Shorter day trips by steam?

[peteb]

Having seen the timings for Saphos' Kidderminster to Bristol today it seems a very long day and quite a bit in the gloom/dark.

Wouldn't some much shorter daylight trips be more appealing to mass audiences?

Eg: Birmingham area to Hereford via Gloucester and Pontypool seems popular, maybe extend to Ludlow/Sheewsbury and turn at Shrewsbury for same route back?

Could be done in daylight until late autumn if stops shorter and the current insistence on serving dinner on the way back is dropped?

Better to do dining evening tours....?

 

[Spamcan81]

VT's Shakespeare Express trips seem to do well and they are quite short journeys. Can't see why other short trips wouldn't be as successful.

 

[JonathanH]

It is a bit of a matter of where the trains are kept as well.

Vintage Trains being based in Birmingham have a destination (ie Stratford) for day trips close by so there aren't huge costs in empty running to the first pick up location.

The Steam Dreams trips to Windsor appear to have been reasonably successful.

One point to note about the Shakespeare Express and the Windsor / Surrey Hills trips is to get more than one journey and set of passengers in the day.

Sometimes the long trail of these trips and multiple pick up points is about serving enough of a market to actually fill the train and justify the fare against the cost of the operation. How many people actually boarded at Kidderminster?

 

[geoffk]

The Cotton Mill Express from Manchester, a circular trip using the Standedge and Calder Valley/Copy Pit routes, seemed to be well patronised. Although there are now more trains on the Standedge route there should still be paths on a Sunday, engineering works permitting.

 

[Spartacus]

The regular Scarborough Spa Expresses have been largely reduced to York - Scarborough - York as far as steam is concerned.

 

[Ken H]

shorter trips should be cheaper. so many steam tours you are into re-mortgaging territory. Must put loads off.

 

[JonathanH]

shorter trips should be cheaper. so many steam tours you are into re-mortgaging territory. Must put loads off.

Why would they be cheaper (unless more than one passenger load can be carried in a day)? I doubt the costs are proportional to the distance.

 

[Ken H]

Why would they be cheaper (unless more than one passenger load can be carried in a day)? I doubt the costs are proportional to the distance.

2 loads in a day sounds good. Do a York - Harrogate - Leeds - York circuit, perhaps. Do that all day and no shunting needed. Could you get 3 loops in between 0930 and 1700 on a Sunday

 

[Spartacus]

2 loads in a day sounds good. Do a York - Harrogate - Leeds - York circuit, perhaps. Do that all day and no shunting needed. Could you get 3 loops in between 0930 and 1700 on a Sunday

I wonder if there'd be enough market for it though? York - Scarborough at least twice might be better, stock left in Holgate loop while the loco turns, assuming nothing else was booked in.

 

[peteb]

It is a bit of a matter of where the trains are kept as well.

Vintage Trains being based in Birmingham have a destination (ie Stratford) for day trips close by so there aren't huge costs in empty running to the first pick up location.

The Steam Dreams trips to Windsor appear to have been reasonably successful.

One point to note about the Shakespeare Express and the Windsor / Surrey Hills trips is to get more than one journey and set of passengers in the day.

Sometimes the long trail of these trips and multiple pick up points is about serving enough of a market to actually fill the train and justify the fare against the cost of the operation. How many people actually boarded at Kidderminster?

I videod train at Blakedown so didn't see how many people got on but there seemed very few in standard at the rear (more difficult to see into the first class Mk1s due to table lamps etc). I would use Saphos if they could get some standard class mk1s in the formation, and that would please the photographers too no doubt.

 

[JonathanH]

I would use Saphos if they could get some standard class mk1s in the formation

Standard class passengers wouldn't appear to be a substantial part of their business plan, let alone standard class passengers in a mark 1.

 

[peteb]

shorter trips should be cheaper. so many steam tours you are into re-mortgaging territory. Must put loads off.

Yes I don't (simply don't have room) want full dining on a train and cannot afford it either. What I'd like is short day trips or circuits as suggested elsewhere (eg Shakespeare Express running more days of the year), good old fashioned MK1 stock, a buffet car, and some fast mainline running. This is to my mind exciting and this is what heritage lines cannot offer.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 6 Oct 2021 ==

Standard class passengers wouldn't appear to be a substantial part of their business plan, let alone standard class passengers in a mark 1.

That's so short sighted because to get new custom they need to attract a wider demographic. Sure, there will always be those who can afford luxury, be it cars, holidays, housing, dining, but the vast majority of the UK are not doing fantastically at present and some affordable trips would balance things out. Surely 50+ standard passengers per MK1 TSO makes economic sense, rather than the costs and risks of catering, supplying and managing a restaurant on wheels? And there's still a market for specialist dining trains.

 

[JonathanH]

Don't get me wrong - the idea of short affordable trips sounds great - but the market isn't providing it on any substantial basis - that would appear to suggest it isn't viable. That suggests some overheads prevent it from happening

 

[peteb]

Don't get me wrong - the idea of short affordable trips sounds great - but the market isn't providing it on any substantial basis - that would appear to suggest it isn't viable. That suggests some overheads prevent it from happening

Point taken, it will cost a basic £x000"s to run a steam trip, whether dining offered as a bolt on extra or not. Recouping that must be a business priority, understood, but how sustainable is that in the long term? (Without attracting a new generation of passengers).

 

[30907]

Point taken, it will cost a basic £x000"s to run a steam trip, whether dining offered as a bolt on extra or not. Recouping that must be a business priority, understood, but how sustainable is that in the long term? (Without attracting a new generation of passengers).

Some of these trips, with variations, have been running for a good many years - unless the clientele has aged with them, which would surprise me, they appear to be managing to attract a new generation.

 

[Bigman]

Skipton to Appleby comes to mind.