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35B's Recent Activity

  1. 35B liked paul1609's post in the thread West Somerset Railway General Discussion.

    Gift Aid per se is a bargain for the taxpayer. Removing it would bankrupt organisations like National Trust, RNLI, Air ambulances and many others imagine the cost of providing those services as Government Agencies. Most politicians aren't that...

    Oct 14, 2026 at 6:13 PM

  2. 35B replied to the thread West Somerset Railway General Discussion.

    As previously said, the devil is in the detail

    Oct 14, 2026 at 10:52 AM

  3. 35B replied to the thread West Somerset Railway General Discussion.

    I think Gift Aid is more secure than you allow - if it were abolished, there’d be a massive funding gap for charities.

    Oct 14, 2026 at 10:35 AM

  4. 35B liked cksteam's post in the thread West Somerset Railway General Discussion.

    Whilst the NYMR example is probably the most documented on this forum I'm not sure how good an example it is, except for how not to do it. If for example they had not tried the 12 month free pass I suspect they would have had more success than...

    Oct 14, 2026 at 10:34 AM

  5. 35B liked Robin Moira White's post in the thread West Somerset Railway General Discussion.

    I have followed the discussion with interest. Some interesting and sensible comments. If you reduce my assumptions to 50% 50% and 50%, the WSR would still get an extra £118,750 on the P/L and cash in hand. It will be known that I am acting as...

    Oct 14, 2026 at 10:10 AM

  6. 35B replied to the thread West Somerset Railway General Discussion.

    My instinctive reaction is that the picture is more complicated than appears, and that the take-up also relates to issues over the absolute level of fares, and the value of the tokens given with the uplift*. * - this is not about the financial...

    Oct 13, 2026 at 9:56 PM

  7. 35B replied to the thread West Somerset Railway General Discussion.

    I'd focus on the simple bit discussed ad nauseam previously about getting the Gift Aid uplift on donations. Fares are a different issue, and should be considered downstream.

    Oct 13, 2026 at 8:58 PM

  8. 35B liked Jamessquared's post in the thread West Somerset Railway General Discussion.

    That's where we might diverge in view. I'm not so sure it is as clear-cut as that, as a reading of the NYMR thread (especially a couple of years back) may show. The headline looks good, but model 1 (free return within a year) appears to have had...

    Oct 13, 2026 at 8:55 PM

  9. 35B replied to the thread West Somerset Railway General Discussion.

    Just as this thread used to be recommended reading for discussions of principle, I suggest the NYMR thread occupies that (sad) place now. The message that comes out from that is that that success is borne of lots of little things, not a few big...

    Oct 13, 2026 at 6:19 PM

  10. 35B liked Jamessquared's post in the thread West Somerset Railway General Discussion.

    Oh, I don't disagree, I think some kind of wholesale structural reform on the WSR would bring many benefits - I just caution against throwing all eggs into the Gift Aid basket! The other benefits may in the long term prove rather more beneficial....

    Oct 13, 2026 at 6:17 PM

  11. 35B replied to the thread West Somerset Railway General Discussion.

    That assumes that you don't get a compensating reduction in demand as the perceived prices rise (and the NYMR example appears to suggest in the absence of detailed figures that the "giveaway" component trashed cashflow later in the season).

    Oct 13, 2026 at 5:59 PM
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