North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

You aren't wrong in your conclusions but you mention complications whereas I think the situation is much more straightforward. My thoughts may not be as nuanced as yours but in basic terms the reserves are depleted and a mainline locomotive has been sold to plug the financial gap. Every loco the NYMR posesses are routinely "thrashed" on Goathland Bank but, as you point out, 76079 was very suitable for Whitby duties..

Lack of management foresight and planning? - You are absoloutely right but it is far worse than that.

The bottom line is in the red and it becomes more crimson with every season. Reserves are low and the infrastructure crumbling. Dickens expressed it very well "Annual income 20 pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds, 19 shillings and 6 pence, result happiness. Annual income 20 pounds, annual expenditure 20 pounds and 6 pence, result misery".

Hopefully Bean Counter recently seen back in the parish will be along with a more professional assessment.

 

I think the situation is more straightforward and a lot worse, don’t forget that the NYMR stated that the propping of the bridge would cost £250k and from what I have now seen the cost of propping bridges 35 and 42 is now over £750k.
The work to repair 42 is £800k with no estimate of what it will cost to remove the propping and clean up the riverbed. I have no idea what the repair of 35 will cost but if I take a guesstimate of £150k to remove the propping on 42 (this was the cost of the crane hire alone) and £100k to repair 35 then this whole exercise will have cost £1.8m and as far as im concerned that really is terminal for the NYMR. Then there’s the work needed on 37 and 39…
That money raised so far is going nowhere near paying for this work and the railway does not have that kind of money in reserve.
Questions have to be asked about how this propping operation has cost three times the estimate, how the propping has cost more than the estimated full repair and the big one which is did this really need doing at all and when the very inconvenient but not fully unexpected truth comes out it is time for the entire shower at the top to face the consequences of what they have done to this Charity.

 

Again, I agree with most of what you say - but it will require someone to stand up at the AGM and ask, forcefully, the awkward questions; not me, unfortunately, as I've terminated my membership in protest.

Is bridge 35 the one that has recently been propped up using Acroprops? If it is, I haven't seen an estimated cost of repairs, but I can't think of any significant bridges south of Goathland, and I'd have thought work necessary on them would be relatively minor and well within the scope of the volunteer + paid PWay staff please explain why it's more than that!

I think the key to it all really depends on how the rest of this season goes, and that in turn will depend on the seemingly large marketing staff of 17 really earning their pay. If they cannot do that, it would be very hard to justify retaining their services, along with the CEO who should be cracking the whip, and the FD who is unlikely to have much in the way of finance to direct..... Those measures might well provide some much-needed finance.

 

Can I just quickly ask, does the NYMR actually have 17 marketing staff? I know we joke about the amount of resources used for marketing, but is the seventeen figure a joke or is it actually true? I cannot by any stretch of the imagination comprehend that a single attraction that is not a chain could need that many people to do marketing? I feel one should suffice, maybe two or at a stretch three. You obviously need other people to handle bookings, events, education etc. But 17 for marketing? With that many people it's hard to understand the service reductions due to lack of demand. If 17 staff working 8 hours a day 5 days a week then that's 680 marketing hours per week. Round that down to 500. Say working 40 weeks a year. 20,000 marketing hours per year. If one person can produce a piece of publicity material every 2 hours - 10,000 pieces of publicity material per year. If each piece is seen by 100 people - 1 million people see NYMR publicity per year. Divided by ~200 operating days, that's 5,000 people per day. A 7 coach train seats maybe 400 people. Granted not everyone who sees publicity will pay the line a visit, but there are other things I haven't accounted for in the other direction. Repeat visitors? Some marketing material will be seen by more than 100 people? So maybe we need some more marketing staff to boost visitor numbers?