The power of the column

Barry Doe is a transport specialist and commentator who has a column in the RAIL magazine. In a recent edition, Barry has a pop at heritage railways which, in his opinion, should provide a local service. When he says "local service" it seems he means a regular service of several trains per day throughout the year running from the heritage railway to a nearby mainline station. The latter requirement reduces the number of heritage railways to a handful as only a few have a physical connection with the mainline. And according to Barry Doe, the worst example is the West Somerset Railway - "...the only railway that links a major National Rail station to an important seaside town but is not interested in using it..." Doe continues, "And what a potential market to connect all those places [London, Bristol, the North, Devon and Cornwall] to Minehead...Yet all they [WSR] want to do is play trains to Bishops Lydeard."

Since reading the article, I have had a very civilised and polite email conversation with Barry Doe. It would be wrong to discuss this private conversation here. But, on this blog, by adding part of my letter to the RAIL editor (since published in a later edition of RAIL), so illustrate my disappointment with his words about the WSR in the article: "...check the freely available facts, [you] might find the WSR has a long history of providing a public service since opening in 1976. For example, half fares for local folk available since 1976; the running of DMUs for many years for local people (including a 7.30am departure); the use of the Railway for carriage of thousands of tonnes of stone for public works at three separate locations; the Bristol to Minehead trains of 2007; the installation of a turntable to enable more folks to travel to Minehead by steam excursions; the construction of a triangle on land purchased by the WSR Assocation at Norton Fitzwarren which is receiving almost daily deliveries of spent ballast for cleaning and reuse, and which will be used to support passenger and freight traffic to and from the main network. The WSR has also sponsored bus connections between Bishops Lydeard and Taunton since 1979 to help folks get around. Barry Doe would like to see WSR should run trains to Taunton. We all would. We all know how much it will cost. Perhaps Barry Doe might like to explain exactly where the necessary capital is to be found - money might grow on trees in his neck of the woods but not in Somerset, or anywhere else. I look forward to Barry Doe's wise words on how we might achieve the ultimate goal?"

We shall have to wait to see if Barry Doe revisits his WSR argument in a future article. If he does, I look forward to his plan of how a regular service from Taunton to/from the WSR can be successfully operated. I feel confident his plan will include ideas already explored and dismissed for a variety of reasons.

How easy it is for a writer to put half a story in print. Whether Barry Doe is ignorant of the WSR situation, or simply chooses to ignore some of what he does know, just to make a point, we shall probably never know. That said, since so many WSR people would like to see a regular Taunton/West Somerset service, perhaps the power of the column could be better used to turn a negative into a positive. I look foward to Barry Doe using his position to help the WSR achieve that long-wished-for goal.

Just to prove the link is in place and can be used at any time, the picture shows a Taunton to Bishops Lydeard train run at the Autumn Gala in 2006.