If you register, you can do a lot more. And become an active part of our growing community. You'll have access to hidden forums, and enjoy the ability of replying and starting conversations.

West Somerset Railway General Discussion

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

  1. Bayard

    Bayard Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 26, 2015
    Messages:
    1,826
    Likes Received:
    3,871
    Gender:
    Male
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    Well it is fairly obvious that there can only be an interchange station at NF if one is built by NR as part of a policy to reopen stations along the main line. Did you seriously think I was suggesting that the WSR fund the building of an NR station? I'm not that gentleman with the foreign sounding name in Minehead. Equally obviously, if reopening stations is not happening "due to the current economic climate", then it's not going to happen, not that anything is likely to happen in the next ten, or even twenty years. Also, I see you subscribe to the old BR idea that reopening stations only takes passengers away from existing stations, something that has been debunked with every single station re-opening that has taken place.

    Yes, but how many extra passengers do those additional facilities attract, or to put it another way how many potential passengers travelling to the WSR and/or places served by it are going to be put off by the lack of facilities at Norton Fitzwarren , how does this translate into lost revenue and how does this lost revenue compare to the additional expense of the WSR running into Taunton?
    It is also fairly obvious that the best solution is for a TOC to run over WSR metals to BL. It is still expensive, but not compared to the other options of connecting the WSR with NR passenger services.
     
  2. Yorkshireman

    Yorkshireman Part of the furniture

    Joined:
    Jul 6, 2014
    Messages:
    4,486
    Likes Received:
    5,045
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Comfy chair occupant!
    Location:
    No moaners please!
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    If you actually researched the reality you would know that the rules for local authority accounting are quite strict with no room for the sort of creative accounting you are thinking of. In fact all accounting rules in the U.K. are much stricter than in the past. Not perfect but not like the excesses of the past.
     
    Last edited: Dec 16, 2017
    michaelh likes this.
  3. Kengo

    Kengo New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 10, 2014
    Messages:
    54
    Likes Received:
    33
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    HEAD GARDENER
    Location:
    BISHOPS LYDEARD
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    Yes if they were available for sale, and of course it is joined to the trading estate making it a very costly land value price.
     
  4. Paul Kibbey

    Paul Kibbey Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 25, 2014
    Messages:
    1,165
    Likes Received:
    1,402
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Retired
    Location:
    Land of Sodor
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    The I.O.M has the Steam Railway only has the Douglas to Port Erin line open , now that is only a tourist line that only runs Easter to September / October , time although they do run a ' comuter ' special in the high season , ie TT period . There is also a tram that runs Douglas to Ramsey , the islands second largest town similar TT to the Steam Railway except there will be be trains similar to the QB durring the Christmas period . One very big difference ALL public transport is owned by the government .
     
    Yorkshireman likes this.
  5. aldfort

    aldfort Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 4, 2009
    Messages:
    1,923
    Likes Received:
    4,237
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Retired
    Location:
    Cardiff
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    Don't forget the need also for planning approval.
     
  6. I believe an interchange at Norton is not the right option:

    1 I can't see all mainline trains stopping at a new station at Norton, whereas almost all mainline trains stop at Taunton (a station which already has all the facilities you and I would expect when changing trains)

    2 I really don't see the attraction of rail travel between Taunton and Minehead if it involves a change of train at Norton. Even less attractive for travellers to/from places beyond Taunton who might need to change at Taunton and again at Norton.

    Turning to the idea of having Lydeard as the interchange. I agree with you that a TOC service to Lydeard is the cheaper option - but it suffers from the same drawbacks as I have mentioned above. Plus, again, it assumes the WSR would then provide an expanded (and quicker) service to/from Minehead, early morn/late night plus (somehow) between its own services. That expanded service would require WSR to (re)introduce cheaper fares too. All in all, it does not look like an attractive solution for would-be through travellers.

    So, with all of that in mind, I'm afraid the MRLG are right in one aspect: any regular train service between Minehead and Taunton needs to run right through with no changes and it needs to be attractive in ticket price and journey time. Two costs come to mind: the cost of providing that kind of service are enormous; and the cost to the local community of potentially losing a major tourist attraction must rank high on the risk register. MRLG do not yet seem to have cottoned on to those two costs.

    Steve
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 16, 2017
  7. paulhitch

    paulhitch Guest

    W.I.B.N. attitudes are not confined to railway enthusiasts it seems.

    PH
     
    jnc and West Somerset Wizard like this.
  8. DragonHandler

    DragonHandler Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 27, 2016
    Messages:
    1,286
    Likes Received:
    1,590
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    West London
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    And the MRLC's WIBN seems to have a large element of SEWP* as well.

    (*Someone Else Will Pay)
     
    Kje7812, jnc, Chufferpuff and 6 others like this.
  9. granmaree

    granmaree Member

    Joined:
    Jun 5, 2015
    Messages:
    541
    Likes Received:
    497
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    .
    Very nearly the wsra I guess if I hadn't of set the alarm bells ringing and someone (Robin actually) hadn't convinced Mr A d M that the new Association was NOT the place for him.
     
