West Somerset Railway - Bishops Lydeard to Minehead (merged posts)

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

Never take a trip on the WSR with BNM, he'll be Taunton you to the end of the line. 

I know: I did once, and it nearly did mine head in. 

[Electric train]

Never take a trip on the WSR with BNM, he'll be Taunton you to the end of the line. 

I know: I did once, and it nearly did mine head in. 

Possibly left by these freedom fighters, they had munitions stashed all over the place

[Busboy W1]

After seeing some leaflets and information on FB, GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) are running 150247 from Taunton through to Minehead this coming Sunday to launch a new inclusive ticket aptly named the WSR AWAY DAY, for more information there is a dedicated Eventbrite page: wsrawayday.eventbrite.co.uk

One wonders if this sevice carrys a fair few passengers then it could be the start of something more regular between Taunton & The WSR rather than the 28 bus!

[Rob on the hill]

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wsrawayday-tickets-25928250094

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) invite you to a special charter on Sunday 19 June 2016 for the launch of the new WSR Away Day
The Charter will run from Taunton through to Minehead via Bishops Lydeard & Return

Taunton to Minehead
•Departing
•Taunton 1115
•Bishops Lydeard 1135*
•Arriving
•Minehead 1255

Minehead to Taunton
•Departing
•Minehead 1525
•Arriving
•Bishops Lydeard 1630
•Taunton 1705

An on-board trolley will be serving a range of refreshments with all proceeds going to charity.

On arrival at Minehead a launch party will take place with special guests in attendance.

A limited edition "E-ticket" is available for travel on the charter, priced at £25.99. There is only a limited number of tickets so book early.

*Inclusive connection at Bishops Lydeard for those wishing to travel behind a Great Western steam loco to Minehead.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Many thanks for posting, Busboy W1 and Rob on the hill: I've now taken the opportunity to add details of this event to the Coffee Shop forum's calendar. 

Their picture of 150247, by the way, was taken at Bristol Temple Meads.      Not Taunton.   

[grahame]

I rather suspect it won't catch members of The Coffee Shop out, but anyone following the link on the eventbrite site to the location event map will be shown where Minehead Station is.    But return tickets are being sold and you'll need to join the train at Taunton - https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.0231137,-3.1028946,15z .

Good to see through services to Minehead.   With a population of around 12,000 and growing general rail network use year on year, isn't the case for a regular service to Minehead growing all the time?

[bobm]

Saw the train at Bishops Lydeard. It didn't look particularly full.

[Rob on the hill]

The charter on 19th June seems to have been to promote the new all-in-one ticket for visitors to the WSR, and includes mainline train to Taunton, bus to Bishops Lydeard and travel on the WSR, and can be booked through GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway).
http://westsomersetrailway.vticket.co.uk/article.php/1236/new-ticket-deal-saves-passengers-almost-20-on-local-attraction
https://exmoor4all.com/2016/06/23/minehead-anticipates-tourism-boost-with-new-all-in-one-west-somerset-railway-ticket/

Visitors to Minehead, in the heart of Exmoor, will now be able to travel on the West Somerset Railway, the largest heritage railway in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), with an all-in-one ticket as GWR trains complete a new ticket initiative.

The initiative sees the launch of a ‘one ticket’ solution enabling passengers to explore Britain’s longest heritage railway, the West Somerset Railway, with GWR rail and a local bus service fare included. The one ticket solution will include train travel from mainline stations and a connecting bus service (at present) from Taunton to Bishops Lydeard.

Visitors travelling from outside of Somerset could see significant savings with the removal of a peak time ticket restriction on a service from London.

Paul Conibeare, West Somerset Railway General Manager, has said; “We are delighted with this news. There has been months of planning and engagement between West Somerset Railway, the Visit Somerset team and the GWR team.  This will be a huge boost for the WSR and the local economy”.

John Turner, Visit Somerset’s Chief Executive and member of the executive board for Exmoor Tourism said; “We have studied a previous example of this kind of development in East Grinstead on the Blue Bell Railway.  Although it was a cross platform link we still believe that we can derive connections between the two schemes due to West Somerset Railway as an attraction being far larger. The Blue Bell team saw 60,000 more visitors and an increase of over a million pounds. With some extensive marketing for West Somerset Railway we will hope that we can see this type of increase over a five-year period”.

[bobm]

As with many things the devil is in the detail.

