Project Wareham

Sorry but "Get thee behind me W.I.B.N!"

PH

 

It was the stated aim of the fledgling Swanage Railway all those years ago, and they've achieved it.
Presumably someone said W.I.B.N. and you know what, it is nice.
So how about you stop being quite so negative? Just for a change...

I know I will be using the scheduled service in the summer when I'm on holiday just outside Poole. Hamworthy to Wareham and then Wareham to Corfe & Swanage. The A351 is a nightmare with all us tourists on it, so it wil be great to avoid it.

 

I don't know whether this will succeed or not yet and no-body does. What I do know is that from the earliest days of railway preservation there have been romantic aspirations about providing a public transport service in similar circumstances. So far these have been romantic delusions which have, in one or two cases, left a length of run longer than desirable for a pleasure line.

The best comment I have heard on this thread so far is that the scheme has two years to run which will prove things one way or another. Pleae avoid this "It is what preservation is about" stuff. It isn't

PH

 

I think there is a degree of cake being both had and eaten here...

On other threads you are quite keen to say that most lines aren't "preserved' anyway, but are tourist lines. So, let's call the Swanage Railway that, a Tourist Railway. Whether you like going to Wareham or not, it is a stated aim of the society behind the line, and so the railway has delivered a core aim which their members had mandated the management to work towards and that presumably they consider important to have achieved.

I've no idea whether it will be successful or not, but it's a bit rich to decry the achievement because it isn't about "preservation' when in the main you consider most lines not to be in the preservation business anyway! By contrast, one assumes that the financial success or otherwise of running to Wareham will be heavily dependent on how well they service the local tourist market ...

(Disclaimer; I'm not a Swanage Railway member).

Tom

 

Tom,
You rather misread what I said. Call them tourist, or heritage or preserved railways, they are not in the public transport business and previous attempts to do this elsewhere have failed. I was taking someone to task for saying public transport was a significant part of "preservation" Actually the Norden park and ride arrangement is probably the closest to success there has been but then it is, in essence, a tourist service. Whether a public service and a tourist railway can avoid getting in one another's way remains to be seen.

My thoughts as whether the bulk of tourist railways are particularly good at the "heritage" aspect are rather separate.

Paul H

 

Tourist railway, yep that's about right. Takes tourists to their destination. A commuter railway I believe takes commuters to work and home again, a freight-only line I believe derives its core business from freight.

A heritage line (in my thinking) is somewhere that is primarily a museum with pristine artefacts that trundles from nowhere to nowhere. The NRM, Didcot etc spring to mind.

 

And its all down to how the signaller regulates......and this varies depends who is on duty at the time....

 

Not sure whether your reply was tongue in cheek or designed to provoke a reaction. If the latter then you have succeeded.

Correct me if I'm wrong but you appear to be saying, "Blame the signaller". This is like saying blame the computer, an often used excuse by call centre staff in response to complaints about erroneous utility bills. It's rarely if ever the computer's fault and like signallers computers were once people too. In the days of increasing automation one signaller has an every increasing area of responsibility leading to increased productivity but at what cost in job satisfaction?

I appear to be drifting off topic so I'll leave that thought open to anyone else who would like to explore it further. At the end of the day whether a heritage railway succeeds or fails is down to the management to correctly identify their clientele and pitch the service accordingly. Where tourists are concerned the beauty of the surrounding countryside through which the line passes is an important factor which for the Swanage Railway must have a profound positive influence.

 

All seems a bit academic to me - who do you think visits places like the NRM? Probably a very large number of tourists staying in York!

Likewise my local bit of mainline railway: I travel on it most days to work, which I suppose makes it a "commuter" railway, but at weekends there are lots of people going shopping, or using it to travel to the coast or to local tourist attractions. Carries rather a lot of freight as well...

The bottom line, is just that - the bottom line. It doesn't really matter how, or whether, people self-identify as "tourist", "enthusiast", "day tripper" or anything else. What matters is how many of them visit, and how much they spend when they do...

