West Somerset Railway General Discussion

It depends when you want your income. The certainty of cash in the hand has a lot going for it over income that may come later; railways have bills now that need to be paid to allow trains to run later. But as @Jamessquared says, it's a judgement call.

 

The extension to the notice was only a couple of months, I thought? Anyone know what the SDRT's schedule is on getting all their artifacts out? (I know some coaches+engines have gone already, but I don't know about stuff inside.) So the museum may not be there.

(Please, no comments on the museum departing; been there on this thread already, 22 times over. This is only a query on the logistics of the move.)

Noel

 

True it is a judgement call. I still think having the train services already planned for December and January and accepting bookings for them, when the situation could be very different by then, might be a mistake. We’ll have to wait and see.

 

Your view may be right to a degree, but look at all the railways, tourist attractions, events businesses etc that had there 2020 planned out by mid to late 2019, look where we were and where we are now! So using your view, every business, in a world with or without coronavirus, are making a mistake planning out more than a year in advance.

I still think the PLC's approach is the best, and (for the first time in quite a while!) should be praised for it. It may be a bare bones plan for the year, but it is a commitment to running something throughout the 2021 year. Much better than the 2020 approach of not bothering, or creating excuses as to why they cant run.

 

Yes I may well be wrong. However most other heritage lines are currently only planning their services and ticketing arrangements 2 or 3 months in advance, until we have a better idea what the relaxation of the current restrictions will mean. Time will tell which approach is best.

 

Last year the NYMR was only releasing tickets a fortnight in advance of services. Their experience was that the majority of people were only booking four or five days in advance so there was there was little chance of significant income early in the season. It also enabled them to better react to the latest circumstances.

 

Likewise on the GWSR, although I don't think we were quite so tight on releasing tickets, it didn't make any difference, people still only started buying tickets when the date was in weather forecast range.

 

The impression I got from the Ffestiniog is that they are releasing tickets but by train ie 10.15 and say 13.15, once they have sold out they release for the 11.15 and 14.15, once they have sold out they add 12.15 and 15.15. The schedule is there and can be adjusted at very short notice. ie no point in running a second or third set if there is no demand, but if you get demand then you can add.

But basically designed with maximum flexibility. This is obviously with a shortened service so I don't know when/if there are plans on the FR to run the full line or a combination. But the broad thrust I picked up was that be as flexible as possible in terms of service patterns to reflect demand and covid situation.

 

It gets money into the business. What's the worse case scenario? Having to refund, but many people will just defer their booking if that's the case, hopefully services will be allowed to go ahead in a less restrictive manner and they can adjust the bookings as required.

Plenty of railtour companies are selling trips for December time, why should heritage railways not? There are other railways offering bookings online until the turn of the year.

The GWSR didn't sell Santa tickets to begin with last year as they said Argos were going to run out of presents if they left buying them until nearer the time... but in the end they did run Santas.

 

Good post, until after the last comma. The WSR is under no obligation to operate a service at any given time. Plenty of other railways didn't run last year, including others in the South West, or offered a very limited service.

 

The South Devon Railway didn't run and seemed very quiet, although I thunk that there was something to do with a bridge as well

 

No bridge issues. Decision made not to run. Buckfastleigh site was open when possible. Plans that trains return 17th May.

 

Well my earlier comment on Foxcote Manor was prescient - have just seen an announcement that it is to see out it current boiler ticket on the WSR, which will keep it there till 2026. How long before a similar agreement for 5199 is announced?

 

May you be equally prescient with your lottery tickets.

 

Thought no locos were going to be available for hire?

 

Plenty of locos are available for hire.

 

because of events elsewhere, if it was not for that, would Foxcote Manor be seing out the last two years of its boiler life at WSR? possibly 5199 also , one mans loss, is another mans gain you might say, but, loan engines have to be paid for you can't agree to run them, then say sorry we can't afford the overhaul, as has been the case in several other former home based locos on the WSR. That have moved elsewhere.

 

The "run and overhaul" form of hire arrangement always suffers from the problem of their potentially not being enough funds available to carry out the overhaul when the time comes, even with the best will in the world. The problem with the WSR and 53808 was not that the money wasn't there, if the company is short of cash, realisation of its obligation to overhaul the loco isn't magically going to make the funds available. The problem was that the provision for the overhaul was written down in the accounts for PR purposes, it appears to make a new management team look good by turning a £800,000 "loss" into a £300,000 "profit", which made it look that not only was the company going to struggle to fund the overhaul, which was understandable in the circumstances, but that they weren't even going to try. All that is water under the bridge and it seems that wiser heads have prevailed of late, so it looks very unlikely that that particular stunt will be pulled again.