Kent & East Sussex Railway
Members e-newsletter No.34
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Welcome to the latest edition of your e-newsletter - we hope you are keeping safe & well |
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From the Chair |
A fortnight has passed and on the national scene some things are clearer and others not. The strict lockdown as we have come to know it is virtually at an end, but some categories of people are still being urged to stay at home. Debate continues about the detail of when public facilities and non-essential sectors of the economy will be permitted to re-open. Social distancing looks like continuing, but there is uncertainty about what it will look like in practice. We are being encouraged not to use the railways and other forms of public transport. New policies, and amendments of existing ones, are announced almost on a daily basis. The media is awash with speculation, some well-founded and some not. And a huge unknown is whether people will feel confident enough to start going out and picking up their pre-coronavirus routines; the crowded beach scenes on TV over the weekend do not necessarily mean anything for the longer term. There may be a second wave of the virus.
It is also now certain that the economic impact will be deep and long-lasting. There is very little money, anywhere, and this will bite hard. To give an example, a tour operator with which we were continuing to do a large amount of business has gone bust in the last week. We will not easily be able to replace that business.
I repeat what I said last time. It still looks like being some time before the heritage and leisure sectors are properly back in business, and that might be as much about people’s willingness to put themselves at risk as about our ability to operate. Every single organisation and individual in the UK is going to have difficult choices to make. The post-coronavirus world is certainly not going to be the same as the one we are all used to. There is going to have to be change and belt-tightening across the piece.
All this uncertainty continues to make our own planning difficult. But that is not to say that we are putting our heads in the sand. Many of you will have seen, and completed, our customer survey which is enabling us to gauge what the demand and expectations will be when we are able to re-open. The response has been excellent, providing us with ample data to guide our decisions; these decisions will be based on what our customers actually want (and would be prepared to pay for) rather than what we think we would like to do. You will hear more about this, and about the volunteer survey, in the coming days and weeks.
Some of us walked round the Tenterden site last Wednesday to get a better feel for the practicalities. It looked, inevitably, a little tired in places, but the management have plans to redress this and grass-cutting was taking place as we left. The big point for me was that a social distancing rule of two metres makes life very difficult for us, but if it can be reduced to one metre a lot more becomes possible.
But whatever the rules we will face challenges, and all is not going to be plain sailing. For example, we are fortunate to have high levels of Wealden Pullman advance bookings; our customers have been very patient, but the longer we are unable to operate some kind of Pullman service the greater the risk of our customers loosing patience. And this would hit our bottom line at a time when we can least afford it. Our management team are going to have to take some finely balanced decisions, here as well as in other areas. Some of these decisions are going to be neither simple nor popular.
How can we all help?
First, all our Appeals remain open - donations whether to the Railway as a whole or to one of our extant appeals are always welcome and very much needed. On a positive note, the company has enough for our basic needs this year, with donations arriving from as far away as Australia! If you are able to help, you can do so via the link below
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Secondly, by remembering that this will be a time when we must all pull together. Our Railway is not going to be able to pick up where it left off at the end of last season, when actually we were rather well placed. We shall be feeling our way in a new world in which money, ours and our potential customers’, will be tight. In order to get through we must support the decision-takers, put up with things we may not like, and build on the pioneering spirit in which volunteers were prepared to turn their hands to anything, including outside their specialisms. There may well be shortages in some roles and in the early days at least we are likely to need more customer-facing people, so if you fancy something different there may be an opportunity for you! I know I’ve said this before but we must maintain and develop a culture of finding ways to do things rather than reasons for not doing them.
Am I optimistic? Yes, provided that we put the Kent and East Sussex Railway first which is something that I hope we are all used to doing.
Stay safe, look after your wellbeing, and remember to talk about the Kent and East Sussex Railway to your friends and on your social networks.
My very best wishes to you, your families and your friends. And I look forward to meeting people on a reopened Railway at Tenterden as soon as it is safe and appropriate to do so.
Simon Marsh
Chairman
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The Queen Mother is coming - but where's the paperwork......? |
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In 1982 I was 20 years old and had been volunteering on the K&ESR for eight years, gaining the grades of Fireman and Guard in that time. In 1981 I also had been appointed Traffic Co-ordinator to look after the many and varied requests for additional and altered workings for the various departments.
