North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

70000 a no show 46100 it’s replacement according to this https://www.nymr.co.uk/news/steam-l...ace-britannia-for-february-half-term-services

 

Just some rambling thoughts about the new 'coffee-table' edition Moors Line. I totally agree with the comments made by Steve in the L&B thread. A triumph of marketing over heritage based on the less is more theory. Not denying the importance of gaining more volunteers but the information that most members look forward too is relegated to the back of the magazine and given short shrift at that! I believe the NYMR will alienate a large number of its long time members if the magazine continues on the present course.

Moors Line probably needed an update but not an assassination attempt. I would be interested to know the comparative cost of the old v new magazines? Sadly I will not be making any more donations to the NYMR.

 

Postage more for starters …more like a holiday brochure ,full of white space ,than a magazine giving members news from the line ….
Complete waste of money (paper ,postage and professional design fees ).
Concerning three hierarchy personnel don’t appear to know the difference between engines ,locomotives and trains ….

 

I’m wondering if the NYMR is going through the same sort of thing that happened with a railway I have connections with a few years ago…
It certainly seems that history seems to be repeating itself.

 

During the pandemic I joined the NYMR as a member literally because Moors Line reminded me of normality! Not currently a member partly because of the changes over the past few years but sad to hear the magazine has apparently changed so much.

 

The new Moors Line has certainly created uproar in Facebook groups. One poll saw over 200 votes for the old style over new.

 

I'm planning to pop in to the NYMR at the start of their season next month but for some reason, I can't find a timetable. Is it really not released yet or just hidden?

 

Not released yet. For a line that has a lot of paid staff and a marketing manager in charge, being able to find out when they're open is impossible.

 

The when is rather simple, it's on the website, "Our main 2024 season starts on 23 March to 3 November 2024. " what hasn't been published is the timetable and therefore the tickets. however I'm lead to believe it will be broadly similar to last year.

 

Not seen elsewhere, and behind a pay wall... - https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/her...-going-concern-after-financial-losses-4553345

 

Put "12ft.io/" in front of the web link to get access

 

Wow! I'll remember that trick - thanks!

 

Also available here: https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/oth...-losses/ar-BB1jOFTl?ocid=finance-verthp-feeds

 

Ouch!


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Well, they are not the only railway to make a loss in 2022. Welcome to the new reality.

 

Not that I'm running interference or bowing down to the NYMR but call me with the 2023 financials. I'm not going to make any judgements on 2024 from 2022 information.

 

But information like this, even if it related to previous years performance has the potential to impact on the 2024 world.
For example I do not know if the railway has loans from banks, or an overdraft facility, but that report may may a bank look less favourably or change the numbers.
Likewise some suppliers may fear not getting paid so would perhaps reduce credit terms or move to COD (which is now I guess Pay on Delivery).

It could even impact how far in advance people may want to pay for something like the dining services, as you would be a long way down a list of creditors if the worst happened.

It is more than just saying "well it is two years out of date".

 

Agreed, but we will have to wait a while before those are made available.

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I'd be interested to know just how far back in history you have to go to find that the coal bill for a railway as large as the NYMR was only £67,000! Even £308k sounds rather low to me, less than a thousand tons per year - I thought the NYMR used about double that? Have they had a big switchover to diesel - which in any case still has a fuel cost?

Perhaps more germane - and I am only going off the article, not reading the actual accounts: - "volunteer numbers have decreased by about 15%" from the report, and from the NYMR statement "we are incredibly fortunate to have a strong supporter base who are passionate about our long term survival". I'd be thinking quite deeply about "why have volunteer numbers gone down?" and "if we have passionate supporters, how do we maintain that passion?"

I'd suggest that a good place to start would be in ensuring that those supporters - and particularly the volunteers - feel that that the railway is being operated in a way that puts their concerns centre stage. Too much has been written (in the context of other railways) about a disconnect between member / volunteer wishes and the legal duties of trustees / directors. The legal position may well be that the legal duty of a charity is to operate in the public interest, but that doesn't mean there are no other stakeholders: for a business that is heavily reliant on volunteers, the loss of volunteers essentially means the end of the charity, which cannot possibly be in the public interest! So a slavish adherence to that sort of philosophy to the exclusion of member wishes is I would suggest damaging to the long-term interests of the underlying charity.

Tom