'Proper' community railways

[mikeg]

These are I believe something that exists in other countries. Would they do well here? We have many a community owned heritage line, but what about turning them into more practical community railways to serve the community with public transport where private and public provision fails? My understanding is the current legislation is not particulalry favourable to this? Would a change in legislation begin to allow such a movement to appear? I've often thought about this. Living in North Yorkshire ,where the buses are so crap I've known people use the Wensleydale railway for actual public transport journeys. I'd say actually that'd be a candidate for such a movement. What chance of success does it/should it have?

 

[30907]

Interesting question.

There are regular threads about commuter services on heritage lines, is this a different concept?

Do you have an example of a community railway in mainland Europe? I can only think of the local-authority funded/run Jindrichuv Hradec system in Czechia which AIUI has just gone bankrupt

 

[mikeg]

Not within Europe other than some local authority undertakings, but third sector rail is very common in Japan

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 17 Oct 2022 ==

There are regular threads about commuter services on heritage lines, is this a different concept?

-Ish. Rather the heritage line would become a practical commuter and shopper service, though that wouldn't preclude the occaisonal use of heritage stock, it would have a more practical ethos, rather than that of a tourist attraction.

 

[Llanigraham]

These are I believe something that exists in other countries. Would they do well here? We have many a community owned heritage line, but what about turning them into more practical community railways to serve the community with public transport where private and public provision fails? My understanding is the current legislation is not particulalry favourable to this? Would a change in legislation begin to allow such a movement to appear? I've often thought about this. Living in North Yorkshire ,where the buses are so crap I've known people use the Wensleydale railway for actual public transport journeys. I'd say actually that'd be a candidate for such a movement. What chance of success does it/should it have?

I'm intrigued; can you tell which lines these are?
I can't think of any.

 

[6Gman]

These are I believe something that exists in other countries. Would they do well here? We have many a community owned heritage line, but what about turning them into more practical community railways to serve the community with public transport where private and public provision fails? My understanding is the current legislation is not particulalry favourable to this? Would a change in legislation begin to allow such a movement to appear? I've often thought about this. Living in North Yorkshire ,where the buses are so crap I've known people use the Wensleydale railway for actual public transport journeys. I'd say actually that'd be a candidate for such a movement. What chance of success does it/should it have?

I'm not sure I'd agree that many heritage lines are "community owned".

Surely they are owned by enthusiast groups generally drawn from a good distance from the local community?

 

[30907]

Not within Europe other than some local authority undertakings, but third sector rail is very common in Japan

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 17 Oct 2022 ==


-Ish. Rather the heritage line would become a practical commuter and shopper service, though that wouldn't preclude the occaisonal use of heritage stock, it would have a more practical ethos, rather than that of a tourist attraction.

Thanks - I am not familiar with Japanese local government and similar.

My example of JHMD is/was a good parallel, with a seasonal steam service and an all-year local service (sadly badly patronised). There are community buses in the UK, typically volunteer-operated - my local one is in Upper Wharfedale.

So - how would (say) the Wensleydale Railway operate, how would it be subsidised and how would it compete with existing public/private transport?

I'm not sure I'd agree that many heritage lines are "community owned".

Surely they are owned by enthusiast groups generally drawn from a good distance from the local community?

I wonder if that has been researched? It would be interesting - my guess is that it varies a lot.
I would also guess that those lines which stand a chance of running community services (eg ELR or KWVR) have a lot of fairly local support by virtue of being in well populated areas, and that many other supporters have some connection with the area. (People who move some distance away often maintain active links with community groups, churches etc, despite the distance.)