Photo courtesy of Graham Williams
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The visit of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother on 9th June to inaugurate the newly converted Disabled Coach “Petros” had been announced and I was planning to travel to Tenterden with my mum and dad from our home in South East London to witness this historic event. The organisation of the visit had naturally been conducted by senior members of the railways directors and management and I had not been involved, until……
I was employed in the Control Office of the South Eastern Division of British Rail’s Southern Region, based at Beckenham and on Tuesday 8th June I took duty for the late turn at 2pm as part of a regular shift of ten staff. The then Operating Manager of the railway was also employed by British Rail at a freight location in North Kent, and being keen and enthusiastic, I phoned him before my shift started just to make sure everything was sorted for the big visit the following day.
The conversation went along the lines of:
Me “Hello Bert (name changed to protect the innocent!), is everything in place for tomorrow, I’m about if you need anything done”
Bert “Ah err, I’m not sure, as I can’t make it – I can’t get leave from work”
Me “Oh, who’s looking after the operations then?”
Bert “Well I was going to see if you would?”
Pause
Me “Well yes, if you want me to? Where’s all the paperwork?”
Bert “Ah, well I haven’t had a chance to do very much – could you sort something out do you think?”
Me “It’s a bit short notice but I’ll try – what’s the plan?”
There then followed a brief conversation about the basis of the days programme and then “Bert” had to go and start work!
Now I was well aware by then of the ability of the railway to “make things up on the hoof”, and I also had a bit of a reputation for “winging it” on occasions, but even I thought that a Royal Train ought to be a bit more formally organised.
One of my colleagues realised I was worried and enquired of my plight. Upon explaining the predicament, a number of my colleagues came to my aid; my immediate boss “knew someone in the rules section” and headed up to see them, whilst I went to see Mark Stutchbury – who at that time worked in the Special Traffic Section, just over the corridor from the Control - and within an hour we had various Notices outlining the arrangements for Royal Trains and a plan of what the train movements on the day were going to look like.
Typewriters zipped into action, notices were roughed out with some real “cutting & pasting” with scissors and glue (no technical wizardry back in those days), and given to another colleague who “had an acquaintance in the typing pool” whilst the controller in charge of the shift called in a favour from the head of the reprographic section to “knock out some copies of a late special traffic notice”!
By 7pm, after a lot of frenetic drafting, typing, copying and sorting, on a box on my desk were about twenty copies of several notices for distribution the following day, their professionalism befitting a Royal Train. Fortunately, the evening peak on the South Eastern Division that day had passed without serious incident!
From my planned mid-morning trip to Tenterden for the early afternoon event, my day was now going to start at 9am at Tenterden and from being a mere spectator I was going to be the Operating Officer in Charge of a Royal Train – a hugely prized role, even in those days!
I phoned my parents and told them it was going to be an early start……..
To be continued
Neil Sime
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Assistant Company Secretary
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As briefly mentioned in a previous edition of this newsletter, Richard Styles was recently appointed to the role of Assistant Company Secretary. Richard, who is also active as a Tenterden Town Stationmaster, is the Town Clerk of Ramsgate in his day job and is very active in developing that seaside town as a tourist destination. He therefore brings a wealth of relevant experience to the function. Backroom roles such as this are vitally important and can be very onerous; the work is carried out behind the scenes and there is none of the buzz and glamour of being, say, a footplateman! But all these roles are vital to the smoothing running of our railway.
Richard said “I think heritage railways are a bit like a theatre production: the rolling stock are the stars and the footplate and train crew are the supporting cast. But every production needs its directors, producers and stage hands to produce a successful run and that's what governance, finance and marketing are all about.”
Richard succeeds K&ESR stalwart Phil Edwards and will be supporting Company Secretary Charles Mavor.
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Forrestry & Conservation
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The team have recommenced work to our linesides, with priority being given to sightlines at level & user worked crossings. It's not as bad as the photo suggests, but there's still ample opportunity to get involved! To join the happy band, just drop a line to infrastructure@kesr.org.uk - you'll be made very welcome |
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The Terrier 150 Appeal is an ambitious project to restore 'Bodiam' to steam for her 150th Birthday, but additionally, to tell the story of these diminutive locos, whose longevity and usefulness is legendary - click the image to read the latest news of this exciting project |
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From the Virtual Boardroom |
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The third Skype board meeting was held on Saturday 30 May, with the disembodied voices, and in some cases the faces, of eight trustees and four officers. Again, the technology worked although there were some interruptions due to local BT internet outages.
The minutes will of course be made available in the usual way, but this newsletter provides an opportunity to give a brief flavour of some of the most important points now. It should not in any sense be regarded as a formal record.
