West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Shareholders are extremely important to the WSR but just like non-shareholding supporters they can get updates from any number of sources. And there's other ways to help - anyone can help the Railway. There's no need to turn up at the line - there are other ways. Anyone who is online can help. Merely retweet a tweet, share a facebook posting, email a story to friends and family, bung a pic of the WSR onto Instagram, write to the local online papers pages, reply to online letters. Keep it factual and positive, no shouting no rudeness! Promote, publicise, encourage. These things may seem insignificant but it all adds up.

So I'll take (yet) another opportunity to encourage readers to come along to West Somerset in December and enjoy our wonderful Railway. Lots going on, details here.





Steve

 

Also my position. As Churchill said!

 

It really a matter of common sense and courtesy. The Chairman should have known it would soon leak and common courtesy would have been to address it to the shareholders that could have been done quickly and easily. Note that the original press release was not only directed to the staff and public until it was suggested to add them. What the anti shareholders just don’t or won’t grasp is as well as being PLC the WSR is a family of like minded people who support the railway with their pockets many of them out of taxed income. I bought shares, and plan to do so in future, not for what I get out of it but because my disabilities preclude me volunteering. Whilst I do benefit from a travel pass that is not my main reason for doing so. Members of the WSR, formally as well as volunteers are all essential. Antagonising them even in a small way is not goodbusiness. We have just as much commitment, and interest, as those who physically work on it. Taking people for granted is never a sound policy and showing people they ARE goes a long way. Sermon over!

 

And there's an issue for heritage rail organizations (one that has been the subject of some discussion). There will be 'tussle' between the needs of the growing competition for leisure funds, and the central goals of heritage rail - which seem to me to be to be 'having fun re-creating a lost, and positive/desirable (can't come up with the exact word) age/scene'. Q.v. Broadway Station... That 'tussle' can only get worse as the competition increases. Will those goals have to be adjusted? Will that cost (to remain competitive) be too high?

On thinking about it, it all depends on what your definition of 'business' is. If it's 'interacting with the public, getting money from them, and making sure the sums add up', then the British Museum and your local church are businesses. In some sense, perhaps, but I'm not sure most people would agree.

But anyway, this debate over 'what's a business' has deflected from my original point, which is that whatever you call them, heritage railways aren't at the same place on the Tesco's<->British Museum 'business' spectrum (which is what it is, I think) as 'real' businesses (i.e. Tesco's, etc), and they can't expect to use the same model for communicating with their donors (AKA 'shareholders') and supporters as a 'real' business - and I hope the new Chairman, especially given his background, realizes that.

And I will continue to think that more sunlight (AKA external oversight) into what's going on is desirable; as I said, perhaps the WSR wouldn't have wound up in the financial corner it's now apparently in, had there been more sunlight in the past. 'Real' businesses are indeed allowed to make mistakes in private - but the system has an answer to those that do: they go bust. Anything that can be done to help avoid that here, should be done.

Noel

 

I should stress that I am not disagreeing with your sentiment of what may or may not be 'right', but it is a simple fact of the 'PLC' funding model that it consists of discrete 'donations' (which is effectively what a subscription for preserved railway shares is) that brings a once and for all financial benefit to the issuing Company but also an on-going liability for some form of non-financial 'dividend' (travel privileges). You cannot ask for your subscription back, which may well also be true of an annual membership fee or donation in a 'Charity' funding model, (there may be circumstances where a donation could be recovered) but these, whilst usually smaller sums in themselves, can much more visibly be seen as part of an on-going income stream and hence there is a much clearer financial incentive for the recipient to keep the donors happy!

You may well plan to buy further shares given the opportunity, but WSRplc may well decide, as other Railways have done, not to issue any more - the costs of actual share issues have become pretty prohibitive unless there is a strong past record of share sales giving a wide shareholder base who, like yourself, are eager to buy more (e.g. SVR, GWSR). I also know of at least once instance where even a request to buy shares from an individual would be refused due to the on-going commitment to provide travel and other benefits in return. Share issues are an upfront cash inflow followed by potentially unending exposure to 'running costs' (I know this has all been said here before). In other words, shareholders may become seen as a 'liability' rather than an 'asset'.

As I say, none of this disagrees with your general sentiment or penultimate sentence. What is does do is perhaps underline a basic reality of why the West Somerset Railway appears to have funding issues and that is that it may appear as though it does not see its existing shareholders and wider supporting community as eager to offer further financial support in the future - and that, if that is the case, it would be a grave, potentially fatal, error.

Steven

 

I don't thing that the central goals of heritage rail are mutually exclusive to the need to provide a competitive product to attract customers to spend their hard earned pound with you. Quite the reverse in fact. However, the central goal as you describe it is very inconsistently pursued by heritage railways. Some are better at consistently "being" something than others, but I venture to suggest that no one has yet put all elements together.

A "real" business is simply an organisation that makes the best possible use of its resources to achieve the aims of its owners whilst delivering value to customers and other stakeholders. Tesco has different aims and a different business model to the British Museum. My concern about heritage railways in general is that far too few of them have a conscious and discernible business model which is pursued consistently and well, and is appropriate to their situation.

