Dissertation Ideas

[SwissFan91]

Basically, I am feeling doing a dissertation on UK rail travel, with an eye to POSSIBLY using a heritage railway such as the West Somerset Railway. But I have no idea what aspect to focus on, so I thought I would ask you friendly folk.

So far, I have considered looking at the environmental impacts, tourism, regional multiplier effects, ticketing, ideas behind Cost/Benefit analysis of going back to pre-Beechings, Cost/Benefit of extension, Cost/Benefit of electrifying London-Penzance, etc.

So many ideas.. so little time!

[andel]

OK - whats the subject of your degree first off? Then we could look at how best to implement the UK into it...

[SwissFan91]

Oops. Geography BSc But it can be very loosely related to geography! I believe "gang culture geographies" has been done before !

[andel]

Well, you can look at the Heart of Wales line and the Great Western Main Line and about the construction of these and the geographies... you can also look at how they link industry etc.

[SwissFan91]

I was more hopeful to use the WSR, as it is local to me, but yes these are good ideas After all, trains used to run London-Minehead, so the link is there.

[Griff]

To what extent was the building of the London Underground responsible for the social and geographic development of London?

[JamieLei]

After all, I'm a Geography BA (or at least I will be when I get back to Britain!)

For my A Level dissertation, I did "The relationship between station usage and service provision in the immediate area" (or something like that), although it's a bit simple for degree level.

Personally, I'd believe to do any kind of dissertation, you'd need to be doing a LOT of research in person, and while you could do a historical dissertation the research would be far more difficult (for that area of expertise, ask Kevin's friend )

Ideas that immediately spring to mind are:

"The impact of High Speed 1 on commuting patterns from Kent"
Although this would be largely based around interviewing people and spacial-analysis with GIS.

"The importance of regional commuter services in a regional British city (ie: Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds)."
Could be interesting, with lots of mapping with GIS about travel habits, and why people may take the train instead of the bus.

"PPG6 and Public Transport"
An assessment of the now 14-year old policy "Public Policy Guidance 6" (or something like that) which encourages development in the centre of cities rather than the edges. While this would involve intensive pouring over timetables (and historic ones too, ie: bus routes in Gravesend before the Bluewater Shopping Centre was built), it could also involve interviewing local residents and travel habits.

Personally, in my opinion, the potential to do anything related specifically to a heritage railway is too weak and there is probably not enough academia out there. Remember that this is your degree dissertation, not a holiday. If you want to ride around on trains all week, I suggest you go interrailing or Britrailing and do an unrelated dissertation. Picking the topic is about finding something that will net you the best marks and that you are most capable of writing academically and geographically about.

I'm a bit mixed over whether a cost-benefit dissertation would be a good idea. I believe that there are too many factors involved which would not be possible for a single person to research, and these are reports that companies and councils spend millions of pounds on. There are also many variables which I believe would be a bit difficult to gain access to - does anyone actually know a rough figure of how much it costs to electrify 1 mile of track, and then take into account the costs of raising bridges and providing clearance? And then the costs of running a 172 vs a 377. There are just too many factors that are needed that can only be obtained from inside the industry, which would be very difficult to get.

In the end, it's all up to what you can research yourself and the data you can gain access to.

[SwissFan91]

"The impact of High Speed 1 on commuting patterns from Kent"
Although this would be largely based around interviewing people and spacial-analysis with GIS.

Although this is a good idea, I believe it would be silly of me to take on a project like this in Kent, way away from where I live/am at uni. (Not that you were to know ) At least if I do it locally (near Taunton, or Birmingham) then I can revisit areas to do questionnaires or data collection.

"The importance of regional commuter services in a regional British city (ie: Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds)."
Could be interesting, with lots of mapping with GIS about travel habits, and why people may take the train instead of the bus.

This has definitely gone down on the list of possibles. The only problem I envisage here is the fact that data should be collected during this summer (whilst I am not in Birmingham). But that could be worked around.

Personally, in my opinion, the potential to do anything related specifically to a heritage railway is too weak and there is probably not enough academia out there. Remember that this is your degree dissertation, not a holiday. If you want to ride around on trains all week, I suggest you go interrailing or Britrailing and do an unrelated dissertation. Picking the topic is about finding something that will net you the best marks and that you are most capable of writing academically and geographically about.

I have thought long and hard about this too. Although academia is limited, I believe that the general concepts involved (multiplier effects, tourism, rail links) would have enough academia that I could write about, and then apply it to my heritage railway in question.

At the end of the day, it all boils down to the amount of information I can collect. If the heritage railway were very open about their data, then it could be possible.

[donchatryit]

What about:
The Effects of Heritage Railways on Tourist Inflows

Do New Railway Builds Have an Adverse Effect on the Local Ecosystem?

