North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

I saw they had updated the 'news' section with some more details (£130k milestone for Bridge 42 restoration project).

I got a bit confused with the paragraph 'Designs for the propping solution are now complete, and work is underway to secure a specialist delivery partner to support the required river works. Foundation details will shortly be submitted to the relevant river authority for approval.'

If they haven't got approval yet, and haven't got a contractor (surely they would be on a decent lead time?), then how can they be confident of running trains over that bridge in six weeks? For a project of this scale it just all seems a bit rushed to me, considering it was known it was coming for such a long time.

 

Also living in greater london, I am not. It's easy to forget just how good transport in London and surroundings are. Even those who want to go to the NYMR by rail will be lmited by route and by timings.
Also, it was an eye-opener to me when we had our son, just how less easy trips are with a small child, in terms if kit needed, attention span, and need for flexibility.

 

For the NYMR in particular I agree that access by train from elsewhere is not very convenient. But the post to which I was responding (#9624) related specifically to "the southeast heritage railways", and I do find it surprising that those I mentioned (Bluebell and Spa Valley) don't get a lot of custom via their main line connections.

 

I'm more concerned about taking payments for services early in the season given that position. Aside from the obvious ethical issue around taking payments for services that they can't be sure of being able to provide, I'd also see a significant financial risk against having to pay out consequential costs .

 

Kings Cross to Pickering by train to York then bus is 3:28 hours.
Kings Cross to Grosmont by train is 4:45 hours.

 

I think it is too far off topic to discuss the passenger numbers of specific railways in this thread and there are senior members of both railways you mention on here who would have more up to date figures than me but generally passengers of heritage railways are family groups and or coach parties with enthusiasts making up a very small percentage (single figures, in some cases very small single figures). The family groups are at most railways very unlikely to arrive by public transport. From the railways in the Southeast all of whom shared figures with me the biggest percentage of passengers that arrived at a network rail interchange was Smallbrook junction at 8% of the IOWSR figures. I can see that would be higher at places like Keighley and Kidderminster where there is a major station but I rather doubt it is for the NYMR.

 

Is that not the usual term for supporting a bridge needing repair?

 

I think you are discounting a couple of factors.

One is the extent to which even a short journey by car to get to a railway station is a strong pull towards "let's drive all the way" - particularly for families. If you have to go even a couple of miles by car to get to a station, it becomes far more faff to change onto a train than just driving the whole way. And even in South East England - let alone anywhere in the north - many people live more than two miles from their nearest train station (or perhaps closer, but along awkward walking routes with children).

The other is the extent to which rail routes radiate out from London, and anything not on those radial arteries is disproportionately hard. To take the Bluebell example - if you want to visit from London, or even north of London, it is comparatively easy. But try visiting by train from, say, Lewes. It's only 9 miles away, but to get there by train you have to go most of the way to Brighton and then as far north as East Croydon, before changing train and coming almost as far south again. That 9 mile trip takes the best part of 2 hours by rail: you could almost walk it as quickly! (It's almost as if we need a rail link from Lewes to Sheffield Park and points north. Oh, hang on a minute ...)

Living in London gives a very false impression of how easy rail travel is anywhere else in the country. I'm not surprised that @paul1609 found what he did about low numbers of visitors using mainline connections.

Tom

 

And taking the Bluebell example, from my childhood home in SW London to East Grinstead is a 3/4 mile walk, followed by two train journeys. It may be quicker than driving, but it's not easier - and then there are connections to think about. The car is quite tempting.

 

I think that you have also got to consider where the visitors will be coming from. In the NYMR's case, most will be on day trips from Yorkshire or the surrounding area. My perception of those visitors is that their normal and preferred means of transport will be by car as, unlike London and the south east, this is the norm, even for the single traveller. The arterial roads in the north are, with a few exceptions, generally pretty good and enable you to easily get from A to B in good time. Certainly I expect my 41 mile journey from home to Pickering to take no longer than 45 minutes or 50 minutes if I go on either of the two alternative but longer routes I sometimes consider at busy times. That contrasts with my experience of roads in the south where even 'A' trunk roads tend to be relatively slow. Last year I drove from Sheffield Park to Rolvenden in the evening and the 35 mile journey took me over 1¼ hours on what were laughingly classed as 'A' roads. Even though I love railways and have a bus pass, I rarely use public transport as a means of travelling; it only wins if I think car parking is going to be a major problem.at the destination, which it generally isn't. I don't thnk I'm unsual.

Edited because my 1¼ hour journey somehow got shortened to ¼ hours. I don't drive that fast, honest.

 

The Bluebell timetable generally isn't conducive to a day out by train from London either, which doesn't help. We looked at going next week, and it's an easy journey with just the one change at East Croydon, but it's not worth it for only 3 1/2 hours at the railway.

 

Agreed. Connections at EG are not ideal.

 

I think the eyebrow raiser felt that saying they were ‘propping up” the bridge on a public Facebook page might not have been the most reassuring term to use to the uninitiated?
Maybe ‘reinforced’ ‘strengthened’ or similar might have sounded better?

 

Agree its not reassuring. I suspect they have said the the same in a press release as Yorkmix ran a story on it yestersday - the first comment in the Facebook version literally said 'Well I'll be avoiding that for starters'. I posted in reply that despite the wording the repair would be safe and subject to the relevant inspections and standards. I'd have expected better from the railway though - they need to sound reassuring and in control.

 

I should hope it did too! To do 35 miles in under 1/4 of an hour, you'd need to average 140 mph...!

 

Now edited!

 

That's if the bus turns up.

 

I was going to propose you for honorary membership of Romney Marsh Boy Racers

 

Well from looking at this it is a term used by the industry. What would you suggest is the correct way to describe it.
https://www.mabeyhire.co.uk/application/bridging-and-site-access/bridge-strengthening/

 

I bet City of Truro could manage that between Goathland and Grosmont

Tom