Website migration
posted 29th January 2006

As publicised just over a week ago, the migration of gwsr.com to a new server is now complete, and “the switch has been flipped”. The effect of these changes will take 24-48 hours to propagate around the globe, by which time all visitors to this site should be connecting to the new server.

Our previous server was very unreliable, being unavailable for several periods during a typical day. The new server has proved 100% reliable over the last couple of weeks. We apologise to any of you who have been frustrated by the site’s unreliability over the last four months.

Finally, a reminder about our New Year Prize Quiz. So far the answers have not exactly flooded in (well, so far we’ve had two), but there is just over a month to run, so hopefully there’ll be a few more entrants before the start of the new operating season. To have a go at the quiz, click here.

Waiting Room migration
posted 26th January 2006, modified 29th January 2006

The Waiting Room forum (for working volunteers only) is migrating to a new software system. Full details of this move (and its implications) are available on the announcements board in the forum, and members are advised to read this carefully.

Update 29/01/2006: the migration is now complete and all registered users should have received a new password. In the event of difficulties, please email the webmaster (at our gwsr.com address) for help.

Resurfaced
posted 23rd January 2006

The days of finding a car park space at Toddington without stepping into a small lake are gone, because the car park is now proudly sporting a brand new coat of Tarmac. The work has been taking place over quite a period - first the drainage system was installed early last year and then the car park was graded prior to surfacing. The graded surface was in itself an improvement and has been in use during most of 2005. The job is now, however, complete.

This is an extremely worthwhile investment because, apart from helping to improve 'first impressions' for our visitors, it will enable many more cars to be parked once the 'white lining' has been completed. Inevitably, when there are no directions (either by a person or white lines) people take up much more space then is strictly necessary so hopefully, there will be fewer occasions when customers can't find anywhere to park.

For special occasions the field adjoining Platform 2 will continue to be used. There are plans to put in a new entrance to the field much closer to the station (in fact, using a gateway that has long since disappeared into the hedge - look carefully and the old gateposts are still there) and part of the field will be reserved for the GWR's use.

But it's worth remembering that at Cheltenham Race Course there is plenty of space - more than enough for our busiest days!

Website maintenance
posted 21st January 2006

The GWR website, gwsr.com, is on the move again. Some of you may recall that the website moved to a new host in September last year. Unfortunate, the new servers have proved to be very problematic, and some of you may have noticed that this website has been unavailable on a number of occasions since then.

We are now moving once again to a new provider, and the website will be hosted on a state-of-the-art server. We hope that this will resolve our problems. Certainly, initial trials over the last couple of days have proved 100% reliable. The photo galleries and shop have already been moved, and other parts of the site will move over the coming weeks. There will inevitably be further minor interruptions during this period.

Thank you for bearing with us during this difficult exercise.

Holding our own: tickets down a bit, revenue up a bit
posted 20th January 2006

How did we do last year? Well, in one sense it was again a record year, although ticket sales (passenger numbers) were a little down on last year.

As you see from the chart below we have ended the year about 4 per cent down with 63,606 tickets sold, compared with 66,411 last season. We were not doing so well during the first few weeks of the year with a 10 per cent reduction in passenger numbers recorded at the end of April. But from then, you'll see from the graph that we steadily recovered, heading towards a similar number to last year.

Of the total, 12,725 tickets were sold at Cheltenham (20.4%) compared with 12,513 last year (19.4%) - showing that our southern terminus is making an increasingly important contribution to our revenue.

Comments Colin Dymock, head stationmaster, "Poor weather certainly contributed to the lower numbers, including some of our special events such as Thomas and the Autumn steam gala. But, with 145 running days, we did pretty well!" That equates to about 439 passengers per day but, as Colin points out, the 145 includes those where few people are carried, such as corporate days, footplate experience courses, filming and so-on.

In revenue terms, however, we did very well. Finance director John Broadhurst reports that although passenger numbers were down, our ticket income was up 1 per cent following our price increase last year. Total revenue was, John says, about 3 per cent higher than 2004, which itself was a record. For the second year running, revenue exceeded £0.75 million.

P & O Progress Report
posted 14th January 2006

The latest report from the 35006 “P & O” restoration project is now available.

Click here to read the latest report on P & O.

...and no conferring
posted 3rd January 2006

We are pleased to announce our 2006 New Year Prize Quiz. 30 questions, devised by the website team, with the prize of a family ticket voucher for the first correct entry out of the hat on the first day of the 2006 operating season.

All the answers are on this website, somewhere, and so anyone can have a go. Just send in your completed sets of answers by email.

Click here to visit the 2006 New Year Prize Quiz.

Click here to return to the News Archive.