North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

I'm not the only one who is dismayed. This has appeared on the NYMR Unofficial forum:

This is a scandalous state of affairs. It appears to me that LNERCA have presented a range of pragmatic solutions to the NYMR, and would be willing to move heaven and earth to get the teaks operational again for the 2025 season.

That the railway haven't agreed to proceed with any of these solutions, for me shows a management in disarray, flailing about with a borderline incompetent, “can’t do” attitude. The teaks should be a jewel in crown - as they would be at any other railway. It stinks.

I genuinely think LNERCA would be better off looking for another, more appreciative home for the teaks. Probably on a permanent basis with the way the wind’s blowing at Pickering.

 

Meanwhile in the Scarborough News

Daisy back for 2027, whilst 101680 leaving.

 

But will there still be a railway left by then?

 

The NYMR official Facebook page has lots of negative feedback on the new pricing structure, many people will not be visiting again seemingly.........

 

The NYMR seem to have shot themselves in the foot with a machine gun with their new ticket pricing structure.
An example: the adult yearly pass was £50, now it is £200.

Going by the large amount of negative comments appearing on their Facebook page they have now sadly lost the custom of many families and local people who were regular visitors.

I know hertiage lines are struggling at the moment but the new prices for the NYMR do seem to be a bit "elitist".

 

Although frequently referred to as an "Annual Pass " it was the opportunity to present the original ticket for a futher free ticket at any time during a 12 month period. The original pass had to be presented and validated each time a further ticket was claimed. The objective was to encourage up take of Gift Aid on such tickets. It succeeded with over 70% opting for Gift Aid donations generating additional income of over £400k and a return free rate around the original estimate of 20%. Like many other heritage railways unsustainable cost increases have forced the NYMR to reduce operations to five days a week outside the peak season. The 12 month Gift Aid option is less attactive in such circumstances so the alternative permissible Gift Aid option of a 10% uplift but with a 15% voucher to spend in shops and tea rooms has been adopted. A true Annual Pass has been introduced at £180 which is either comparable with or less than that charged by other similar heritage lines. The headline figure of £49.50 is for the full 50 mile plus round trip with various cheaper fares for shorter journeys.

 

Semantics to most though. If you can keep representing your ticket for another trip it is a defacto annual pass, as you are not paying again.
I understood there was someone (I guess a local) who had over 200 repeat visits.
Another case of the Law of Unexpected Consequences.

 

2300? That’s a lot of daily visits to make in one year!

Tom

 

Get them down to the NNR. They seem to know a thing or two about carriages

 

200 finger issues, or as I always said "user incompetence"

 

Depends on how you look at it I suppose. Make more than four round trips in a year and the pass has paid for itself. I’m not surprised at a price increase as £50 for a year was an absolute steal. Would I pay £200 though? Doubt it as I’m unlikely to visit more than a couple of times a year. If I lived closer it could be another matter entirely though.

 

There was - but it's probably better to consider the norm than an exception (I suspect not so much a local as a diesel basher).

The real challenge is the message that a change from £49.95 getting you unlimited travel for a year to one return trip sends to would be customers. Re-rehearsing earlier debates, that just seems to make the headline fare very expensive.

Numbers this year will be interesting.

 

Ah but will "Daisy the DMU" command a fare of £50? When it's fixed of course.

From the comments on Facebook it appears the new fare structure has not won universal acclaim. Perhaps the public is not sophisticated enough to see the benefits.

 

They probably know more about how to make best use of them than the NYMR, but I don't think they necessarily know better than the LNERCA about how to restore them!

 

For anyone wanting to visit more than once why not become a member £40 for 1, £72 for a couple, you then get half price tickets... you could then visit and support the railway..??

 

Agreed, but be prepared to be berated on here for only joining to get cheaper travel.

 

Not good reading, I'm afraid.

 

My feeling is that £200 for an annual pass is actually not too bad - assuming you would make use of it. The £50 for an annual pass (*) for the last two years was by comparison ridiculously cheap - again, assuming you made use of it.

The real issue though is two fold. Firstly £50 for a single day ticket is just too expensive for most days out. And secondly: the perception is of a massive hike in prices - at which point it doesn't matter if they are going from "too cheap" to "more reasonable", people will just see the increase.
Equally, on the one day ticket, essentially people are looking at it as "last year £49.50 got me an annual pass and this year it gets me one day - that's a pretty big hike". The NYMR seems to have managed the impossible feat of keeping fares for many people (those who would only ever have travelled on one day) the same and yet contrived to make it look like a massive price rise!

The most recent set of accounts on the Charity Commission website (for the 2023 year) state:

"In 2022 we piloted arrangements agreed with HMRC allowing visitors to link gift-aided contributions to their train ticket purchases. Building on that experience, gift aid contributions grew strongly in 2023 and our belief that the ‘annual pass’ model was the right one for the railway has been vindicated."

Given that only a year later the scheme has been dropped, one wonders if the directors still stand by that statement?

(*) Yes, I know, someone will be along soon to say it wasn't an annual pass, but actually "an opportunity to present the original ticket for a futher free ticket". Thomas Aquinas will be along in due course to discuss the subdivisions of a pinhead ...

Tom

 

For the layman here, are we saying that the £50 ticket allowed you to return for free once, or for unlimited times?