Seaburn Historic Vehicle Display
Seaburn Historic Vehicle Display
(30 Aug 2021, 7:17 pm)Adrian Decided to pop along today, and despite earlier suggestions that the £3 entry fee is problematic for 'enthusiasts', there was a good amount of people there. Seaburn does usually tend to attract a bit of a crowd for the cars alone, so it almost ends up being two rallies in one.2099 suffered a fault and had to be taken out of service, the rapid actions brought not one but two buses out to cover and trips continued beyond the usual cut off.
From my observations, out of the 12 advertised buses on the NEBPT website, only 7 made it to Seaburn. That's always going to happen to a degree, as it could well be something unforeseen happening on the day or on the lead up to today. That being said though, I counted 26 buses in total. So 19 that weren't listed on the website. That feels a bit of an own goal to me. If you list details of attendees on a website, the purpose is usually to encourage more people to attend based on what's there.
I thought the rally itself was average. It was good to see some fantastic buses in attendance, but I feel that the organisation still lets the event down. There is very little information about the event, and it largely works on the assumption that 'it's the same time every year, so you should know', but in the digital age we live in: communication is key.
I've attended other rallies and running days around the country, and you certainly have more of a feel of knowing what is going on, both on the run up and after the event. Many producing event programmes, giving timetables for the shuttle bus service and so on. A programme priced at say £5 is both a good fundraiser, and a good way of informing visitors about the event.
The shuttle bus looked to be really popular from what I noticed, but I wonder if some of it was used as an opportunity to get out of the drizzle. Sadly the hourly timetable meant that people were left behind, including from a full load on the ex-Northern Routemaster. To their credit, one of the marshals had said he would try and get two buses at the same time for the following run, which I believe happened.
A notable absentee was Go North East. Whilst I think this one has always been supported by Stagecoach, you'd still generally get a good turn out from GNE. There was nothing today, only a single Enviro from Stagecoach and nothing from any of the other local companies. I appreciate that commercial work takes priority over rallies etc (although I'm speculating that may be the reason), I think certainly younger enthusiasts and children of the age they're with their parents, would be far more attached to modern buses. That's not a knock on preservationists, before more wild conclusions are jumped to, but simply an observation of that is what they're growing up with.
I hope people continue attending and supporting these events, but also think its important that constructive criticism is heard. Otherwise how to things improve?
(30 Aug 2021, 7:17 pm)Adrian Decided to pop along today, and despite earlier suggestions that the £3 entry fee is problematic for 'enthusiasts', there was a good amount of people there. Seaburn does usually tend to attract a bit of a crowd for the cars alone, so it almost ends up being two rallies in one.2099 suffered a fault and had to be taken out of service, the rapid actions brought not one but two buses out to cover and trips continued beyond the usual cut off.
From my observations, out of the 12 advertised buses on the NEBPT website, only 7 made it to Seaburn. That's always going to happen to a degree, as it could well be something unforeseen happening on the day or on the lead up to today. That being said though, I counted 26 buses in total. So 19 that weren't listed on the website. That feels a bit of an own goal to me. If you list details of attendees on a website, the purpose is usually to encourage more people to attend based on what's there.
I thought the rally itself was average. It was good to see some fantastic buses in attendance, but I feel that the organisation still lets the event down. There is very little information about the event, and it largely works on the assumption that 'it's the same time every year, so you should know', but in the digital age we live in: communication is key.
I've attended other rallies and running days around the country, and you certainly have more of a feel of knowing what is going on, both on the run up and after the event. Many producing event programmes, giving timetables for the shuttle bus service and so on. A programme priced at say £5 is both a good fundraiser, and a good way of informing visitors about the event.
The shuttle bus looked to be really popular from what I noticed, but I wonder if some of it was used as an opportunity to get out of the drizzle. Sadly the hourly timetable meant that people were left behind, including from a full load on the ex-Northern Routemaster. To their credit, one of the marshals had said he would try and get two buses at the same time for the following run, which I believe happened.
A notable absentee was Go North East. Whilst I think this one has always been supported by Stagecoach, you'd still generally get a good turn out from GNE. There was nothing today, only a single Enviro from Stagecoach and nothing from any of the other local companies. I appreciate that commercial work takes priority over rallies etc (although I'm speculating that may be the reason), I think certainly younger enthusiasts and children of the age they're with their parents, would be far more attached to modern buses. That's not a knock on preservationists, before more wild conclusions are jumped to, but simply an observation of that is what they're growing up with.
I hope people continue attending and supporting these events, but also think its important that constructive criticism is heard. Otherwise how to things improve?
