Top table or scraps? Where Do toDay’s gricers stanD?
Do tour operators still cater for all tastes, or are they now pandering to the diners?
Are Steam Railway readers still being catered for by today’s tours? Or has the market moved on, leaving us to pick up the scraps? And if that’s the case, what can we do about it? Big, basic questions… the sort you hear among those who’ve chosen to put their wallets away, and take their cameras out instead. It’s not just grumpy linesiders though. Talk to people involved with main line steam and you’ll often hear that the number of hardcore fans has fallen, to be replaced by dining passengers simply looking for a nice day out. Less Steam Railway, more Sunday Telegraph. Is that true? And if so, why…? What is it that makes you travel - if you do? Or stops you - if you don’t? Prices? Destinations? Big hills? The right (or wrong) engine? Or have you simply ‘been there, done that’…? This is overtly ‘over to you’; because after all, you are some of the people who keep steam going. If you’re a railtour passenger, or a lapsed one - or even someone who’s never travelled but might - we want to hear from you. Before you pick up your pen though, let me bring you thoughts from some of the people for whom this is most important: promoters. After all, they’re paying for the trains; they’re looking to fill them; and they want your custom. “I reject any idea that enthusiasts are ‘left with the scraps’,” says Vintage Trains’ marketing man Ben Mason. “What do you think pannier tours are, if not for enthusiasts? And we’re planning on running three trips involving them this year.”
Food for thought
He’s sceptical too about the idea that the fans aren’t riding in dining - and his not unreasonable wider argument is one you’ll hear elsewhere too: that trains need to be made attractive to both gricers, and those who aren’t hard-core fans. In fact, Ben’s idea of a perfect day out is either the ‘Cotswold Explorer’ or ‘Welsh
Marches’. The first involves Tyseley and Hereford with the climb to Abergavenny; the second Tyseley-Oxford, with Sapperton. Both are regular jobs for double-chimney ‘Castle’ Earl of Mount Edgcumbe. They are, as Ben says, “very similar tours.” “They both leave at sensible times of the day… they’re both back in around 12 hours, with about four hours at an interesting destination.” “They both involve the water carrier, so that loses a water stop in each direction - or 1½ hours off the day. “The ‘Cotswold’ has a sprint down the GWML, both have got decent banks, and both have pretty scenery for people to look at. The enthusiast and the non-enthusiast can both get into it. “We have a huge amount of repeat business. When you’re talking about enthusiasts and non-enthusiasts, who are they? Because you can’t split them up by class; people say they’re not in premier dining, but that’s not true. “You want to come up with tours that are as interesting to as many people as possible.” As for the ‘Cotswold Explorer’, Ben says: “A certain amount of proof is that we’ve run it multiple times - I can’t remember how many - and it always fills up, even if not to the very top. If it wasn’t successful, we wouldn’t keep doing it.”
Mainstream main line
Railway Touring Company boss Nigel Dobbing also disputes any idea that gricers are now feeding on the scraps. “I wouldn’t say that. The trains that we’re running, there are fewer and fewer enthusiasts on them - and if they’re not travelling, they’re not going to be high on our priority list, are they? But I think we’re still running some pretty good tours for enthusiasts.” RTC’s man argues for a fairly simple formula - and one that starts with some basic logistics: “From an operator’s point of view you’ve got to have the locomotive in the right place, the coaches in the right place, and then a few hours of steam - preferably with a big hill in the way. That helps.” Favourite trips for Nigel are things that RTC only does once in a while - ‘top and tail’ itineraries around the North East. Yet in terms of ‘the one’ the King’s Lynn promoter argues for another day out that should be pretty gricer-friendly. Steam over Shap and the Settle-Carlisle, on one trip, and with plenty of pick-ups on the electric leg from London before the interesting bit starts. It’s something he’s now offered many times. “Probably the ‘Winter Cumbrian Mountain Express’ is the perfect train for us.” Clearly a ‘CME’ is about climbs and scenery - the railway itself - but what about a destination? RTC’s man - who offers trips to places like York and Minehead - agrees that where the train ends up “is important.” “Obviously less so if you do a ‘CME’, because you’ve got the middle bit!”
Striking a balance
Steam Dreams boss Marcus Robertson’s view is that the ‘posh end’ is a key part of what’s on offer, because circumstances have changed: “Over the last ten years a lot of the costs have more than doubled - some of them have trebled. It would be unfair to expect enthusiasts to pick up all that, so dining is important. “That doesn’t mean that enthusiasts aren’t important to us - but it’s a mix.” As for what’s ideal, Marcus throws in a curve ball: he reckons former chief executive Graeme Bunker “correctly identified the single most important ingredient of a day out was the appearance of the sun for a reasonable amount of time!” “He was right, that is the one thing… even more so than the chosen locomotive, its performance, destination, the route or the on-board ambience and, of course, the food.” Leaving aside fickle weather though (after all, this is Britain), Marcus suggests the “perceived wisdom is that a three-hour journey out, three hours at the destination and three hours back are about right, but in truth there are many variations on that theme and not one size suits all tastes.”
Change of pace
The ‘Cathedrals Express’ boss does think the market is different compared to the exciting early blast of open access in the ’90s, when “most enthusiasts were happy to have as much mileage as possible, as fast as possible with as little time as necessary to replenish and change locomotives.” “Things have moved on from then and the Steam Dreams view would be that sometimes the threehour journey time is bound to be exceeded purely because not that many destinations fit the three-hour rule.” Though he recognises other potential favourites, if Marcus could choose just one trip it would be London-Bath, outward via the ‘Berks and Hants’ and back over Upton Scudamore. That gives around three hours in Bath or Bristol - and “has almost everything that any enthusiast could want” including climbs of Savernake, Upton Scudamore and Grateley, and the chance for the engine “to stretch her legs to the full 75mph running.” So, you’ve now heard it from some of those who want your patronage - who are at the sharp end of making this work. Those who actually have to come up with something attractive - because it’s their business. Yet what do you think? Does the above talk to you? Or if not, why - what would you want to see instead? Answers please, because this is about your hobby, your mag - and maybe your trains… In case you’re getting a sense of déjà vu here, we were going to cover this topic in SR461 - but lack of space stopped that, so it was held over.
There are fewer and fewer enthusiasts - and if they’re not travelling, they’re not going to be high on our priority list, are they? NIGEL DOBBING