (Of course, this does not prevent the raising of questions within the formal meeting in response to the reports tabled within it - including the annual report).

    In this particular case, I would have thought that WSRplc was actually following good practice (best practice might be seen where stakeholders other than shareholders (who would not be entitled to attend the formal business) are included within the stakeholder session to broaden participation and encourage engagement).
     
  16. Lineisclear

    Lineisclear Member

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    The suggestion that the Board are stifling shareholder democracy is a bit harsh. Actually they were following Company Law. Section 301 of the Companies Act specifies that the only resolutions that can be passed at a General Meeting are those for which due notice has been given to Shareholders. So the formal meeting can make decisions on those resolutions only. The provision ensures that shareholders can't turn up and propose something on the day under AOB which other shareholders were unaware of and which might have affected their decision to attend and vote.

    There is no statutory requirement for a general question and answer session though it is recognised good practice. Anything raised in such a session is not part of the formal meeting so there would be no requirement for discussion to be minuted.

    If shareholders wish to propose resolutions, and even to call a General Meeting themselves, there are statutory provisions that enable them to do so although they will have to achieve a threshold which is normally those holding at least 5% of the issued shares. In some circumstances the company can also require that those shareholders pay for the reasonable costs involved.
     
  17. The Dainton Banker

    The Dainton Banker Well-Known Member

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    There was no suggestion that resolutions could be raised from the floor and actioned under AOB, so you only confuse the issue by addressing that point.

    The purpose of AOB is primarily to allow for any matter that has not been mentioned or discussed already to be raised. This is allows anyone present to raise an issue that is not on the agenda. As such it is part of the formal meeting and the responses should be recorded for future action or reference. As an example : if a shareholder enquires about the cost of a particular aspect of the company's operation, the information for which is not immediately available, then the request is noted in the minutes together with an undertaking by the officer resposible to supply the answer within an appropriate time frame.
    As you say yourself, a general question and answer session is recognised as good practice (even if it can sometimes require careful handling by the Chair !) and, in my experience, it is also good practice to include the reporting of this as part of the meeting minutes. All part of keeping things as open as possible for the information of the owners of the company, its shareholders.
     
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  18. Lineisclear

    Lineisclear Member

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    I'm happy to agree that it's good practice and should be encouraged. There's no harm in including a summary of questions and answers but I still take issue with those being part of the meeting that MUST be minuted. It would be the Chairman's discretion as to whether to allow items to be raised under AOB and they would normally be limited to those of which notice has been given in advance of the meeting.
    Normal practice is to close the meeting after formal business has been concluded and then hold a question and answer session. A shareholder can request information such as you suggest but there's no requirement for the board to comply ( although not doing so might send some unfortunate signals).
     
  19. Bayard

    Bayard Well-Known Member

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    The point in this case is that the board of the WSR need to be doing more than the bare minimum to comply with company law. The problem about what they have done here is that, justly, or unjustly, they have once again sent out the message that they don't care about the shareholders or their opinions, that it is "their" railway and that they wish everyone would go away and stop bothering them, all of which would be fine, except that simultaneously they are asking the exact same shareholders, amongst others, to cough up £950,000.
     
  20. 35B

    35B Nat Pres stalwart

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    To be honest, whether or not those answers were given as a formal part of the meeting or not is irrelevant. Far more important is the quality of the answers. And on that front, if I'd raised those questions as a shareholder and received those answers, I'd have felt that I was getting the brush off.
     

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