Re: Dr Beeching

[Geoff Bannister <gbannister.rcts@argonet.co.uk>]

In article <VA.00000643.002c8746@brian.rumary>, "B.Rumary"
<brian.rumary@virgin.net> wrote: 
<snipped>
> In the case of the WSR, first they sold the trackbed to the enthusiasts, 
> but the Minehead station site to the local council. They naturally 
> assumed the council would insist on turning it into a car park, thereby 
> "beheading" the WSR. When that failed, because the council rented the 
> site to the WSR, they got those idiots in the NUR to do their dirty work 
> for them at the other end of the line. The union blocked the entry into 
> Taunton, because they said that it would threaten their members who were 
> driving the replacement buses. It was obviously a lie, as a fully 
> connected WSR would need more BR staff at Taunton, to handle the 
> interchange traffic, and these would easily absorb anyone laid off the 
> buses. Really the NUR were afraid that the more sensible working 
> practises of the WSR might spread to the rest of the system. As I said 
> before in an earlier posting, the rail unions were much more interesting 
> in preserving traditional working practises than their members jobs!
> 

Of course what is now very interesting (and ironic in the light of the
above) is that the reconnecting of the WSR "properly" to the main line is
seriously being considered and there is talk of a 2001 date. Funding to the
tune of £125K is now being released by the County Council and other
interested groups are involved including WSDC and Rank (who own Butlin's
Somerwest World). The original emphasis came form a group called TMRL
(Taunton-Minehead Rail Link) a year or so ago. There /is/ a connection
through the old Taunton Cider company sidings at Norton which was of course
used by the stone traffic trains which ran from March 1997 until June 1998
and brought a Cl.37 into Minehead every weekday. But the idea is to have a
regular (probably DMU) service. WSR have distanced themselves in that they
are no prepared to offer funding help - they have had more than their share
of money problems - but would welcome other operators being involved. This
is partly due to local pressure because of the increasing traffic levels on
the A358 and also the inability of the bus (!) to cope with numbers and the
rather convoluted journey involved.

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