North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

That pattern is also a function of the infrastructure, and the Northern timetable that uses it.

 

I wouldn't disagree that Pickering is the gathering point for road-borne custom from the south, and I'm certainly not recomending retrenchment from it. I'm simply expressing what I fear about the railway becoming shorter on the basis it can't afford to maintain an 18 mile length from declining income and increasing borrowing.

"Nowhere to nowhere" as you put it is a little misleading. Goathland is a tourist attraction in it's own right and almost certainly the most visited village inside the National Park. Whitby is the main centre for tourist accomodation and would hopefully generate a traffic flow between the two.

As others have rightly said Pickering is a significant area for holiday accomodation and is a town I know and enjoy but, apart from the castle, the railway is the only show in town, It isn't a destination in the same way as Whitby or Scarborough.

Unless there is a significant rise in passenger revenue the NYMR is looking at a debt crisis and, much though I abhor the idea, it may be forced to cut it's activities to what it can afford to maintain.

 

It is but even if Northern were not there the only benefit would be more trains there during the day. The main flow will always be to the coast in the morning and back mid to late afternoon.
Many other lines have a similar issue even if they do not have the sea at one end.

 

We have done NYMR traffic flow to death much earlier in this thread. There is a demand for people to go from Whitby to Goathland and Pickering but the T/T doesn't exactly allow it becaue of the need to fit in with Northern trains. The only one that really works for those wanting to travel from Whitby is the 10.00 service if they want to spend time at their destination and perhaps have some lunch.

I'm not sure that the comparison with Viv Nicholson (Spend, spend, spend) is valid. In recent years the railway has not spent because it didn't have the money and is now suffering because of this. The bottom line loss has been because it had no option but to spend, unlike Viv, who spent because she could.

 

I hope that the forthcoming NYMR Thomas event is a success and brings in the much needed cash. However, the bookings so far aren't looking great. The event is being run over eight days and there are 11 Thomas trains each day for people to book a seat on. Each train has a capacity of 200 seats so that gives a capacity of 2200 seats a day; 17,600 in total. I've been keeping my eye on the Bank Holiday Monday bookings and, if the seat allocation is correct, they have so far sold 153 seats on that day. I checked the Friday a couple of days ago and it had less bookings than the Monday, which I'd expect.
With four weeks to go, that seems to be only a bit more than 5% of seats sold. At the recent HRA conference we were told that people are tending to look early at what they are going to do on their days out but are actually booking at the last minute. I hope this is very much the case with this event but 95% is a lot of tickets to sell in the next four weeks.

 

That’s what I question, as if the timetable allowed, a much more attractive offering could be provided.

 

Surely the independent competent person would safeguard that issue whether that was an individual or contractor?

 

I know the word 'Beeching' is a bad word around here; the basic concept (which was in part, as near as I can assess, that it was 'wrong', morally, to have highly-used lines subsidize little-used rural lines) may well have been problematic. However, I think they were fairly accurate about assessing which line were not viable as independent business units. Beeching cut the Whitby and Pickering Railway because it wasn't, then, a viable business unit. Can a line which is "a Park and Ride service for Whitby" now be viable as an independent business unit?

Noel

 

The official date for reopening of the bridge is currently the 23rd May. However, as that coincides with the start of the Thomas week, which effectively splits the railway in half, Pickering-Whitby through services won't be starting until Monday 1st June. If you want to do the full length of the line during Thomas week, you'd have to buy a Thomas ticket, which might get you to Goathland (no guarantee as it's on the Railcar with limited seating) and then a Goathland -Whitby ticket. As I understand it, the Thomas operation is an event only open to Thomas ticket holders so no one else can access Pickering, hence no through service. The Railcar is an add-on to the event only available to Thomas ticket holders.
Ticket sales for the Bank holiday Monday have now reached 152, looking at the booking page.

Edit: My mistake; the Railcar is only going a far as Levisham so you'll have to walk between there and Goathland!

 

I don't think any trains are running between Levisham and Whitby during the Thomas event.