Swanage Railway General Discussion

Am I being harsh or just realistic?......... yes we all have 'grand plans', but some are achievable, most are not - well not without a rich benefactor.

IF IRC the Wareham project is underwritten by various public bodies who want to drive custom on to the branch to justify the outlay - I have a feeling, given the way things are going with NR et al, its going to take a lot longer than DCC may stomach - where was the trumping on the news, nationally, of the Corfe service?

As for the MHR being jealous of the CCF - I very much doubt it.

Yes, begging bowls proliferate in the Heritage sector, where ever you look - at the end of the day its up to the individual organisation to convince Mr & Mrs J Public to put their loose change in that bowl and/or sign up for more..........

Possibly, maybe........

Too many irons in the fire can mean trouble, regardless of what they are.

Hopefully, those that come via (L)SWR will be encouraged to spread the word & make the service viable year on year....... on that note I'm guessing the SR are not liable for the costs of through ticketing unlike others with mainline connections?........

 

Brilliant will have to travel on the SWR service, would it be included on the freedom south west rail rover I wonder

 

I tried putting a variety of journeys to Corfe into the National Railplanner and the service came up but no fares. I will ask at Swanwick station on Tuesday but I bet the answer is 'no fare exists'

 

While it would be difficult to provide a commercial case for doing so, rather than block the passing loop at Corfe Castle for 70 minutes the Saturday 1240 DMU service from Wareham could have continued as a through service to the bay platform at Swanage. It may have to replace a steam service but I would guess that the short notice to provide this service must have caused some disruption to SRs scheduled services.

 

Allowing for the journey time between Corfe Castle and Swanage in both directions, surely this would have not left sufficient PNB time for the SWR crew at Swanage?

 

And it would take passengers potentially off the core steam service. Whereas at the moment it brings passengers to it.

 

As I said, "difficult to provide a commercial case for doing so". Isn't there a siding at Corfe that the unit could use during the stop-over rather than occupying the passing loop for all that time? It would never be allowed on the mainline. Even at Weymouth it would (except overnight) have to do an ECS move to Jersey sidings.

 

Trains rarely pass at Corfe on non gala days, so operationally it isn't a massive problem. The up platform is signalled in both directions so the service train uses the up line whislt the 159 lays over on the down.

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Terminating at Corfe Castle for all SWR services both ensures that there is no fare abstraction from internal SR services (which would have led to a whole different set of negotiations between the parties!), and creates a good PNB opportunity for SWR staff making use of the facilities at Corfe Castle.

Why would it not be allowed? As long as berthing stock is included in the relevant instructions for that location, of course it can happen; I have done so frequently where I work when it has been necessary to berth stock for a variety of reasons. All this discussion about services at Corfe using the Up line in both directions takes me back to discussions on the Steam Gala thread about the recent signalling alterations at Corfe, makes life much more flexible on days like this!

 

DCC put up £3M of public money for the reconnection and signalling works, so I would suggest are quite a major funder!

The DCC grant I believe is paying for the upgrade of the DMUs to mainline standard.

 

Sorry - what does PNB mean? Not up to speed with the jargon here.

 

i'm assuming " personal needs break "

 

Correct - loo, and tea/lunch break!

 

Whilst it is true that DCC contributed some £5,000,000 towards the connection, it isn't true that it would have been cut off had it not.

Most TOC and FOC would have opposed the closure and the link would have most likely remained.

What people don't understand or perhaps don't appreciate is that to date, it is estimated that the Swanage Railway has cost in excess of £100,000,000 to reinstate to date.

This massive, unappreciated and unknown figure, puts incredible value on the SR as an ongoing project and whilst DCC contributed, their investment certainly doesn't give them over arching control. It must be remembered, that whilst the pioneers may have achieved their aim, thousands of volunteers came after who were drawn by the heritage railway, not necessarily the initial aim.

 

For anyone for whom the other factors are favourable, particularly if getting to/from their local station is convenient, the fares are cheap enough to be used as singles; to Swanage one Saturday and back home one or two weeks later. I don't suggest that there will be many takers for that, but there could be some.

 

Catching up here, having been away from Saturday evening to Sunday evening (for a ride on the WSR).
Just looked at RTT. The inaugural working actually started from Basingstoke: http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/W10661/2018/05/26/advanced
but the return terminated at Salisbury: http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/W10814/2018/05/26/advanced

 

Also despite the SWR website saying it runs Saturday's and Bank Holiday's 1L11 has terminated in Weymouth and will from a train to Yeovil Junction just after midday it appears looking at both RTT and OTT.
I also think if you use them as two singles who would have to buy the "return" in advance as the SWR website only offers Wareham to Corfe, and not Corfe to Wareham as I had thought of going to have a ride today if it did operate.

 

The SWR site offers Corfe/Weymouth advance tickets. Just checked.

 

Good point never thought of searching for that, not that keen to pay £5 each way for a 159 on the branch, will use my bus pass on the 40 and just go one way on some upcoming Saturday.

 

Can I contribute a bit of background information?
SWT last year and SWR this year planned to run a Saturday service from Basingstoke/Salisbury down to Weymouth and return. These are normally worked by Salisbury traincrew throughout. ( Train crew route refershers have been running for some weeks from Salisbury to Weymouth.)

The RTT links quoted earlier show the schedules as "VAR" so they are changes to the originally bid WTT services. For example, 1L11 on 18 August is shown running to Weymouth as a WTT service on a dated schedule - "Runs SO between 26/05/2018 to 08/09/2018".
The extension to Corfe Castle is a special traffic alteration and as such is a commercial operation and presumably SWR haven't got around to making the STP timings bid yet.

I would guess that Weymouth - Wareham - Corfe Castle is operated using Bournemouth crews who sign the route and traction type. This leaves the Salisbury duties to and from Weymouth unaltered.
Also a number of SWR drivers based at Bournemouth are also footplate volunteers on the Swanage Railway.

Cheers, Neil