[Kevo00]

Believe me there is academia out there about absolutely everything. If it exists, and there is a useful problem to solve, you can do research on it. However, something like the impact of HS1 on Kent commuting patterns is probably well outside of what the dissertation for a BSc in geography can achieve, given the skills and resources at Swissfan's disposal, most notably time.

I think donchatryit has hit the nail on the head. Perhaps look at the specific impact of the WSR on Minehead as a tourist destination - it would interesting to find out if there is any link between visitor numbers on the WSR and those in Minehead, to see if they move together or separately, and what other multiplier effects, if any there could be of the WSR's operation. Heritage railways are going to be an important component of our economy in years to come, yet are likely to come under threat from skills shortage etc. and may need funding to train steam drivers and the like - so I think they are an extremely valid field of study.

Good luck with whatever you end up doing though!

[donchatryit]

I would like to point out the difference between an honours dissertation and a research paper/PhD thesis. At honours level, while you should have a definite question you want to answer, the point isn't for you to make a significant contribution to knowledge. Instead, the point of the dissertation is to prove that you can take on a small research project, use the right methods and follow it through. For this reason, it might be easier to either
a) take (part of) an established framework/issue and apply it to a new setting (eg. surely there is tons of research on tourist inflows or economic impact of railways so you could use one of someone else's methods and ideas and just see how it fits somewhere else)
b) show how something you have already learned in class (a method, an idea, a principle) applies to the situation you are talking about (or not).

Basically, don't overstretch yourself. You have limited cash and, more importantly, limited time. Also, please, please, choose something you will have fun doing. There is nothing better than being able to forget about your other classes for a few hours while you write/read/think about a topic you are passionate about.

[teccuk]

donchatryit is right again. My undergrad was on rural railways and it wasn't very good. Be careful about scope creep, read some literature before deciding.

Anything involving primary evidence collection will be very difficult. So if you for example wanted to survey the traders in Minehead and ask if they felt there was a positive impact from the railway on their trade, that would be a massive undertaking. Your response rate would be pathetic, i'd estimate 2 -4 % by email or letter. So for the most part it will be a literature review.

Here's an idea, you could look at plannig and transport policy and whether it supports tourism via the railway and if it could do more. I'm also thinking about the link between Taunton station and Bishops Lydeard. Which I'm almost certain is supported in the county policy and was even in the RSS before it got junked.

Look at the efforts of the RDA, i think Minehead was objective 2 at one stage(?), district and county planning policy and adherence to PPS6...

On that note its PPS6 now. "Planning Policy Statement", and yes its too old. But it was recently updated to incorporate tory populist policies on car parking maximum limits, which were ignored entirely anyway, by developers and councils alike, unless its retail.

But all the policy docs and meeting notes etc should be online or gettable. Someone at the railway may be willing to speak to you, i'm always flattered when student want to interview me.

I'd love another shot at a dissertation. So try and enjoy it.

/edit: scrap the link stuff, its too messy.

But the whether policy is encouraging use of the railway as a tourist income generator might be quite interesting.

[JamieLei]

I'd try to avoid simply writing a literature review. We had to churn out one a week so something at dissertation level should at least have a good chunk of research. Perhaps you might be able to get some funding from the uni like a £50 bonus as a prize draw amongst those who return the survey - or actively go into shops and do the questioning yourself - when I did my A level one, it surprised me how much shopkeepers were willing to talk during off-hours.

[teccuk]

I'd try to avoid simply writing a literature review. We had to churn out one a week so something at dissertation level should at least have a good chunk of research. Perhaps you might be able to get some funding from the uni like a £50 bonus as a prize draw amongst those who return the survey - or actively go into shops and do the questioning yourself - when I did my A level one, it surprised me how much shopkeepers were willing to talk during off-hours.

Reviewing policy etc is not 'literature' it's research.

But the survey in person might work pretty well. You can stay in the youth hostel up in the old town. Shame Minehead isn't actually that nice

[donchatryit]

While in person research is fun (I am doing some myself at the end of this month), do remember that the university are likely to ask you to fill in an ethics approval form and/or make sure that you have an approved survey instrument/interview schedule. All of that takes time and at honours level, time is at a premium.

I would wholeheartedly agree that anything involving collecting new data could be tricky but, of course, it is much more fun. What if you were to use publicly accessible data (collected by the ONS or ATOC or local Tourism Organisations or someone like that) and analyse tourist inflows in a town with a high speed rail link (or heritage railway or whatever) vs. a town of comparatively the same size without such a link? If you were then to use interviews/surveys as a backup to add colour to your investigation, you could have the best of both worlds.

Just bear in mind that your honours dissertation does not have to shake the world. It isn't unusual to realise that your dissertation needs a lot more work and development before it can make a huge change. Don't worry, I am doing a PhD and it took my until masters to get that.

Basically, see it as a good excuse to nerd out about something you enjoy and learn useful new skills at the same time. Don't stress over tiny details but DO make friends with your supervisor. I am sure they will know a lot more than we do.