We heard a further update from the General Manager on the Railway’s response to the Covid-19 crisis including on plans for reopening whenever it was safe and appropriate to do so. There is more on this elsewhere in the e-newsletter so I won’t go into detail here. We reaffirmed again that that it would be critical to keep our costs down and that the guiding principle should be that we only spent money and did things that improved the bottom line. The culture change that had already started on the Railway needed to continue at accelerated pace. We noted the considerable progress towards obtaining the financial and customer data that would enable objective decision taking.
We also reminded ourselves that the priority of the trustees was to safeguard the long-term future of the Kent and East Sussex Railway and that this was brought into sharper focus by the situation in which the country found itself.
We thanked the General Manager for the continuing high quality and timeliness of the work he and the team were doing – and noted that this would be required for the foreseeable future!
We approved the 2018/19 CSRE and K&ESR Accounts, noting that last year had been healthier than the previous one.
The Board approved the terms of reference for the new Risk and Compliance Committee which was being chaired by Paul Vidler. It had had an initial meeting and among its early tasks would be to audit the risk register and the Railway’s suite of governance documents and bring proposals back to the Board.
We noted progress with fundraising. Although two Government grant applications had been rejected largely on the grounds that the schemes were extremely over-subscribed, we remained confident that the future of the Railway could be assured.
On projects, we noted in particular that work on No 3 Bodiam had restarted in Norfolk but that the tanks for 32678 were still being held up by suspension of activity at the contractors’ site.
We noted with regret the passing of John Padgham, a footplateman who had been associated with the Railway in days gone by.
Looking forward, we agreed that it was still our intention to hold the Annual General Meeting on 14th November 2020 and that planning should proceed accordingly. We might need to review that in the light of circumstances nearer the time and we might also need to enable some form of remote access. We recognised the complexities and uncertainties and that preparing for the meeting would not be a straightforward process.
We agreed to accept, with thanks, the gift of a considerable amount of miniature railway trackwork which would be stored securely until such time as we had the capacity to decide how best to use it. This would not be in the near future.
We noted early proposals for a major rearrangement of Tenterden High Street and that the K&ESR would engage as necessary.
And finally, we thanked Phil Edwards for all his work as assistant company secretary and welcomed Richard Styles who had agreed to take on the role as well as his other Railway commitments.
The next full meeting would be on Saturday 27 June.
Simon Marsh
Chairman
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Volunteer Accommodation at Tenterden |
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Just as the lockdown took effect in March, work was underway to further improve the standard of presentation of our Volunteer Accommodation.
There are two blocks with, as purchased, each block containing a kitchen, three bedrooms, a shower and toilet. Two kitchens seemed a slight extravagence & the absence of a communal seating area was a bit of an issue. So with minimal effort, one bedroom was removed & the space incorporated with the adjacent kitchen, to form a lounge/diner as seen above.
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Room with a view
The other kitchen was removed & the area formed into a new, slightly larger bedroom, so ensuring no overall reduction in room capacity.
Thanks to Malcolm Price for his kind assistance with carpeting of bedrooms and lounge area. We're still seeking sponsorship for some decking outside the accommodation to form an outside seating area - something that would be particularly useful given the current need to provide social distancing in staff rest areas...... Any offers?
Andre Freeman
Commercial Manager
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News from the General Manager |
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K&ESR on BBC Radio Sussex
I had the opportunity of saying a few words on mid-morning BBC Radio Sussex on Sunday 31st May. It was in support of our appeals for donations - Terrier 150, Wealden Pullman Kitchen Car, and the GWR Railcar.
For those interested I followed the section discussing carrots! https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08dp915 and go 1 hour 19 minutes into the program
The restart plan
As we have said before, closing down was the easy bit, restarting is the real challenge.
To restart across the board, we will have to open up much of what has been closed for the last two months, all of which means cost, from reactivating utility accounts, and reinstating waste collections to bringing in staff and reopening overhaul sheds.
Do we need to restart every part of the business? What is essential, what is not?
What has priority? Steam locos or diesels, compartment coaches or open coaches?
What services will we operate, what days, how often, what staff are needed?
Can we start small and build based on staff availability and competence and customer demand? Most importantly can we cover the costs?
Many of these questions are being answered bit by bit:
Our Customers. What is the customer appetite for visiting heritage railways this summer, what safety measures will they expect, what type of carriages are they comfortable travelling in, what journey duration would they prefer? These and many other questions are being answered through the online customer survey. With over 2,600 responses so far, it has been invaluable.
Our Volunteers. The next survey is to gauge appetite for returning to volunteer. Some are available immediately, others after a period of time, Some deciding themselves, others being decided by “the boss” at home! No matter which, we respect these decisions and ensure the railway environment is as safe as we can reasonably make it, for it is our people who make the railway, and without them we are nothing.
