West Somerset Railway General Discussion

It would take many years, and an awful lot of money, to set up a BL - WD operation. I can't see it happening, and at the end of the day, I want the whole Minehead Branch to survive.

 

Just too long I fear. Even if everyone involved was the best of friends.

 

With variations and tonnes of caveats a short version is:

Option A

Turn up with £1m and PLC board issues shares giving 29.9% of the issued capital and effective control. It needs board but not shareholder approval.

Option B

Make an offer of x pence per 10p share and hope people sell them to you. 10p per share would cost £2.3m, 1p per share would cost £230k, and you can pro rate for other amounts.
If you achieve up to 29.9% then you simply own that %.
If you go over 29.9% you usually have to make an offer to buy all the shares at that price.
If you end up with 29.9% to 49.9% you could find yourself having to sell them on to reduce your shareholding back to 29.9%.
If you end up with 50%+ it still doesn't automatically give you the right to buy out the minority shareholders.

The board can recommend or oppose the offer, but has to accept the outcome.

It's expensive, you have to contact all the penny packet shareholders. "You have 5 shares worth 50p. I'm offering you 5p".

Option C

Do option A. Then do option B for the remainder of the shares in circulation.

Patrick

 

Indeed, it appears that toys are going to be leaving the pram one way or another whatever happens

That seems to be a certainty, but that significant number may well not be a majority.

So the PLC board putting its cards on the table, stating both the endgame and the process they intend and asking for a full and fair vote of all shareholders who can be traced might at least settle the direction of travel, if not clarify who precisely is prepared to stay on board for the ride. I suppose the PLC could be afraid of not getting a majority but I suspect there are a lot of people who would accept pretty much any situation if it meant the WSR continued to run the full length.

 

In the meanwhile the Bluebell, NYMR & Mid Hants have announced reopening proposals...............

 

The SVR has started to distribute reopening proposals to staff.

 

And the WSR has..................

I'm not saying that a decision NOT to reopen in 2020 isnt an option BUT it should at least be reviewed

 

Plus several others.

 

It's only a very few miles longer than the NYMR or SVR and I don't see any signs of them failing. It seems to me that what has brought it to the brink is years of blinkered vision - the lack of recognition or acceptance that it needed to invest in its track, and the recognition or acceptance that its present structure would not permit grant-awarding bodies to support it to the degree that it has always needed because it cannot generate the income it needs via the fare box.

 

But may prove to the the right one when (not if), based on the scenes at Bournemouth beach yesterday, the next spike arrives in Covid 19. If folks can not work around 2 metres then 1 metre will just make it all a lot worse.
Hope I get proved wrong.

 

The NYMR has several major conurbations reasonably close - Teesside and Tyneside to the North, York, Leeds etc to the Southwest and Hull to the south. The SVR has the whole West Midlands conurbation to the East. The WSR has Bristol and environs. The farebox is more important than grants.

 

And of course those in Bristol and its environs have the choice of the ESR, the S&DRHT at MSN, the AVR, the G&WSR, the Swindon & Cricklade (and maybe even one day the Vale of Berkeley) all closer to hand than the WSR.

 

Not when it comes to maintenance and repair costs.

 

What happened to new releases on WSRTV?

 

I bet there are many WSR supporters purchasing lottery tickets then!

 

I'd have thought that Minehead is a bit closer to Bristol than Ayr, Kilmarnock or Stranraer!

 

None of which are anywhere close to being in the same league as alternatives to the WSR.

 

I doubt they'd table something they weren't sure would pass. The two largest shareholders are the charities and from what I have seen in print from them I'm not sure the PLC and at least one of the charities share the same vision on WSR structure. The PLC has opposed a single charity, WSRA has suggested it. I haven't seen anything that suggests the PLC board would support a charity-owned model.

This is just an external observation, happy to be corrected.

I was looking at this yesterday when looking at how other bodies (e.g. tank museum) do it. It must be very difficult to maintain a regular supply of material without a dedicated resource.

A personal thing, I wouldn't put G&WSR in a lower league than the WSR. Despite living in Somerset I visited the G&WSR last year, but not the WSR.

Patrick

 

That could be the case but it has no relevance to financial stability or whether they are "happy ships"or not.