A Facebook Group

"I travelled on the West Somerset Railway in 2010" is a Facebook group for those who plan to travel on Britain's longest heritage railway in 2010. Hopefully a ticket will be purchased! It would be nice to see a large membership of the group on Facebook and even better if many members can make at least one trip this year and help the Railway reach a record 250000 passengers in 2010. I suppose the key to success is to ensure many Facebook users join up. I'm not sure how that is done effectively but I'm sure every effort will be made. There are ten stations - Bishops Lydeard, Crowcombe Heathfield, Stogumber, Williton, Doniford, Watchet, Washford, Blue Anchor, Dunster and Minehead. And lots to superb scenery along the twenty mile steam powered railway which runs from the Vale of Taunton Deane, through the gap between the Quantock Hills and the Brendon Hills, to the Bristol Channel coast at Watchet, Blue Anchor and Minehead, the gateway to Exmoor. See www.wsr.org.uk for more details.

Nearest station to Minehead?

Well, the train ticket website thetrainline.com has a feature "Find the nearest station". Enter "Minehead" and you might expect to see the well-known and very much alive Minehead Station, the seaside terminus of the West Somerset Railway. Or even Taunton, perhaps. Not so, you get a map with a "You are here" flag stuck in Minehead and "Station" symbols at the South Wales towns of Llantwit Major and Rhoose, both across the Bristol Channel. Yes, nearest as the seagull flies but, heck, what a pathetic example of how not to use geographic information. Oh, I've just realised it's a Google Maps function, isn't it, so it's just another example of how poor these "maps" actually are. One day someone will lose their lives by relying on such trash. OK, OK. They do serve a purpose as a general locational tool at the smaller scales (that's the road atlas scales, not the detailed scale, folks). But using the data for intelligent queries - well, I ask you! And just how is the user of thetrainline.com website supposed to get from Llantwit Major to Minehead? Catch a train of course - probably back the way you came. It's rubbish, rubbish, rubbish. Come on thetrainline.com - wake up!

Further to Barry Doe's article in an earlier Rail magazine in which he criticised the WSR for failing to provide a daily service to and from Taunton, I note Barry has now responded publicly in his Rail column to the many people who complained. It would seem he has failed to acknowledge the simple facts of business (there must be a market and there must be the infrastructure and staff to make it profitable). He says he had a positive phone discussion with the WSR General Manager and was clearly pleased to learn the WSR have distant plans for a park-n-ride at Bishops Lydeard, by which distant visitors can change trains. Whilst the WSR GM is clearly better placed than I am to make comment about future WSR plans, I would suggest the obstacles I so carefully pointed out to Barry Doe would still remain, even if such as facility existed at Bishops Lydeard. Indeed, it would not even be a "park and ride". It would be more of a "ride-change-ride". Unless there is a main line company willing to run their trains, daily, every hour or so, to Bishops Lydeard, and the WSR can itself provide a regular, daily service, throughout most of the day and evening, and there is sufficient passenger traffic, then the whole idea will not provide the kind of service Barry Doe requires. I am impressed by how easily Barry Doe has accepted things, even to the extent of mention in his column. Like many long-time WSR supporters, I do not accept such ideas lightly, and although I would love to see a regular service to and from Taunton, it must only be done when all the pegs fit in the right holes. Sorry, Barry.

WSR to Taunton in 2009?

A news item in the Steam Railway magazine quotes the WSR General Manager describing how the Railway is considering upgrading its DMU to main line certification standard and then running a service from Bishops Lydeard to Taunton's Platform 1. The article suggests this could commence in 2008 but local opinion reckons 2009 is more likely. Well, this is a most welcome development and I hope the idea comes good. Although not mentioned in the mag, it seems the Bristol-Minehead trains - the Butlins Express - is on the cards again for 2008.

At last! A regular train between Minehead and the main rail network. On Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays from 20 July to 27 August 2007 a train will leave Minehead for Bristol. It calls all stations to Bishops Lydeard, then Taunton and then Bristol arriving at 1.46pm. A quick run up the other end for the driver - perhaps with a comfort break in between, before the train sets off at 2.06pm for West Somerset. It would seem to be a train for folks visiting Butlins - the operating days coincide with change-over days. The service is not too bad for a trip to Taunton for West Somerset folks as it allows a couple of hours in the county town before they need to board the train for the trip back along the Minehead branch. Publicity seems to be slow in coming, with the risk of passengers being slow in coming too. Full details can be found at http://www.wsr.org.uk/md2btm2007.htm I hope I can revisit this posting after the summer and report success!

Everything is rosy in the Station Gardens

It's been a bit of a slog but we are on the move with the Station Gardens promotion. A date has been fixed for the special week - 15 to 22 July 2007. A leaflet has been designed and will be printed soon. The Railway Company will be completing the promotion strategy which should include mail shots to garden centres and leaflets in tourist information centres. The www.wsr.org.uk website has, as you can imagine, already posted information on several pages. I have also been busy emailing websites which list garden events. One success already! There is a poster image at http://www.wsr.org.uk/posters/gardens2007.jpg for folks to download, print and display to help us promote the Gardens Week, it'd be wonderful if folks could do this! Anyone with a blog or website can also help by listing the link for more information at http://www.wsr.org.uk/gardens.htm Anyway, the Station Gardens are open every day in the summer so folks can always visit a Station Garden before make their way by train perhaps to another Station Garden down the line. A leisurely lunch at the Washford Inn or the Driftwood at Blue Anchor, maybe, and hey that's quite a nice day out! Help us promote the Station Gardens if you can. Thanks.

By train from Minehead to Bristol?

No excuses for using another picture of the Virgin Voyager, this time coming across the "ladder" at Norton Fitzwarren and joining the Minehead Branch. At the recent meeting for active volunteers, the Chairman of the WSR Plc announced the possibility of a regular diesel-powered service from Minehead to Bristol during the high summer. Not all arrangements finalised so it would be inappropriate to go into detail at this point in time but the initiative is quite a considerable milestone in the history of the "new" West Somerset Railway. From the re-birth in the early 1970s, it has always been the aim to use the Railway to get folks to and from West Somerset. Excursions have been running for years now, and the Taunton Shuttles during recent Gala events have begun to provide a "public service", but, hey, the Bristol trains, if they happen, will cut a new shine on the Minehead Branch rails.