SVR General Discussion

I wasn't thinking about hiking the on the day prices but more of a reducing discount as the day of travel approached but with a simple algorithm in the few days before of perhaps reducing the discount if lots of tickets already sold, not as complicated one as the airlines. I think the big railways seemed to have so many seats at certain discounts and wasn't as dynamic as the airline one, so if not many taken up you still got cheaper ones nearer the date. Maybe you can even tie in prebooking nos into how many coaches you may need once you,ve got a reasonable amount of data to do it reasonably reliably.

 

Well one of the problems of this model is customer perception. Many would not see "reducing the discount as the day of travel approached" but the converse "increasing the price as the day of travel approached". Communicating anything other than a very simple fares model is very challenging and I suspect beyond most heritage railways and their customers.

For many consumers leisure products are turn up and go, giving the ability to change the plan according to the weather and in the case of families how the kids are on the day and any other last minute influencing factors.

Reducing the set size according to anticipated demand strikes me as being a labour and time consuming exercise with minimal if any benefit.

 

Years ago on the NYMR it was common practice to add and remove coaches to in-service sets, but it is no longer done following the fatal accident a few years ago. In a risk-averse society I think most railways will prefer to drag coaches that they know will not fill rather than do the shunting.

 

Fascinating. I am not sure of what the HRA discount was on the SVR but assuming that it was 50% off then this offer was almost ticket revenue neutral but increased the net secondary spend.

Given that HRA card holders are predisposed to visiting a Heritage Railway (as opposed to the general public) this would suggest that fare offers to the general public would probably be overall ticket revenue reducing.

 

Yes thank you for that crucial point.

 

You also need to add the weather factor. Chez 35B, we often have a vague plan a few days or even weeks in advance, but then stabilise it nearer the time, often the evening before. If we're on holiday, that may well be in the morning based on a weather check.

For us to book an attraction in advance, we have to have a combination of high certainty that it's something we want to do and a sense that it's genuine value for money. So, in 2021, we stayed in north Snowdonia. We were willing to book a trip to the zoo in advance because (a) we needed to and (b) we could have confidence in a good day out if the weather was poor. But that didn't apply to the WHR or FfR because if the weather was bad, the day and money would have been wasted compared to other things we could have done. Applying a reducing discount model to that would have focused that decision from what we'd see as the "true price" (i.e. with the pre-booking discount) cut off point.

That then leads to the questions of timetables and convenience - also unfavourable that summer to that trip.

 

Bridgnorth Railwayman's Arms pub is closing at 8pm tonight due to staff shortages. Open, as normal, tomorrow.

 

Is that risk aversion or an appropriate weighting given to avoiding one of the riskiest activities on the railway? The cost saving of adding and subtracting a carriage or two due to daily fluctuations is minimal. The costs of a fatality or injury very high most importantly the human cost but also the financial one. Now fair enough to change the set for seasonal variations, but shunting is best avoided. Almost all the vehicles I have seen damaged were damaged during shunting incidents. Maybe £250k of damage over a 10 year period.

 

Others will have firmer and more up to date views than me - I'm not a footplate volunteer - but operating patterns have changed and its no longer practical at Pickering anyway as the Beck siding where the loose coaches were stored has now been disconnected. Even if it were still possible, though, I think it would nevertheless be avoided as an unnecessary risk. As a bystander, though, it concerns me that shunting coaches is done so rarely now that it may have become a competency issue on the odd occasion when it is necessary - e.g. to split out a vehicle that has failed whilst in service (out of the service hours it would be done by C & W staff who obviously do a lot more shunting in the course of their job).

 

The main reason for adding the extra coaches back then was because this train started its day at Grosmont and a longer train couldn't be accommodated. You could only run round 6 coaches at Grosmont under the old layout so if a longer train was required the coaches had to be added at Pickering on the first trip and removed before the last one. These trains were never busy, in any case as most people started their day at Pickering and only ran because there wasn't the siding space at Pickering to accommodate three sets. Trains arriving at Grosmont during the day had a relieving loco so running round wasn't a problem. Now 8 (and more) coach trains can be handled without problem so the need doesn't arise.

