Creative Thinking for Future Heritage Railway Schedules

I was merely pointing out that it was possible to run a gala and remain covid safe. If you thought I was commenting on the WSR, you'd be wrong. I'm fully aware of what it takes to balance all aspects of a railway and run services, or not. I dont presume to tell anyone how to run their railway. I simply offer some thoughts about what I think the industry may have learnt this year.

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The Higher Prices element is only a short term thing of course whilst people are more understanding of the current situation. It won't last forever.

 

We shall see and it may depend on the specifics of different operations. There has been a reset of the world though and I wouldn't be at all surprised if some attitudes and behaviours of the public at large haven't changed permanently. We will have to see how that affects heritage railways.

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I suspect the reality is that those attitudes and behaviours will have evolved, not changed. My own gut feeling is that the acceptance of a “curated” experience will prove conditional, and the willingness to fit specific times & itineraries will fall back when Covid no longer defines what we can do.


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Who knows? Has anyone tried?

I think for a long time, many railways have, perhaps subconsciously, planned things as a "service": you start out by thinking what's the earliest feasible train, what's the latest, how many round trips can you do, what frequency. Lots of earnest discussion about what the impact on "turn up and go" passengers is if you can't run at least one train an hour, etc etc. We sell rover tickets on the assumption people will use a frequent service to hop and and hop off through the day.

But does that actually meet the demand, at least outside of enthusiasts? Or do you just run a couple of really busy trains, and lots of things on the shoulders with very few people on them? It is certainly somewhere where I suspect long lines and short lines might have different experience.

Here's a thought experiment: Suppose you ran one train from BL departing about 10:30am. (Crew book on about 6:30am or thereabouts). Arrive Minehead 12:00ish; the passengers head to the beach. Loco runs round, second set of passengers, depart for Watchet, depart about 12:30, arrive about 13:00. Loco and train runs on to Williton, runs round, PNB break for the crew, arrive back at Watchet 14:30, back Minehead 15:00, loco runs round, passengers from the beach come back, depart 15:30, back to BL 17:00, crew book off 18:00, inside a 12 hour day.

You've steamed one loco and run about 60 miles; 60 miles for the carriages; one crew. But if you had 250 people @ £25 going BL - Minehead return (with 3.5 hours on the beach) and 150 going Minehead to Watchet and return @£17.50 (with 1.5 hours at Watchet), you have made nearly £9,000 in income for the sake of steaming one loco. Do that 200 times in a year ...

That's a very different service - but if there is one thing 2020 has taught, it is that you have to think differently.

Now continue the thought experiment: throw your hands up in horror, say "that is not how we do things" - so fill in the gaps so you get four or five departures each way. How much extra do they cost (in terms of additional loco requirement and additional carriages etc) - and how many extra people do you carry?

Maybe that isn't the right pattern for the WSR, but I believe thinking's long those lines will be inevitable, trying to find the optimum match between service and demand. That probably means the end of the clock face timetables we have got used to. (Book on, three round trips at two hour intervals for a mid length line, book off ...) @21B mentioned "curated" visits which I think is a good term; "itineraries" might be another. The SVR seemed to do that really well during lockdown, with whole day itineraries that mixed a trip on the line and a visit to their museum. Pre-booked, online booking I suspect is also here to stay, with "turn up and go" dwindling.

That's going to be the $64million question. If 80% are happy with a curated / intinerised experience, and 20% want to hop on and off all day, how much are you paying to cater for the 20%? (OTOH - if the proportions are reversed - then of course you have to cater for that hop on / hop off demand. The question is working out which is which).


Tom

 

These are the questions that all will need to think about. My observation is based not on my preferred mode of visiting railways - where I accept the enthusiast preference is an outlier - but on my experience of visiting NT sites, both this year and previously. As a visitor, having to fit a "slot" to be sure of my trip is a source of stress - and that is when the property is a 5 minute drive away! In particular, it's the stress my wife shows (she's an "arrive early" person) at the thought of being late and being denied entry that is a concern.

 

Yes, although railway is already different to a property, since even with a regular timetable, if you turn up at a random time, you essentially have to wait until the next train is due - akin to an entrance "slot". (The railway may of course make that waiting more or less enjoyable, for example with a museum, cafe etc). So railways already operate on a quasi-slot based system anyway; it is only a short step from there to ask (1) how many slots do we actually need and (2) should we make people book on a specific one, or be free to choose whichever they like within a small range of available "slots"? (You may prefer to call them "departures"

Tom

 

Agreed, but the question is the downside consequence of missing the planned departure. If I plan a day out on the “old” model and am delayed, I can flex my plan; if I have a fixed itinerary it becomes a potential showstopper for my planned day.

