West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Just been looking at the SVR survey. It’s not perfect. For example it asked when you last visited, I ticked the ‘over 1 year ago’ box. The next question asks how often you have visited in the last 12 months. Zero wasn’t an option!

However in general it asks much more relevant and useful questions. How much you would be prepared to pay, would you be prepared to share an open carriage, what safety measures you’d like put in place etc. All with tick box options for the most obvious answers (making statistical analysis 100 times quicker and easier), also with room for other comments.

I’m sure someone at the WSR knows what they are doing and what they intend to achieve from the survey. Just not the way I would have done it.

 

You could have a thousand people answer those questions, and each and everyone could give a slightly different answer. How do you analyse and collate them all? How do you draw conclusions if all the answers are different?

Maybe that's what the plc have got planned for all the furloughed staff, go through all the questionnaires rather than actually being at work planning to reopen the line.

 

Schmurvey, schmurvey, more schmoke and mirrors? Other lines, of the size of the WSR, are either open or have definite plans to do so soon. Rome seems to still be on fire and the fiddle still can be heard. It is principally small lines that say they will remain closed -

 

There will be a general trend. The ones like miles and age are easy to collate, wearing masks at the railway is a yes or no basically, day trip or holiday is a two choice. Way overthinking this.

 

South Devon haven't got any plans, East Lancs I don't believe so.

Well it certainly does not ask would people go if no trains were running. It asks would people go if the railway was running. Some people wouldn't want to risk it, others are chomping at the bit. Also it says should face masks be worn on or around the railway. Not all railways are insisting you wear a face mask onboard, and neither are Saphos trains. I personally replied no to that because there's no point if you are socially distanced, which isn't the "one answer" you refer to.

 

This report suggests South Devon have.
https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2020/07/south-devon-railway-confirm-reopening-plans.html
Their gift shop is open three days per week, so there is an effort being made[/QUOTE]

 

But most of the questions are yes/no or have an 'exact' (for the want of a better word) answer.

1 - is multiple choice age range
2 - a date
3 - miles
4 - choice of two, holiday or day trip
5 - a place (where travelling from)
6 - open style
7 - yes or no (would you come if we open)
8 - open style
9 - yes or no (masks)
10 - open style

 

STOP PRESS cause that's firing up a steamer and running it along the Dart four times a day...

 

I think the survey is a red herring; it’s just a symptom of an overall lack of preparedness to reopen. If you are going to open at all, you need to be open in the school holidays. Getting to that point takes weeks of effort to draw up plans of “how to”; re-certify (and possibly adapt) rolling stock; think about crew / staff competence and assessment; plan and possibly order signage; plan a marketing campaign and a thousand other things.

So re-opening at all probably meant starting planning weeks, if not months ago. Necessarily, in the early days that meant a degree of “what if” scenarios in the absence of solid guidance: what if the regulations require 2m separation? How does it change if 1m is allowed? Can we cater for individuals, or only groups? Can we provide food? How do we control numbers - online booking? Can we do that? Will we have sufficient staff, fit and willing to work?

It’s one thing saying, as I believe I saw a comment on Facebook, “we will use ideas from other railways where appropriate”. But you do need an overall vision and there is weeks of lead time to re-opening.

Lock down happened in late March. Basically, since then the steps on many railways have been:

1. How do we immediately secure the railway, ie from theft / vandalism
2. What immediate support is available from the Government and how to we get it? (ie furlough, various financial reliefs)
3. What’s our immediate business plan? (what can we not avoid funding and therefore need cash for)
4. How can our members / supporters help? (Internal and external comms, get an appeal up and running)
   
5. Can we think about running some sort of service? What would be involved? What scenarios work given our constraints?

The railways that seem to have done better got through stages 1 -4 very quickly. Sure, they have still had a continuing effort around comms and fund raising, but I get the sense that those opening now or in the next couple of weeks will have been formulating detailed plans since the beginning of June if not earlier, even allowing that some of those plans will have been changing and adapting as external conditions changed. If you have not done a lot of the planning and procedural groundwork by now, it's really hard to imagine how you can get it done by the beginning of August.

Tom

 

Years ago, in my professional career, part of my analytical training included surveys - how to design them, how to target them, how to analyse the results, how to weed out spurious responses that might artificially 'skew' the results etc etc. No two sets of circumstances are the same, but one soon gets a impression about whether a survey is 'good' or 'bad'. In the case of the WSR survey, I was distinctly underwhelmed.

If the results meet the requirements of the Plc, then all well and good. But - I shall wait to see what the Plc publishes as their analysis of 'public opinion' once the survey period has ended and all the results have been studied, coupled with their proposals to meet expectations. That should be the 'interesting' bit...

 

The South Devon has raised over £200,000 up to a week ago. One factor that the SDR is one of the countries more scenic lines that has much of its line that can be seen by visitors and consequently trains watched - with or without passengers. There are some delightful and very beautiful places from which to view it.

 

Tom - you've put a lot more useful 'meat' on the bare bones of my original query, namely exactly what have the Plc been doing during the lock-down period that has been aimed at re-opening and gaining new revenue asap

 

Where from? Majority of the line isn't near a road. I'd say the WSR is more in the view of the public.

 

Other businesses in the service / leisure sector took a far more professional view and sold forward booked tickets, giving customers priority when the business started operating. it achieved a number of things.

• It provided a small revenue stream where there was none
• It locked customers into consuming the product at a future date
• It did not erode any opportunistic spend such as other customers turning up and paying for the product when capacity allowed
• It allowed forward planning to ensure that sufficient capacity could be made available.

All of the above is do-able and the ticketing system used for the Flying Scotsman events provided the experience and route to an on-line facility. You have to wonder why a board that described themselves as "determined" seems to have lacked any real determination to succeed. You could be forgiven for thinking that failure is the goal. Other lines are running and the WSR is advertising that a burger van will be available in the car park during a future shunting demonstration.

 

...but might not the answer be that they would go elsewhere altogether, to places that did have trains running?

 

Yes it says that, but asks if alternative events were going on would people go along. In isolation I can see your point, but I believe reference was being made to "If we were able to run trains this year would you want to on ride them despite the situation with the Covid-19 pandemic?".