Chris Austin, Chairman of the West Somerset Steam Railway Trust, who has been leading the Taunton shuttle project on behalf of WSR Plc, has provided a summary of the latest data collected on Saturday 31 August. Shuttle passengers returned 100 survey forms – an even bigger sample of forms than received on previous weekends. Analysis showed the principal differences from the pattern of previous weeks were:
- There were more people from WSR stations taking a trip to Taunton than in previous weeks, with 37% compared with the previous average of 19%. This is reflected by twice the number of respondents (14%) saying that the purpose of their journey was shopping, compared with the previous average of 7%
- The principal journey purpose still remains taking a train ride (63%)
- The proportion of those travelling to us from the national network was smaller at 38%, (previous average 49%), but is still the largest segment of our visitors. And 25% were just travelling on the shuttle alone (previous average 31%)
- People are still travelling long distances to visit us, with the furthest travellers on Saturday being from York, Wigan, Aberystwyth and St Austell. One visitor (just travelling on the shuttle) was from California
- Of those responding, 43% had heard about the shuttle from websites or social media, but 29% learned of it from the press, several people noting that it was via the railway press. This is similar to the previous average figure
