North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

I'm interested in the mention of taxation. If the business runs at a loss (and a substantial loss at that, before subsidies from a supporting charity or elsewhere are taken into account) what is taxable (besides VAT on incoming supplies, which ought to be recoverable)?

 

My personal view, and I emphasise that, is that some heritage railways do not have a viable future because they're fixated on what you decribe as the social club model. Any normal club depends to a large extent on the willingness of its members to pay subscriptions at a level that makes it financially viable. The trick the heritage movement has played successfully for many years is to persuade customers to pay enough to bridge the gap between membership income and the costs of operating a sustainable railway. That's the bit that's broken as costs have soared. If customers can't be persuaded to pay a lot more, and grants are now scarcer following introduction of the new subsisdy control regime, it suggests that members will have to increase their support substantially if they want their railways to survive.

 

The problem with "the ability to evolve and adapt to the current business environment in the hospitality sector" is that the management team on the NYMR seems to be short of any such ideas that might make a meaningful difference.

Sadly, unlikely, I think. The headcount is more likely to rise as disaffected volunteers come to appreciate more and more that they are not supporting a heritage railway, but a naked "business in the hospitality sector".

That raises a number of points, I think. First of all, surely such items are Trust assets and it is not within the Plc management team's remit to offer them for sale. Certain items have already gone - a 16T mineral wagon, that was deemed "beyond economical repair *(a an all-steel wagon, that surely isn't true) and at least one lorry load of carriage bogie parts. Interestingly, I wonder whether the same team have been looking at the two surplus, and relatively recently acquired, catering facilities - but perhaps, if they are being eyed as potential additional office space, maybe not.

I wonder how @Lineisclear is going to come up with ways of justifying all these developments - I hope it is to say that they are all untrue, as then we'll know they are. happening!

 

I think @Lineisclear refers to the increased levels of tax on employment, combined with increases in minimum wage, which have increased the costs of employing staff and are widely credited with reducing the supply of entry level jobs.

Where he and I disagree is over what that implies about how staffing should be achieved - but we don't need to go back round that loop again.

I agree. But I think that does reopen the vexed question of how the organisation should relate to members to maximise their willingness to donate time, money or goods to the organisation.

 

5 years or more ago I told the Watercressline Board that finding ways to make people “love” the railway was the single most important priority. Communication, including most importantly listening actively and reacting and providing feedback remain essential, and remain elusive for all but a few railways. Focus on this will be in my view what makes the difference between survival and oblivion.

 

I think many of us have been telling the NYMR this for years, but the message has fallen onto profoundly deaf ears!

 

I talk to many in Pickering, small business people, people in the various cafés and shops etc, and they all say one thing; the management are not good enough and the railway cannot improve until there's a change of people at the top.

 

If it lasts long enough......

Whitby Goth week.

A properly licensed Rocky Horror show train.

Actors in costume move up down the train acting out notable dialogue and singing songs to a prerecorded backing tracks (or even just recorded songs) and dancing.

It is obvious really.

Sawdust.

 

If anybody owns anything on the NYMR, you need to make sure it is clearly marked as your property and write with details and copies of any proof to the railway sent recorded delivery.

Sawdust.

 

That's good advice. I've already heard of items being 'listed' that are not the railways property to sell.

 

I know. It’s actually very difficult to create change in a heritage railway. Boards are frequently (often rightly) reluctant to be brave because the line between brave and broken is very very fine. Changing paid employees is very challenging because even if they are underperforming in the eyes of the volunteers and indeed boards, actually defining the underperformance measuring it objectively and being able to undertake a pip is very very difficult, not least I suspect because very few board members have ever tried to be railway managers and it is a job like no other.

 

That makes it sound like the receivers are on the way!

 

Well if things are as desperate as what Steve has been told, then I think it's inevitable.
Back in my day, all the assets belonged to the trust, so unless that's changed the SMT can't sell any assets without TB approval.

Sawdust.

 

It will not be the first time. Again, "professional managers" who don't have a clue about what has been collected and stored for spare parts seem to have been going around the NYMR for ages, selling off what they deem to be scrap without consulting whoever has collected them, and then complaining how long things take to be restored when new fittings have to be made to replace that "scrap". I just hope the Trust Board puts its (collective) foot down over what is earmarked to go - but I don't have much hope on either front....

 

VACANCY: Temporary Female Vocalist

REQUIREMENTS: Rotund physique essential

START DATE: Immediate

HOURS: Red Wednesdays, Pink Fridays and non-dining Tuesdays outside of school-holidays,

SALARY: Negotiable (with 10% discount plus a £1.50 booking fee). Best ask for cash.

APPLY TO: Acting Deputy Assistant Marketing Manager , NYMR, Park Street, Pickering, YO18 7AJ

 

On reflection, "social club" is probably not a 100% apposite term, as I doubt many social clubs have a commercial arm that earns on the order of 1M£ a year, which some heritage lines do. But it's a better starting mental model for what the typical heritage line is than "'ordinary' business".

Noel

 

@Lineisclear is fond of using his "social members club" analogy as it fits his personal narrative but I think many of us have realised that it is complete h*******t. In all the years it has been open the NYMR has never relied on the typical "village fete" activities, including passing the hat round, to keep it in business - although in its present day throes of desperation it is starting to: witness the sponsored bungee jump off Larpool viaduct. It has always been a commercial entity, subsidised by members, other supporters and grant awarding agencies. It's problem have been that it has started to lose the ability to market itself well and encourage the members and supporters to give more whilst staring hungrily at more grants. The sad common fact here is that success breeds success with all these funding sources, and the p*** p*** current management is giving none of them any encouragement to dig deeper into their pockets.

 

I wish NP had a button for 'I heartily approve of your post, but I'm very sad at the content'; "Like" might be taken to mean one likes what the post says, and so I can't bring myself to click it.

I cannot say that I'm terribly surprised at the goings-on reported in that post; something like that was inevitable. Well, we shall see what happens next.

Noel

 

I REALLY hope this is hearsay but sadly nothing about the current NYMR management doesn't give me hope that calling in Steptoe isn't: A. Happening and B. The sign of an organisation flailing to keep the lights on another day.

 

The more I read about the doom and gloom surrounding the NYMR, and by extension the future of some other heritage operations, the more I find it difficult to countenance in the light of the regular positive financial reports in the house magazine of my Alma Mater, the KWVR.
They regularly manage to finance major civil engineering and other infrastructure projects to both maintain their Estate and also improve their offering whilst remaining solvent.
There are of course several significant differences between the two operations, shorter line length, access to grants etc, but by way of balance they don’t have Whitby or holiday tourism.
Notably though they still boost a democratic governance structure and have minimal paid staff.