Customer Reservations. Following detailed analysis of our advance booking data, we have been contacting customers to work with them in managing their booking with us. 86% of our advance bookings relate to the Wealden Pullman and here too the surveys have been very helpful in assisting our planning.
Safety Measures. As the Chairman mentioned above, it was very helpful doing a walkround at Tenterden last week, looking at the practicalities of what we will need to introduce to keep staff and customers safe - social distancing, sanitising, cleaning regimes and guiding our visitors. These revised methods of working will be applied to all stations as appropriate.
New bookings. Customers are keen to see admissions controlled to prevent overcrowding, so future bookings will be in made for specific departures in order to manage capacity on each train and at our stations. This requires many changes to to our normal booking processes.
Flexibility. It is possible that some departments will be oversubscribed, whilst others will be short staffed. Flexibility will, as ever, be essential.
Furlough. With the vast majority of paid staff on furlough, we have been waiting for the detail on the changes to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which were announced by the Chancellor last Friday evening. As expected, the Government contribution is being tapered down, putting more cost on the employer. Flexi-furlough is being introduced however, where staff can remain on furlough but allowed to work part time with the employer paying full rate for those days worked.
Government guidance We are currently applying a 2m social distancing rule, though I believe it is only a question of time before we will see a reduction to 1m. This would have an enormous impact on what we can do, but will only happen providing the country observe current rules and minimise the risk of a second wave.
We are now in process of building the plan, understanding its true costs, practicalities and benefits. More will follow in the next issue, but meanwhile stay safe and enjoy the sunshine.
Shaun Dewey
General Manager
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It works! |
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Brian Richards is seen tackling the overgrown grass area of the Tenterden Town Car Park - Brian is smiling because our ride on mower has a long history of recalcitrant behaviour....
Wanted!
We are still seeking new (single trip) 20' and 40' shipping containers for the new container park behind the Rolvenden Carriage Storage Shed. If you've contacts in this field, we'd like to hear from you - contact Brian Richards via infrastructure@kesr.org.uk
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K&ESR Strategy to 2024 |
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One of the few positives from the current pause in services at our Railway is that it provides us with some precious time to think. The hurly-burly of railway life during a normal season seldom gives the opportunity to draw breadth and reflect on the questions:
- What activities are causing us a lot of work, but provide little value and should stop?
- What new things should we start doing that will help us achieve our purpose?
- What is going really well, and should continue?
As we contemplate the re-opening of the railway, we have no alternative but to ask these questions as we build up our programme in the short and medium term. It had always been our intention to review our core service and the regular events that we hold as part of the strategy work – for instance, a new four return-journey timetable had been introduced in February just before the world changed. Now we will literally be starting things up again from a standing start.
Everything we do must serve “to preserve Our Railway as living history…making memories that matter”. We will all have vivid memories of special occasion days along our line, with carriages packed to standing room only and platforms filled with expectant faces as a locomotive steams into sight. Things will be different for some time to come as we will need to limit the number of visitors who are on our sites to create a safe environment for them and for our volunteers and staff whilst we remain alert regarding the virus.
Fewer ‘crazy busy’ event days and more manageable passenger flows will give us more opportunity to ensure that everyone who comes to the K&ESR enjoys a great day. If people go away with a smile on their face, happy to return and to recommend us to others, then that can only be good for our future. Of course, we are famous as the ‘friendly’ railway, so this is really more of the same for all of us.
As and when we re-start we can try some new things; examples might be more on-line pre-booking of seats, more extensive use of compartment carriages, more pre-arranged catering offerings. We have many ideas, but will need to listen carefully to our customers and align their priorities with a service that we can provide safely and which generates the income we need to pay the bills. The excellent customer survey has received many responses and will give the insight we need; added to which we have commitments to fulfil in respect of customer bookings for our most popular services.
As always, we are keen to hear your views to help us to take the right decisions, either through the on-line survey or by email to newsletter@kesr.org.uk.
What would you Stop, Start, or Continue?
Preserving our railway as living history – making memories that matter
David Nibloe
Trustee
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More good news: the overhul of 4253's boiler has been making good progress at HBSS boilersmiths in Liverpool.
Visit www.4253.co.uk to find out more about the Final Push Appeal
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Missing your steam fix?
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Click below to take a look at this great little video from Ian Scarlett - the Driver (who's seen firing!) of our Norwegian Loco |
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That's it for this edition, but from all of us here at the K&ESR, our very best wishes |
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Kent & East Sussex Railway
Tenterden Town Station, Station Road,
Tenterden, Kent TN30 6HE
www.kesr.org.uk
Registered charity 262481
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