For anyone travelling via Taunton the "fixed" costs are the £4.50 return bus fare between Taunton and Bishop's Lydeard and the £17.10 ticket on the West Somerset.

From Swindon the all-in price is £58.30 - the off peak day return to Taunton is £37.20 - so the through ticket saves you 50p.  Strangely from Bristol the saving is £8.10

From London the savings are bigger, particularly if you travel on the 07:30 as the through ticket at £95.80 compares to the only valid walk up ticket valid on that train to Taunton of £116.50 - so you have saved before even getting to the West Somerset.

However whether the saving is 50p or £42.30 I guess the fact there is a through ticket will draw people who would not otherwise have travelled, which is a good thing.

(all prices based on the first train of the day from London, arriving at Taunton at 09:44)

[SandTEngineer]

Have not seen this mentioned anywhere yet:
http://westsomersetrailway.vticket.co.uk/article.php/1279/joint-statement-by-wsr-plc-and-minehead-chamber-of-commerce

[broadgage]

Have not seen this mentioned anywhere yet:
http://westsomersetrailway.vticket.co.uk/article.php/1279/joint-statement-by-wsr-plc-and-minehead-chamber-of-commerce

Sounds good.
Over the years there have been many proposals to run through trains from the national network onto the WSR. With very  little result so far, but I feel that this is an idea whose time has come.
A through service from the national network to Minehead would be preferable IMO^▸ (in my opinion), but a connecting service with a RELIABLE connection at Bishops Lydeard would be a good start and a lot better than nowt which is what we have now.

[SandTEngineer]

Perhaps they could use one of these on the new service
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy72b2VrQRk&feature=youtu.be

[broadgage]

Perhaps they could use one of these on the new service
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy72b2VrQRk&feature=youtu.be

Funny looking thing  looks like an underground train, yet sounds as though it is diesel powered and not electric.
Wonder what it is for ? perhaps some sort of rescue unit for LUL^▸ (London Underground Ltd) in case of traction current failure ? Or a staff shuttle for when the current is turned off at night ?

I suppose it could be used, certainly different and borderline heritage if it is actually an old underground train.

[SandTEngineer]

Perhaps they could use one of these on the new service
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy72b2VrQRk&feature=youtu.be

Funny looking thing  looks like an underground train, yet sounds as though it is diesel powered and not electric.
Wonder what it is for ? perhaps some sort of rescue unit for LUL^▸ (London Underground Ltd) in case of traction current failure ? Or a staff shuttle for when the current is turned off at night ?

I suppose it could be used, certainly different and borderline heritage if it is actually an old underground train.

You're obviously not up to date.....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_230

....and I'm sure that Grahame would love one or two of these on his local line....

[grahame]

A through service from the national network to Minehead would be preferable IMO^▸ (in my opinion), but a connecting service with a RELIABLE connection at Bishops Lydeard would be a good start and a lot better than nowt which is what we have now.

The article says:

The Minehead Chambers of Commerce and the West Somerset Railway plc both wish to see regular services linking to the national network return to the West Somerset Railway, where they are viable and sustainable and are complementary to the heritage and tourist services established during the 40-year history of progress by the West Somerset Railway since the line re-opened in 1976.

The next stage of fulfilling those ambitions is hoped to be a two-year trial of services on a regular basis linking the national network to the WSR’s southern gateway terminus of Bishops Lydeard. It is hoped that trial can commence in 2018 so that the results from it can be taken into account in the next round of railway operator franchising on the national network.

My reading is that the proposal as it now stands is a service train - perhaps a shuttle from Taunton - to Bishop's Lydiard where passengers to / from Williton, Watchet, Dunster and Minehead will change on or off heritage trains, or other trains operated by the heritage railway. The article doesn't tell us whether or not any extra services would run on the WSR - whether the services would just be targeted at making Minehead a more attractive draw for visitors / leisure trips, or whether they're looking at wider markets. The population catchment of the towns and villages served by the line is around 20,000 - much bigger that Looe and comparable with Newquay.

Without a comparable heritage line on my "patch", and without answers to the above, I can't comment on the business case.  But with the potential local passenger numbers based on the cathcments, there would be a strong case for using something like the D Train in the video, basing it at Minehead and running through services if and when heritage trains weren't running.  But I do understand this might be difficult due to the manual operation and heavy labour costs of heritage signalling systems.