It’s the trade off between these two that will be interesting when circumstances become “normal”; I am not convinced that the case proposed by @21B is as clear cut as it appeared. @Big Al is right to focus on the possibilities of specific itineraries.


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This really wants to be a thread on its own. I do think that this approach is quite possibly going to become the norm wit the big players. During Covid, the NYMR have been offering a basic out an back service to Whitby with two trains per day from Pickering, entitled 'the Optimist' with no intermediate stops or at least stops where the public can de-train. Passengers have had to pre-book although I believe on-the-day tickets have been sold where there was capacity although that fact was not advertised. It has been quite successful over the summer. To cater for a different clientele, a Grosmont-Goathland shuttle was introduced for those who like to travel one way and walk the rail trail back to Grosmont. I think that this was pay on the day but am open to correction on this. However, there is a 'but ' to the Optimist service in that it discourages those who look at tomorrows weather forecast and decide whether to have a day out and in the shoulder periods these form a significant portion of the passengers.
Having seen the business case for pre-booking it is certainly being considered as a way forward. Whitby trains suffer from significant overcrowding and pre-booking with higher fares is being considered as a way forward. It may deter a number of people but it is suggested that it would give a better experience to those that do travel. Effectively, you would be paying a premium for a better class of service. This would leave the non-Whitby trains for those who turn up on the day or want to do short journeys or station hop. Not definite but certainly being talked about.

 

You will note I said people liked curated visits. I didnt say that they were the only answer.

Tom's thought experiment is spot on. That is the thinking all railways need to go through and decide how and what they run.

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Agreed there is useful information to share which may help many operators justifying a specific thread.

For my part I would add that pre-booked seats and meal opportunities have proved popular with wife and daughter both of whom are normally not very keen on visiting railways. I also preferred visiting the MHR gala with my son and the dedicated seats were greatly preferable to the usual scrum of such events. In the case of the NYMR the lack of services from Whitby meant possible traffic was missed and perhaps a Whitby to Goathland service could usefully have been added. Rather like the WSR (getting back on topic) it's a long and expensive line where a selection of shorter affordable trips might help boost total revenues.

 

Im sure curated and timed visits work for some folk- but equally I suspect it doesn't really work for others- myself included.

If we go somewhere for a day out we tend to try and do stuff in our own time- every day at work is time constrained and planned to the Nth degree so its quite refreshing to not necessarily have a plan as such- Railways are slightly different as the day tends to be book ended by a trip on the train, but in between times not having time constraints is a very welcome break from the real world.

There is no straightforward answer for this dilemma as no 2 people are the same and for now, we all just have to make the best of whatever can be provided.

Regards

Chris

 

Likewise, you will notice that I queried balance... That said, I've reservations about how well a hybrid model might work in practice.

 

Try a little added value: pre-booked ticket to Whitby and pre-ordered fish and chips ordered in bulk by the railway and delivered to the train.

 

pretty sure something along those lines has been tried in the past. IIEC Part of the justification for a grant to overhaul Pullman "Opal" was to include in a Whitby set to allow dining in some form but it doesn't have a kitchen and all the Mk 1 sets are due to include an RMB. It might have been better to try to find an RBR to pair with the Pullman for one if some form of on-train dining was desired. Might not have been worthwhile for just 24 seats, though!

 

With Covid, the decision was taken that passengers would travel to and from Whitby in the same seats and the trains would lay over at Whitby for the returning passengers. This avoided having to clean coaches during the day. This prevented Whitby originating traffic from using the trains for southbound journeys. I think consideration was given to running an early train out of Whitby but the resources weren't available to do so. The motive power for the whole season has consisted of only 5 steam locos (29, 825, 926, 65894 & 92134) plus the Cl.25 (D7628) and 29 & 65894 are not up to hauling 7 coach trains. Other locos originally planned to be operational (5428, 76079 and 80136) have not seen service because there hasn't been the staff to complete the already started maintenance work. It was a similar scenario with C&W and coaches.

 

One thing that did seem to happen with the MHR gala was that you got on a train that shuttled back & forward down the line & you got a ride behind all of the locos running that day. No sitting down with rosters trying to work out how to travel behind all of them, loading stuff on & off trains etc.

Probably wont work on a longer line but looks like an idea worth perpetuating

 

That was deliberate. It wasnt possible to provide reserved seats (to ensure social distancing) on multiple trains. Easier to bring the locos to the people.

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