To say I'm pleased about this news would be an understatement as it seems finally someone somewhere has finally added two and two together and come up with four.
Harpo said:
I doubt that would stop an enormous route learning bill to do it all again to the TOC’s standard plus a bill for all the extra signage that would be found necessary.
Merle Haggard said:
Once through fares are offered would it not raise delay/repay and punctuality complications?
Presumably when selling through tickets at Bewdley arrangements would also have to be made to distribute income to the other operators involved.
As I have said on the Go-Op thread that while on one hand you can't throw Health and Safety completely out of the window and that rules and regulation's need to be followed, for example access for disabled people.
On the other hand there needs to be a bit of breathing space given to build up the momentum to do all the changes needed (with associated costs) rather than insisting they be done first which potentially could kill the whole thing even before its started
As for the various comments about signalling, if it is a success then I'm sure it would not be too difficult to automate them so from start of service till 10 and from 17.00 till end of service it is all automated but from 10.00 till 17.00 you have a bloke pulling levers so it keeps the visitors happy.
CharlieSpotted said:
Small, yes, but an attractive place to spend a few hours especially in good weather.
This might be too complicated to do at the beginning but perhaps when SVR is running and when not, using a DMU as a shuttle, maybe you could have a particular service around about lunchtime/early afternoon where people could use it as a shopper/day out service and go out/return on the commuter service because while you might get some people who use it as a way to get a cheap ride on the SVR albeit Kidderminster - Bewdley only, I think they would be out numbered by people who might want to do a morning/afternoon shop in Kidderminster or Birmingham and want to use the train also it would be then worth while putting up posters at Birmingham station's saying how about an morning/afternoon day trip to Bewdley?.
Forty29 said:
We have to remember it's only a trial and if not successfully won't go ahead. Hopefully an awareness campaign with leaflets through doors for example will take place to make as many people as possible know about the scheme, though looks like a lot of publicity already through newspapers and social media.
While there has been a decent amount of publicity, what is forgotten sometimes is: Not all people have/are glued to the internet, if by some miracle there is still a local paper not all people will buy it or pick it up even if it is free and if it was featured on the local news they may have missed it that particular day. So to guarantee everybody knows all about it then I agree there needs to be a leaflet pushed through every door in not just Bewdley but surrounding areas because you might have people who live outside Bewdley and work in Kidderminster itself or drive to Kidderminster to catch a train so could use this as a Park and Ride.
I don't know how expensive it would be to print leaflets but hopefully some SVR volunteers would be up for delivering them as if it works out it becomes a new revenue stream for the railway.
ox_chap said:
Would look great if the connection was advertised on the destination screens at the stations from Birmingham and for the two appropriate trains.
Agreed, a way to advertise for zero cost.
ox_chap said:
Makes you wonder if every heritage line with a mainline connection should snaffle up a class 150. Disabled accessible, mainline certified etc. House building near stations, we could see a sort of “reopen your railway” scheme reappearing but through the back door…
As I said above while this trial is better than nothing, if it works out then the aim should be to have a a TOC running all the way from the HR to the nearest town/city and the heritage railway simply sitting back and getting rent or a cut of the tickets
alistairlees said:
Adding the timetable for this service to the published schedule data (including adding Bewdley, Kidderminster SVR and a fixed link between the two Kidderminster stations), and adding through fares to / from Bewdley, would go a long way to making this a success, at little extra cost.
It was the failure to make the LSL Euston to Crewe (?) additional in c. 2021 appear in industry data (reservations, schedules etc.) that led to almost no-one using it.
That is good but we were told the same thing when Swanage did their service. I kept an eye on both the National Rail and South West Trains websites and while Corfe castle came up on the National Rail website you could never find train times or buy tickets to there or Swanage so the people behind this need to make sure that they don't make the same mistakes.
Also will you be able to buy tickets from ticket machines?
www.brfares.com
