WCRC Licence Suspended

That's not practical. WCR have been given a clear set of 5 objectives to achieve to the reasonable satisfaction of NR by 15th May and if they do that then NR will lift the ban. Lets hope that WCR forget their differences with NR and get on with it so we can all continue to enjoy steam on the main line. The full NR statement PDF is worth reading.

As an aside presumably the ban means that 70000 is stranded at Swanage and that no test runs can take place.

Don

 

That's easy, the WSRA thread has slowed to a trundle............

 

Just received this from Vintage Trains:
"Dear Passengers,

We regret to advise you that as of Friday 3rd April, our Train Operating Company (TOC) of choice, West Coast Railways (WCR), has suspended all of its operations pending resolution of an incident that occurred earlier this year. Vintage Trains has played no part in the incident or the subsequent investigation, however we are affected by the suspension of WCR's operations. We expect the investigation and the subsequent return to operations by WCR to be completed soon, but the immediate result to Vintage Trains will possibly be the postponement of three trains: The City of New Orleans on 11th April, The Coastal Explorer on 18th April and The White Rose to York on 25th April. Over the Easter break we will investigate alternate dates for these trains. We will contact you as soon as we have more definite information.

We apologise for the inconvenience and share in your disappointment and frustration..

Sincerely

Everyone at Vintage Trains"

My heart goes out to Ben, Bob and their gang. I hope the postponements won't be too costly for them.

 

Well, the fall out begins..........

Just got this in my inbox from VT.

"Dear Passengers,

We regret to advise you that as of Friday 3rd April, our Train Operating Company (TOC) of choice, West Coast Railways (WCR), has suspended all of its operations pending resolution of an incident that occurred earlier this year. Vintage Trains has played no part in the incident or the subsequent investigation, however we are affected by the suspension of WCR's operations. We expect the investigation and the subsequent return to operations by WCR to be completed soon, but the immediate result to Vintage Trains will possibly be the postponement of three trains: The City of New Orleans on 11th April, The Coastal Explorer on 18th April and The White Rose to York on 25th April. Over the Easter break we will investigate alternate dates for these trains. We will contact you as soon as we have more definite information.

We apologise for the inconvenience and share in your disappointment and frustration..

Sincerely

Everyone at Vintage Trains"

One can only hope that WRC manage to comply with NR's demands by the due date, for all concerned............

 

Snap!

I wonder what discussions VT had with WCRC before announcing those cancellations? It suggests to me that WCRC's alternative charter arrangements, whatever they turn out to be, aren't suitable for steam.

Edit: should have read more carefully - VT say "possible postponement", not cancellation. Is that just letting the passengers down gently, or do they think there are other possibilities?

 

It surely cannot be too long before Jeremy Hosking sets up his own TOC, I guess it's the lack of coaches that's holding him back, but it can't be moment too soon. It's one thing to have a virtual monopoly, but when that monopoly really comes to grief it opens everyone's eyes.

 

Who the hell knows?........

What is dicussed between WRC and their customers will never be for our ears, unless someone from either cares to post on here, of which I think there is a snowball in hells chance!

 

I think the most telling thing about the letter from Network Rail is that they've made the letter public. Normally this kind of thing would all be going on behind closed doors and we would just have a statement to the affect of 'WCRC has been suspended'. Given the language in the letter and that Network Rail have published it would suggest to me that they are very, very upset with WCRC.

I don't imagine their facebook statement is going to help the issue much either.

 

As with all monopolies NR included?

Don

 

Ever get the feeling he's waiting in the wings to see how things pan out, with the very real possibility that there will be a few rakes on MK I's at a knock down price?............

 

As from next week, I think, Network Rail is subject to the Freedom of Information Act, and will not be able to hide letters like this one from the public.

 

WCRC trains but entirely NR's fault that one, track not being up to standard with check rails to cut a long story short.

Hugely annoying and frustrating as it is, as I have 3 tours now poetntially knackered, I can't argue with NR if WCRC are failing in such ways, while a SPAD is never a good thing, this ban is quite obviously due to more factors.

The people I feel sorry for most at the moment is Bob & Ben at Tyseley, having your whole operation which is one of the slickest interefered with and potentially losing plenty of revenue and custom through no fault of their own, perhaps time to look at VT moving TOC's or even forming one ?.

 

That's not how I read it. Most importantly, they start by saying "West Coast Railways are working hard to reverse the current suspension imposed by Network Rail by fully satisfying their concerns." (my empahsis). Providing they really mean it, and are prepared to do whatever it takes, that's a very good start.

The rest of it is an attempt to hold onto their customers by saying they will sub-contract their work to other firms with suitable locos, stock and staff. That seems sensible enough to me. TBH, they can't afford to do anything else. They need to keep money coming in, even if they make a loss on everything they do for the next couple of months. Sadly, I'm not sure how much of the steam program can be rescued that way when DBS is the only game in town. All VT's locos are vac-only, which I suppose is why they've moved quickly to pull the plug. GB8 might be salvageable if DBS feel co-operative...

 

A very bad day for ML steam indeed.
I have never been keen with WCRC having a monopoly on the Railtour market for fear of this very outcome . It seems that they have been pushing their luck and NR have had enough. At the end of the day safety is the number one priority and if NR aren't happy they have taken the right action.

 

Network Rail will obviously have notified the party involved (WCRC) before making the content of the letter public. Sent to them on 1st, made public on the 2nd.

 

Even if DBS were willing to drop any objections to routing and vac braking, there's no way they have enough crew and stock to take up all the work, this is why we need a 3rd player in the steam charter market.

 

Yes its going to be a busy old Easter weekend!

There seems to be two distinct threads to this topic, firstly that WCRC have been suspended (not banned as the title suggests) which seems to be major area of debate on here and secondly the fact that, and make no bones about this, a steam special came within c.1 min of either derailing itself or side swiping a FGW HST - not sure whether this almost warrants a separate thread but bloody hell that's a scary thought which seems to be being lost in the WCRC suspension outcry?

 

I hope this puts to bed the whole Phil Verster anti-steam nonsense, whatever his personal feelings may be (and I can't recall any evidence of them) his concerns about WCRC and their practices have been proved to be entirely valid and in far more concerning circumstances.

If anything he and/or Network Rail were too lenient - the findings of the Independent Access Dispute Report suggested that there were valid grounds to continue the suspension irrespective of fire risk and IMO should've been applied nationally.

 

Not sure what all the complaint is about the above, ultimately WCRC are a business and their key objective will be damage limitation, customer reassurance and addressing concerns.

West Coast Railways are working hard to reverse the current suspension imposed by Network Rail by fully satisfying their concerns. - We are going to address these issues.

Passengers booked to travel with West Coast Railways and on their associated trips should not be concerned, if necessary West Coast Railways will charter the service of another licensed operator using the same traditional carriages and trips will be unaffected, - We are trying to assure our customers that trains will not be cancelled - if necessary we will work with someone else if necessary and it won't be a air con mk 3 carriage (imagine the uproar on here if that were the case - the internet would explode).

West Coast Railways hope this won’t be necessary and trust any issues will be resolved to the satisfaction of network rail. - but noting the above we hope that we can address these concerns to their satisfaction.

Businesslike - yes, brief - yes, arrogant - no.

Not sure what else anyone would expect them to say.

 

Aren't DBS only prepared to operate air braked locos? Precludes most wcr, hlpg, and vt fleets plus the K1 for Jacobite.
Both Riley 5s might get a bit busier. Ironically Tangmere too. What else is there? Duchess and Britannia at the moment.