Railway or Fairground Ride - Reopening our heritage railways

[Enthusiast]

Are that many railways mandating masks? I can’t see the need especially where a compartment is reserved.

The Bluebell's "safety" guidance:

"Face coverings must be worn in public places such as on the platforms, in the museum and SteamWorks! and when boarding or alighting from the trains in accordance to Government guidance.

Pre-booked compartments

Booking your own compartment on The Pioneer service train means that you are only ever in your own family or group bubble. Once boarded and under way, you can remove face coverings if appropriate – remembering to replace them when you leave the train."

 

[DB]

Anyone got a list of which railways have no definite plans for running trains again at the moment? I believe the WSR is one.

Thanks

 

[DB]

The Bluebell's "safety" guidance:

"Face coverings must be worn in public places such as on the platforms, in the museum and SteamWorks! and when boarding or alighting from the trains in accordance to Government guidance.

Pre-booked compartments

Booking your own compartment on The Pioneer service train means that you are only ever in your own family or group bubble. Once boarded and under way, you can remove face coverings if appropriate – remembering to replace them when you leave the train."

So basically the opposite of the 'big' railway, where you have to wear them on trains but not on stations!

Is it any wonder people get confused by all this?

 

[paul1609]

I think the problem is many of us have dipped generously into our wallets and purses over the past few months - in my case spending money which was earmarked for cancelled holidays in other parts of the country to visit other railways away from my home area.

I think people just want to see railway making an effort to show recognition of their members efforts and the comments made about the Bluebell suggest that they are not making an effort whilst FR and TR obviously trying to continue concessions.

However, rather than making a big fuss about the railways I do believe anyone who wants to see things get back to normal need to direct their main effort at the politicians. I wrote several letters last week.

At least some of the politicians are starting to wake up now. I see Iain Duncan Smith made an interesting critique of the mishandling of the Covid affair yesterday.

John

At the Kent & East Sussex Railway all the members were invited to take part in the pre-public trains which were run on July 12th. We are now up and running on the public trains.
Any availability that has not been sold prior to the day can be bought at the Tenterden Ticket Office up till departure of the train.
Non working members will be able to book compartments and bays of seats from August. As will holders of HRA Interail Cards.
We are currently only running 2 trains per day on Saturday and Sundays but they are running in the normal timetable and we can quite quickly increase those as demand increases.
We are only currently running out and back trips this is to avoid overcrowding of the return trips from Bodiam. It would only require one trip advisor review or facebook photo of a packed train for this limited operation to be shut down (other social media is available). The National Trust is currently only running limited tours of the castle grounds in 10 minute time slots and are unable to accomodate a train full of passengers.
Our booking system is able to deal with our current and future planned operations but is not a railway based full booking system that would be able to deal with reservations on single tickets from intermediate stations say Rolvenden to Northiam, ticket sales from intermediate stations are less than 10% of our income so we have had to concentrate our efforts on where our income is based.
This is a quick summary of where we find ourselves other railways will have very differing circumstances and solutions but i guess everybody is working their hardest to survive.

 

[paul1609]

I could just about tolerate the nonsensical arrangements of face coverings, one way systems and all the rest of it. I might even have made the trip even though I would only be able to make one return, uninterrupted journey. But since I'll have to pay for it as well I'm afraid it's off limits. Quite honestly the way the experience has been described with the restrictions that will be in place I'd be surprised if the railway did much business at all during the summer after the initial novelty of reopening has worn off and I doubt the Bluebell is alone. Many HRs may well decide to turn it in until the world regains some of its lost marbles.

On the K&ESR over the weekend we ran at about 50% of the available capacity. Not a fortune but worth doing, there were rain showers on the Sunday. At Tenterden there were spectators who had turned up to see how it worked and how well managed it was who will hopefully return as passengers.

 

[paul1609]

So basically the opposite of the 'big' railway, where you have to wear them on trains but not on stations!

Is it any wonder people get confused by all this?

I understand that its not a requirement to wear face masks where you have a compartment to yourself on the "big" railway-presumably the sleeper services.
At the Kent & East Sussex Railway we only require people to wear them in the open coaches and when they cant maintain social distancing. Our current train is 3 x mk1 open coaches and 3 X compartmental vintage carriages.
The policy is made clear through signage and announcements.

 

[John Luxton]

Anyone got a list of which railways have no definite plans for running trains again at the moment? I believe the WSR is one.

Thanks

Vale of Rheidol has announced no trains this year.

