Swanage Railway General Discussion

Just extending that thought a little further, the willingness of the local councils / local tax payers to fund / support tourism (specifically events) which apparently generate large sums of spending in the local economy. The current debates in BCP about the Bournemouth Air Festival and the financial support required certainly provide some interesting food for thought.

As I have said before, the sooner the Wareham debate is put to bed the better. SRT SRC can then focus on the core issue which is the survival of "Swanage Railway".

 

I do not see a demand for a commuter service either. As you say buses are only hourly on both the 40 and 50 in the main part of the day for a lot of the year with the 50 only go half hourly at holiday times. There are only two buses from Poole after the 18:35 (20:35 and 23:10) and none from Bournemouth after 19:35. So allowing for the fact that the bus catchment area is far larger than the rail catchment area where would all these "commuters" be coming from?, as the bus company obviously feels they are not there.

 

Discussed in the Project Wareham thread. As of yet figures have not been published.
Possible if there is a shortfall of a few thousand pounds, for a service to boost tourism and reduce car traffic, the DFT restoring your railway fund could help?

 

Possibly. But that also means “possibly not” - and raises all the questions that have just been asked about the actual value of such a reopening.

At the Millennium, there were a whole load of projects funded through the lottery. This funding was strictly limited to capital funding, so a range of museums and galleries were built. A number of them failed very quickly, because there was no money to keep them open, and they couldn’t sustain themselves.

The concern for many is whether the Swanage Railway would be strengthened or weakened by operation to Wareham, either seasonally or permanently. The suspicion based on the two trials is weakened. Severely so.


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If the SRC need £450k to survive, I suspect the Wareham losses are considerably more than 'a few thousand'

 

The way I have interpreted what was said at the 2023 AGM is that £450K is needed to get through this winter to next Spring and then in 2024 better net income than in the previous post covid years (by a combination of increased revenue and lower costs) to the tune of C£200- £300K. SRT do seem to throw figures around a great deal which makes getting a true assessment of the exact position very difficult indeed.

As regards Wareham I have previously estimated the loss at between £135K and £165k. I do wish that SRT would at least provide the members with accurate revenue and costs data for Wareham given the fears expressed by members repeatedly over many years prior to the start of the service.

 

I suspect your loss estimate might be on the conservative side (just my hunch).
Even supposing your lowest estimate of £135k is correct, there's no way the railway could sustain that amount every year.

 

Yes if that figure is there or thereabouts then the Wareham service is unsustainable and sadly I doubt the local authority, even if they had spare funds, would be able to justify providing some form of grant.

 

With temperatures plummeting today the two "daylight trains" produced some impressive exhaust. The first one approaching Afflington Bridge, the second pulling away from the Corfe Castle token exchange.

 

Manston departing this morning for the MHR

 

Looking at the PE booking, it looks like they have reduce the carrages you can book (until they get full). For example all the services tomorrow Sunday 3rd only showing 3 + 1 break coaches.

Interestingly showing the next midday departure as 'limited' today but only two cars are full.

Have any services needed any more than 3 cars plus the break (around 200 people)? So far I've not seen the 3 the class 33 end with anyone in them since it started.

Just wondering what the thought of running 90 odd tones (3 cars) with fresh air, any reason they haven't removed them and simply added them IF they need it?

 

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Some trips do have Polar Express passengers in the London end coaches.

There is a technical reason why the set cannot be split and reformed willy nilly, there cables between coaches for PE lighting control.

 

Having just photographed the return of the 12:45 i.e. the 13:30 steam leg from Norden( in thick fog) at Afflington, there were 5 coaches with passengers in them.

 

Just looked at the webcam. All six coaches in use and busy. The BSK is for the actors.

 

Just watched the return of the 1445 working, 34028 +7 Full coaches + 33111 on rear.
I note that on the Spa Valley railway, They are also running Polar Expresses with the same formation as us.
Strangely enough I have not seen any comments about passenger loadings on that site.
In both cases, The trains are hired by the production company who have obviously requested 7 coach formations.
Wonder what the reason is for swapping the class 33s Hope D6515 is OK.

 

Hi Andy, Flat battery, cell failed, cold weather...... wouldn't start yesterday, Lucky Hotdog was raring to go.

 

I think they were swapped yesterday.D6515 now in the bay at Swanage with the T3

 

That would be right then,the T3 is charging the Cromptons batteries, any laughs?

 

Not the T3, Thats the T9.