Well, the money has now started coming in to the New S&D in earnest, so I spent some time today thinking about how it should be used. Initially I'd like to use it to set up retail facilities so that we can double or treble it over a year or two. I did this at Midsomer Norton, turning three boxes of videos (!) and a box of books into a fully stocked shop, a big mail order trade, an internet shop and stock for shows etc in a year or so, pushing up profits into the tens of thousands over a few years. Then hopefully in a year or so we can start buying up strategic pieces of land to ensure that, when the trains begin to return, at least part of the route will revert to its real use quickly, painlessly and cheaply!
I also think that, certainly for the first few years, we build a team to 'do' all the shows along the route, bringing in more cash and, more importantly, new members.
I also think we need to make it clear where the heritage aspect of the S&D will fit in. I think some people are worried that with the clear aim of introducing real passenger and freight trains there will be little or no room for steam. This of course is nonsense! The S&D was the classic UK steam route, and steam will bring even more traffic for the route. I would love to see a steam centre at, say, Templecombe or Evercreech Junction, will full facilities, locos on site and regular long steam trains most weekends, fully using the route on the paths not taken by passenger and freight. And we should never forget the part that will be played by the expanding heritage sections of the route based at Midsomer Norton and Shillingstone (and Gartell of course!)
Anyone who wants to see the S&D return to fulfil its destiny of linking Bath to Bournemouth should join up, and hopefully offer to help, as soon as possible! The more members we have the more of a voice we will have in the busy years to come.
2 comments:
I look forwards to this moving ahead and will join as soon as the online facility is available. However, I wouldn't 'Bang on' so much about Peak Oil, the railway is needed now because the roads are jammed and they are the only real alternative to the car.
In the meantime I will help the Rother Valley Railway (www.rvr.co.uk) reach Robertsbridge.
Good luck
Much as I'd love to see the S&D fully restored now we have to be realistic. This is a 20-50 year minimum task. Whilst congestion is of course a problem today, it is likely to become far less of a problem as the years go by - it doesn't have much of a shelf life! We'll be having to deal with the problems of Peak Oil right in the middle of restoring the route - which is perhaps both a problem and an opportunity. I don't allude to Peak Oil perhaps as much as I should, but I'm more interested in getting this line restored for many reasons, not the least that with the rapid rise in railway use - both passenger and freight - that we're already seeing it won't be long before new lines are needed to increase capacity.
I suspect that congestion will be something regarded with little more than nostalgia by the time trains are running from Bath to Bournemouth again, though saying that I think there is considerable scope for working with drivers' groups to start encouraging the removal of lorries from our roads!
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