 

[paul1609]

On the K&ESR over the weekend we ran at about 50% of the available capacity. Not a fortune but worth doing, there were rain showers on the Sunday. At Tenterden there were spectators who had turned up to see how it worked and how well managed it was who will hopefully return as passengers.

An update to my earlier post as a result of our forward bookings and in response to the obvious upturn in tourist activity in the Kent & East Sussex areas we are increasing to 4 days per week (weds/thurs/sat/sun) from August, still 2 trains per day for the time being.

 

[Scrotnig]

An update to my earlier post as a result of our forward bookings and in response to the obvious upturn in tourist activity in the Kent & East Sussex areas we are increasing to 4 days per week (weds/thurs/sat/sun) from August, still 2 trains per day for the time being.

That is excellent and promising news.

 

[paul1609]

Anyone got a list of which railways have no definite plans for running trains again at the moment? I believe the WSR is one.

Thanks

Believe a preservation specialist forum has a list here (cant guarantee accuracy, other preservation forums are available): https://national-preservation.com/t...-for-passenger-trains-list-in-post-1.1418230/

 

[C37]

I went on the first GCR trip on Saturday. It was an out and back.
Really do hope it gets back towards how it was, roaming around, trying the cafe's, pubs and mooching around the sheds at Loughborough were a great pleasure before the pandemic.
But, given the chance of no steam railway, or an out and back trip, I know what I would prefer. And the static displays of getting on board locomotives were a nice touch I thought.
The other thing I wonder is just how many contraints they have to work to? Maybe the organisers are as keen as we are to get back to normal but are just unable to at the moment?
On a side note- the GCR hasn't advertised anything for this weekend coming, hopefully there will be more trains running.

 

[John Luxton]

Maybe the organisers are as keen as we are to get back to normal but are just unable to at the moment?
On a side note- the GCR hasn't advertised anything for this weekend coming, hopefully there will be more trains running.

I have never been to GCR, but I have been to East Lancs Railway once just after it opened. It appears that they are going to, for the first two weekends August going to be offering an all stations service and one can start from any stations which does appear much to more like a normal service.

One wonders why ELR seem to be breaking ranks from the other heritage lines in their approach to managing passengers?

All the details appear on the web site and they do seem to be offering the most near normal experience.

Anyone know or explain why others have not taken their route?

ELR is fairly close to me so I might take a trip to check it out though I always tend to head for GWR / SR or Welsh Narrow Gauge Territory.

John

 

[Flying Phil]

I went on the first GCR trip on Saturday. It was an out and back.
Really do hope it gets back towards how it was, roaming around, trying the cafe's, pubs and mooching around the sheds at Loughborough were a great pleasure before the pandemic.
But, given the chance of no steam railway, or an out and back trip, I know what I would prefer. And the static displays of getting on board locomotives were a nice touch I thought.
The other thing I wonder is just how many contraints they have to work to? Maybe the organisers are as keen as we are to get back to normal but are just unable to at the moment?
On a side note- the GCR hasn't advertised anything for this weekend coming, hopefully there will be more trains running.

From the GCR Website...and on line pre booking is needed
Timetable
Three trains will be running on every Saturday and Sunday in August.

10:00am from Quorn & Woodhouse (returning at 10:55)

11:50am from Quorn & Woodhouse (returning at 12:45)

1:50pm from Quorn & Woodhouse (returning at 2:45pm)

An additional train may also be added if required by demand.

 

[lyndhurst25]

Does anyone know of any heritage railways that will allow us to arrive by train, travel somewhere, do a walk, then travel back?

For example I looked at the Ecclesbourne railway but it is not currently possible to board at Duffield, nor is it possible to alight from the train at the destination, so that idea has had to be ruled out.

Is this possible at any other railways at present? If so I'd be interested to hear of which ones.

The Ravenglass and Eskdale railway, a railway that I often use for going on walks, reopens today. However, all intermediate stations are closed, tickets must be prebooked and seats reserved: it's not as flexible as in normal times where you could hop off where you fancied, take as long as you liked to explore the hills and just turn up at any station to get a train home. You can still have as long as you like to take a walk from Dalegarth, but you need to reserve your outbound and return trains by 9am on the day of travel. Also, they're not transporting bikes and through tickets from Northern are suspended. Face masks must be worn. It will be interesting to watch on the webcam to see how many customers they get.

Railway webcam in the Lake District

The Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway webcam provides views of our heritage railway - perfect for train enthusiasts seeking a webcam in the Lake District.

ravenglass-railway.co.uk