Tom

 

It doesn't matter what designation the world - or perhaps more important @paulhitch () places on an operation - if the fare box receipts don't pay the bills, the trains will stop running! Conversely, it doesn't in this respect matter why the passenger in question made their fare box contribution - to see the scenery, visit Auntie and Uncle, get to a seaside or other destination to continue their day out or merely enjoy the ambiance of a beautifully restored (Mark 1!?!) carriage - whatever the motive, the money is still as good as the next persons'.

I have come across this attitude elsewhere of almost 'we aren't keen on people not travelling the railway for its own sake' and my answer has always been - 'as long as we don't have to compromise what we aim to be to attract them, all passengers are welcome and whatever their reason for coming, we should aim that they go away having enjoyed a railway heritage experience'!

As long as these services make financial sense and are practically possible, then they can only strengthen the Swanage Railway as a whole. A number of preserved lines, including, all the busiest, have a strong element of being a journey to or through somewhere - wonder if that is why they are busy?

Steven

 

I started a thread a few months ago about "is a physical connection important?" which ruffled quite a few feathers. For me personally it is as I'm as interested in the rail network (and travelling on lines I never had the chance to when they were BR) as I am with heritage trains that run on it. I've seen many extension schemes over the last few decades and generally very few provide a regular service for passengers as some were perhaps intended. The sad fact is that once a BR line was closed its passengers found other means of making the journey and it's no longer that economic to start up a regular service (with the obvious exception of things like the Robin Hood Line etc and the lines in Scotland).

Plus the rail travelling passenger demographic has changed very much since these lines closed with far more car journeys, and generally adequate bus services to replace the lost rail ones.

I think having a Network Rail / preserved interchange station at the extremity of the normal preserved line is a big bonus, and it's sadly something the SR WSR etc have to work around.

 

With the opening of a limited service between Wareham and Swanage, what steps are being taken to make it attractive to people to use it? for instance, there is a park and ride at Norton, so that may possibly take away some possible trade, would some deal with SWT over parking charges if visitors use the Wareham Stn car park and the shuttle over driving to Norton or increasing the price so that people have an incentive to park at Wareham,
With the link into the National Network could Norton be closed in favour of getting visitors to park at Wareham on week ends, when there may be underuse of that car park how much impact would it cause if the price of traveling was the same if you were to travel from either Wareham or Norton ?

 

I don't know the full story but wasn't Norden car park also built to serve both rail and non rail visitors to Corfe Castle and the village, there being no other parking? I did go to the castle 15 years ago but can't remember where I parked or if free parking was provided for NT members. Including the train journey and parking from Wareham would be an idea but I think at the end of the day the general public would only use it if it involved steam

 

Without the Wareham service getting to Norden without a car could be problematic. Hopefully having the service to Wareham should be enough to persuade the vast majority of visitors to leave their car at home.

 

An award for Project Wareham..

https://www.ice.org.uk/ICEDevelopme...uments/Regions/UK Regions/Project-Wareham.pdf

 

Whist its good to see an award, the real point has to be that in order to ensure the service you have to some how make the public because thats who your visitors are decide to use the link, that means agreements, and co operation with SWT, local residents, holiday makers have to be persuaded to leave their car at home, or at Wereham, and use their local station through special deals, and in some cases making it cheaper to leave your car at home, than drive then park, or by having special deals that include parking at Wareham Station. So it needs co operation from local bodies, As well as marketing the whole line treating the Norton to Wareham section as part of the line. not as an add on .

 

Where do you get this Norton idea from? Norden is all over this thread, on the SR website and in leaflets. Norton made good motorbikes but, that has nothing to do with the Swanage railway.

 

Seems if the spelling police are on duty again. Some people have more difficulty in spelling than others but it does not affect what they have to say and it is unkind to bring the matter up.

PH

 

I was going to say isn't Norton on the WSR, not Swanage?

I'm planning to try out the Wareham service on Wednesday. Which locos will it be this coming week?

 

My understanding a loco swap will take place on Monday and that the locos for the week will be 33025 + 37518.
I believe the 37 will be Swanage end (based on the logic that it is replacing 33012 which is on the Swanage end)