I agree with you that maintaining competency in shunting is an issue. I can't remember the last time I buckeyed any coaches because it's nearly always done by C&W when sets are made up or split for maintenance. The most we are likely to do is add or remove the GW saloon to a set if it has a booking for a private party.

 

We used to have a regular buckeye shunt when there was a carriage shared between the Wealden Rambler and Golden Arrow sets. From memory, on a Rambler (Saturday) after the service finished you'd split the last coach off the Rambler set and add it to the GA; and on the lunchtime Arrow (Sunday) you'd split it back off and add it back to the Rambler set. Sadly the company went and ruined it all by buying another carriage

Tom

 

I used to do something similar on my Model Railway… albeit with Tension Lock couplings

 

Had a lovely day out on the Valley yesterday. 7714 was out with 6 Mk1s. A Carmine & Cream set formed of 4 TSOs, a BSO and an RMB.
Offering about 300 seats in all. The set was well presented, smart, clean and lovely and warm with the steam heating doing its stuff.
I was amazed at the number of people about. I travelled on the 1200 ex Kiddi returning on the 1450 off Highley. The trains were
very comfortably full. Looked in on the Engine house which was busy particularly the cafe where the Kinlet room was open to provide
additional cafe accommodation. The menu has been refreshed with all main meals £7.95 which I think offers excellent value. A nice
selection of light bites as well. It was well patronised. The former shop area was closed and covered by boarding. Wonder what the
plan is for this. Looking at the number of families visiting yesterday I am convinced that more could be made of this asset. Situate
almost half way along the line it could be marketed as a destination from both Bridgnorth and Kidderminster. However the proposed
full line timetable from next month just doesn"t do it. Surely an additional diagram for a Kidderminster to Highley shuttle would be
worth a try? Because after the 1030 departure from Kidderminster the next steam offering will be at 1415 and families want steam.

Interestingly earlier in the week I noticed fares to intermediate stations were being quoted on the main SVR website and which now
seem to have disappeared. Going from memory Kidderminster to Highley was £17 as against £19.50 being charged this week. So perhaps
the railway is prepared to experiment. All is not doom and gloom. The railway looked good yesterday.

 

All the ingredients are there at the SVR to succeed, I really don’t understand how those in charge previously managed to bugger things up so spectacularly.

 

There’s only a certain number of ways of the Railway saying it. They produced a plan in 2021 for 2022 based on post pandemic restrictions, the plan didn’t and couldn’t forecast a bunch of external factors including Ukraine, coal and other energy prices, labour shortages. inflation and cost of living. It’s now faced with a lower base revenue and higher core costs. There’s other things it might have done differently but they wouldn’t materially have changed the revenue/costs issue it now faces: its *model* has been essentially buggered up by outside factors.

That’s not to say all the problems facing the railway are external and it’s acknowledged that.

Just to pick up on the ‘those previously in charge’ point, the 2022 and 2023 plans were signed off by a board that includes the current chairman and interim MD. Blaming people who have left would IMV be as wrong as to ascribe all the problems to be external

Agreed. IMV it won’t be easy or immediate

 

Probably controversial but perhaps the one steam diagram should run the Kidderminster to Highley service , and diesel Bridgnorth -Highley?

Jon

 

Have you read the interview with Gus Dunster in the latest issue of Steam Railway? Would urge everyone on this thread to do so. I would reproduce some of it here, but have got into trouble for doing so in the past - but it puts the current situation into frank perspective & Gus is very open & honest.
People who are complaining about the current offering need to be patient. Put simply the more people who travel, the more services will be offered.

 

Funnily enough after having my usual Sunday chat with my old man he’s said the same thing.
He’s also said he had a conversation with Gus over the weekend, he also said that during this conversation he’d spent more time having a face to face chin wag with him in 3 hours than he had in the previous 3 years with the previous incumbent.
I’ve mentioned before Im very much a fan of management by going around and asking questions. It really is good to see and hear about it happening.

 

Shame if the shop at the engine house is shut we have in the past found it very good and sold some different things to elsewhere on SVR. We spent a lot more money there than the other outlet.

 

A very interesting read. I'd also recommend reading the interview with Chris Price of the NYMR in Trackside mag for a bit of compare and contrast especially in respect to financial approach.