The WSR could absolutely adopt the models of communication that the best communicating businesses of other kinds employ, but the content might be very different, and the frequency of communication would likely be greater.

It may be desirable, but it may not be practical for the moment for all manner of reasons. My own view is that the financial corner has little to do with the lack of transparency and a lot more to do with the fact that the WSR doesn't carry enough passengers for the scale of operation. It also strikes me that the business model is not completely in balance and that it does not access other sources of funds as successfully as many other railways.

The length of the line presents several issues. It is more expensive to maintain, and more expensive to operate. The minimum sensible service requires 3 steam locomotives. It has a highly seasonal peak traffic and is distant from major conurbations (unlike say the Bluebell or SVR). Minehead does not have the same level of appeal as say Whitby. So you have a very long railway which consumes huge resources, and frankly an operation which is unsure whether it is a museum or a holiday ride. If you are already at the sea why would you go to Bishops Lydeard? Why indeed would you go to Taunton? So the people on holiday already who surround the railway may not (I don't know for sure - but I observe that most people arrive at BL and travel "down" in the morning and "up" in the afternoon) be the main customer base. The timetable is very lopsided and does not encourage many other ways of using the line other than arrive at BL and go to MH and return later after an ice-cream. The length of the railway and the extreme and frequent speed restrictions mean that a more frequent service is very difficult (also that I think there is an uneven section length somewhere as well which makes the service pattern a challenge). As it is currently configured as a business, the WSR is not sustainable. Simply having an appeal to tide things over may be necessary, but the business needs a thorough overhaul to make it sustainable. A shorter railway is probably not the answer, but the expenditure needs to better match the ability to earn money.

Don't misunderstand me. I want it to succeed. I think the WSR is great. It's just that whilst I am not from the land of the white rose I believe little is achieved by calling a shovel a broom!

 

I don't think that is fair. I don't see anyone suggesting that shareholders are not of value. However, I think the value of being a shareholder after the purchase transaction of the share is actually low to the business that sold the share. If future shares are desired to be sold, then it is worth considering that existing shareholders might well be the best market for these shares and therefore the investment in communicating with shareholders regularly and well would be an investment well made. It is also very clearly the case that existing shareholders are likely to be among the first to respond to appeals of a charitable nature, which is another good reason for investing in the communication.

However, members, regular givers and volunteers who are not shareholders can often be made to feel second class citizens within the railway (not just WSR) that arguably they contribute as much or more to on a day to day basis, and I think that this is what is seen on here sometimes. To put it another way, you might own a portion of the company and feel very proud to do so, and be content that you have made a significant contribution by buying £thousands of shares. And you have. But a significant contribution is made by the volunteer who is there in all weathers 12 hours of a day for 26 weekends a year. Their labour is worth £15,600 a year (at £25/hr) and it probably costs them £5,000 a year of their money in accommodation and travel to give that labour. They may have been contributing at this rate for 20 years or more, a total contribution of getting on for £0.5M in value.

We all rely on each other to contribute what we can, how we can. That is how heritage railways exist. I quote the above to explain why there may on occasion be a reaction from people who volunteer to the appearance of a suggestion that shareholders should get preferential treatment. In my opinion it is entirely reasonable that the WSR communication was directed primarily to the staff and volunteers, who are most directly affected by the news.

 

There are also Santa trains running between Minehead and Blue Anchor.

Sent from my Lenovo TAB 2 A10-70F using Tapatalk

 

Information on traveller patterns will be available to the Commercial department from analysis of ticket sales. However, my 15 years-worth experience of working on the trains and stations is that BL - MD and return is easily the most popular journey, with passengers travelling down on the morning trains and returning up on the afternoon trains, quite often stopping off at an intermediate station - Watchet is very popular - that is why the timetable appears to be 'lopsided' as a previous poster said. Passengers starting their journeys from MD tend to do shorter journeys to the stations as far as Watchet.

 

Opening up the Daily Mail online this morning brightened up my day, WSR Seasonal train advertisement on every page. Well done!

 

daily mail

 

Gammon for Christmas ?

 

Nom nom nom

 

Lol, sad isn't it but when you are bored you flip through all-sorts. Nice to see though, it could well be advertised elsewhere too which shows they are thinking outside the box for a change instead of just 'we put it on fb'

 

Thank goodness the WSR hasn't never followed some other heritage railways by just putting it on facebook

Steve

 

Has anybody any ideas what the visitors might look like at the Diesel gala next year, yes I'm aware this is very early doors but idle speculation never hurt anyone, the idea floated a while ago to get another 33/0 when they've got two of there own???, I'm not sure what pres visitors I would go for but whenever you attend a gala with a mainline visitor they allways seam much busier, with the relationship they have with GBRF it would be nice to go for a class 60 if the p way will stand the weight,can't remember a 60 ever being on the line so that would be nice or a Colas 70 of Westbury, there allways seam a couple hanging around, what's your thoughts

 

What about a WSR by night event?

 

Top of my wish list would be D213 'Andania'.

Stef.

 

There was a post on Facebook a couple of weeks ago from the owners offering D212 for 2019 galas. Is anyone from the Gala Planning Team taking note?!