  10. Dave Stapleton

    Dave Stapleton Member

    Joined:
    Jul 14, 2014
    Messages:
    388
    Likes Received:
    678
    Location:
    UK
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    Lots of meaningless initials again.... :mad:
     
  11. I'm sure a few other people also had a word or two in AdM's lugholes ;)

    Steve
     
    Paul Kibbey and granmaree like this.
  12. Robin Moira White

    Robin Moira White Resident of Nat Pres

    Joined:
    Apr 27, 2014
    Messages:
    11,247
    Likes Received:
    17,947
    Gender:
    Female
    Occupation:
    Barrister
    Location:
    Stogumber
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    West Somerset Railway - Then and Now #157

    Bishops Lydeard 1988 / 2017

    Only a few changes in 29 and a half years. WSR stalwart David Northey’s coat has grown and his hair shortened a bit, that’s all?

    Mind you, thecweather’s better these days.

    Copyright Peter Thompson / Robin White

    1988
    A8ACB19D-A6B1-4FDB-8E93-4E75246DC957.jpeg

    2017
    276457CD-67C0-48EA-94DC-004621C53C70.jpeg
     
    Last edited: Dec 16, 2017
  13. ikcdab

    ikcdab Member Friend

    Joined:
    Dec 12, 2006
    Messages:
    610
    Likes Received:
    1,849
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    WSRHT Trustee, Journal editor
    Location:
    Taunton
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    It makes me feel ancient when the "then" pictures seem so recent! It's ok for youngsters like Robin.. ..
     
  14. staffordian

    staffordian Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 27, 2012
    Messages:
    1,501
    Likes Received:
    2,134
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Retired
    Location:
    The Potteries
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    Ah, but you are making the fundamental error of letting the truth get in the way of another self indulgent pointless whinge :)
     
  15. Robin Moira White

    Robin Moira White Resident of Nat Pres

    Joined:
    Apr 27, 2014
    Messages:
    11,247
    Likes Received:
    17,947
    Gender:
    Female
    Occupation:
    Barrister
    Location:
    Stogumber
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    A lady never reveals her age, but I am aware that you were only one year ahead of me at school, Ian...

    Robin
     
    Yorkshireman likes this.
  16. Yorkshireman

    Yorkshireman Part of the furniture

    Joined:
    Jul 6, 2014
    Messages:
    4,486
    Likes Received:
    5,045
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Comfy chair occupant!
    Location:
    No moaners please!
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    Thank you for correcting me. I was thinking I might stem the flood of ludicrous statements from some posters resident in cloud cuckoo land.:mad:
     
    Paul Kibbey and staffordian like this.
  17. Bayard

    Bayard Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 26, 2015
    Messages:
    1,826
    Likes Received:
    3,871
    Gender:
    Male
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    Agreed that, if expense were no object, a public transport service from Taunton to Minehead would be the best solution, but here, undoubtedly, the best is the enemy of the good. It is like saying that you should never buy a Ford because Lamborghinis are so much better. It is undeniable that more people would use a through service but not even the most rabid WIBNer could claim that the extra revenue would do anything to pay for the extra expense.
     
    jnc likes this.
  18. Robin Moira White

    Robin Moira White Resident of Nat Pres

    Joined:
    Apr 27, 2014
    Messages:
    11,247
    Likes Received:
    17,947
    Gender:
    Female
    Occupation:
    Barrister
    Location:
    Stogumber
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    Scenes from a Railway Day...

    Robin

    754A3836-6956-4AA6-93D6-5E19A21EC22B.jpeg 7D171247-432D-4CD1-91A3-2BEEB4CB47FE.jpeg F170D9D5-FE90-4C1D-AD6E-443F14FF756E.jpeg 991BF7F5-64C6-4C52-8E55-5D9B5D433D22.jpeg F82C2343-9F3D-4A67-A4A6-B575D86E2F7D.jpeg 24E5CA4D-4CC7-49A3-ABF4-389D8061F26F.jpeg AEAC2FB6-DEB3-4A86-95AC-474026C6870D.jpeg 0BF8846B-2CDE-4739-B961-5367ED18F0BD.jpeg C0F79D12-B70D-436B-80D9-72C610DAA6F1.jpeg ED72B5CC-A8F3-4A12-8FCE-9908BBE59509.jpeg
     
  19. gwilialan

    gwilialan Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Dec 8, 2012
    Messages:
    1,658
    Likes Received:
    3,891
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Out there somewhere
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    I too hate TLAs

    (that's Three Letter Acronyms before anyone asks)
     
  20. Paul Kibbey

    Paul Kibbey Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 25, 2014
    Messages:
    1,165
    Likes Received:
    1,402
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Retired
    Location:
    Land of Sodor
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer

Share This Page