North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

It's hard to be prescriptive about numbers, because the accounts quote headcount, not FTEs. However, the headcount actually fell slightly from 2018 - 2022 (years of accounts, i.e. representing figures from previous years) but then grew rapidly in 2023 and 2024. That growth is largely driven by an increase in sales and catering staff. Quite possibly many of those are seasonal.

Catering income has gone from £1.3m to £2.1m over the time span represented, but with I suspect a large increase in headcount to deliver it. Some of that rise would simply be down to inflation (i.e. selling the same number of meals, but getting more income) - the BoE inflation calculator suggests that £1.3m at 2017 prices would be £1.65m at 2023 prices. So undoubtedly catering has increased its volumes over and above inflation, but looks to be using more staff to achieve that.



Tom

 

I think there was an increase in Moorlander services in recent years.

Jon

 

Thanks to @Jamessquared I think picture starts to emerge.

- inflation has driven costs up since covid, 20%+ is what we all suffer
- overall the railway is employing more people presumably to cover for lost volunteers to some extent
- only catering has grown faster than inflation

It strikes me that the drivers of the situation are primarily external. Whether management are making the best choices is a matter of debate, and whilst there will always be choices and good and bad outcomes, clearly they aren’t really taking everyone with them. It doesn’t look likely they can trade out of this situation without some more significant changes, but I would suggest we need another year before drastic action because this year is shaping up to be the first economically “fairly normal” year since covid.

 

Would not disagree with your logic. What I am confused about is the many comments on here about more use of volunteers in lieu of paid staff.
Does the NYMR unlike most Heritage Lines or volunteer organisations have some "magic mine of volunteers" waiting to take over these paid roles.

Picking up on the inflation point from @Jamessquared, and purely because I have been scanning some images from a 2000 photo charter which I think was £30, but lets say £40. According to that BoE calculator that would be £75.79. Not many charters 9(ny?) floating around at that price, which emphasises the costs lines face now compared to then.

 

Good work there, @Jamessquared What might be illuminating would be similar explorations of the data for other lines over the same period, with the obvious disclaimers about comparing apples and oranges etc etc

 

That seems fair. I think there are then significant questions about the income line for travel, and how it has been affected by the varying strategies around use of Gift Aid.

I’d also be interested in the response to my question about accounting policy for grants, as I remain concerned that performance was flattered by declaring income on receipt of cash, rather than deferring it to match expenditure.

If I’m right, that will both have overstated income (and profits) at the time, and overstate costs (and losses) later.

 

Another illuminating response!

 

I’d want an accountant to comment, as that was categorically not what happened where I was involved in an appeal.

 

44806 on the Moorlander diner service today without diesel assistance.

 

The charity Sorp sets out the rules:

It depends on what conditions are applied to the grant or other source of the income. If the money was given to the charity on condition that a certain activity takes place then there can be deferment but the link must be clearly set down. Thus if I give money to a loco owning charity that must only be used to repaint the loco in sky-blue pink and nothing else the income should be deferred until the costs of doing so is painting it are recognised. If I donate money to help with the restoration of a loco by tossing money into a collection tin, it shouldn't be deferred.

 

It’s a not uncommon effect. Personally I think the way in which charity accounts are presented doesn’t achieve the stated aim of aiding an understanding of the health of the organisation. I suspect that part of the problem is the rules were centred around other types of charity than heritage railways.

What would be illuminating (but quite reasonably not going to be shared) would be the management accounts.

 

Try church accounts...

Thank you, and my thoughts were aligned to the conditions that I'd understood were tied to the YMJ funding.

 

I have. Didn’t like them much either!

 

Just wait till you get to Total Return accounting...

 

It’s usual on large grants for it to be trickle fed in line with expenditure in which case I’d expect both to occur in roughly the same time period. I certainly wouldn’t expect (say) a £2m grant to be simply handed over as one lump sum and thus appear as such on the income side. However, I’m not an accountant, just someone who has administered large HLF grants.