Winners and Losers in 2015

It looks like the Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Steam Railway are first out of the blocks this year: http://www.gwsr.com/news/latest-news/records-tumble-at-the-gwr---again.aspx
Basic comparisons - 2015 Santas 9,476 (around 9,300 in 2014) with 88,569 during year to 31st December 2015 (around 85,000 during 2014).
Well done, and a fitting tribute to the hard work of all their staff.

 

I made my first visit to the GWSR this year and had a good afternoon. Didn't have time to take in the extension to Laverton, but I'll definitely be back once Broadway opens.

 

In case it is of interest, previous comparisons:
NYMR - 2013 = C 330,000 and 2014 = Circa 335,000
Swanage - 2013 = 210,984 and 2014 = 216,267
Severn Valley - 2013 = C 211,000 and 2014 = 204,045
WSR - 2013 = 197,654 and 2014 = 195,212
NNR - 2013 = 158,700 and 2014 = 161,054
K&WVR - 2014 = 110,715
GWSR - 2014 = C 85,000
Lynton & Barnstaple - 2014 = C 46,000
Haven't found any published figures for Bluebell and other Heritage Railways.
No doubt Heritage Railways etc. may publish details in due course.

 

Wow! Considering the all of the railways destinations mueseums and the length of the line the Lynton & Barnstaple is doing brilliantly. It's 1 mile from nowhere to nowhere, admittedly through some very nice countryside, and has done very well!

 

Before getting too excited you need to check that these figures represent a like for like comparison - are they all visitor numbers or passenger journeys, as the two are calculated differently.

 

A very valid concern. Transport operators have often confused researchers by defining what to a customer is an outing as a mixture of journey numbers. A return trip on a railway will generally be two passenger journeys irrespective of whether a change of train has been involved but will count as more journeys if the passenger used split tickets. With many bus ticketing systems each leg of a journey will generally be counted so a return trip with a single change of bus each way could be 4 journeys etc. Further distortions occur where for example railways offer site or platform tickets in addition to travel tickets and I suspect the approaches to member and shareholder travel and assumptions about journeys made on rover tickets also vary greatly.

Does anybody actually provide a definitive list of visitor numbers, tickets sold and analysis of things like average train loadings, average visitor numbers per operating day or average spend per visitor across the sector?

Such data particularly when compared to visitor data for other attractions in an area might be enormously helpful in informing marketing and commercial managers decisions. Even the limited data already in this thread points towards how well lines in holiday destination areas perform although comparisons may be further distorted by some lines having significant one way coach party traffic.

 

The Swanage Railway carried 217,080 passengers in 2015, a new record; these are counted per ticket purchased (with the exception of a Family ticket, which counts as 4 people), so a return or Rover ticket still counts as 1 passenger.

This does not include passengers on mainline charters, unless they purchased a separate ticket for travel on the SR.

 

The NYMR figures have always impressed yet intrigued me.

Are they really well over 50% higher than the other grade 1 railways quoted here or are the numbers arrived at on a different basis?

 

Are complimentary tickets also included?

 

They are in a very very good spot for tourism so its very possible.

 

I'm sure we have this conversation every year! I'm fairly sure GWSR count ticket sales, although we do count passenger numbers as well.

 

Every railway has to submit this and other information to the ORR every year end on the same basis. This is collected by the HRA so the information is technically available. However, it is regarded as confidential by the HRA so such information is reliant on railways publishing it. The information asks for separate information on number of visitors, number of passengers carried and number of passenger journeys. In times past, the standard was always passenger journeys but I think that visitor numbers has more relevance to any heritage railways league table of who is the most popular. An interesting statistic also required by ORR/HRA and one that I've never seen published is number of passenger miles.

 

I have always understood that the NYMR effectively reports the numbers of individual tickets it sells (so an adult day rover counts as one ticket and so does a Grosmont-Goathland single, a family ticket counts as four ) but the final figures can end up skewed slightly if the family groups are larger, for example.

 

All I can say is that as a Swanage premier life member, I do not purchase a ticket, just show my pass, so my journey (s) are not counted. I do not know how many PLM's there are but there must be a few thousand passenger journeys that are not recorded.

 

As a Severn Valley Railway Gold Pass Holder, I (and my guests) just show my pass and we are not counted in the passenger numbers.

However, as a Life Member of the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society, I have to show my Membership Card there to obtain a ticket and thus I am counted.

 

North Norfolk Railway had another record year in 2015:
http://www.edp24.co.uk/business/tou...ures_were_record_breaking_last_year_1_4379855

 

Summary of passenger numbers for the 2015 Timetable Year would appear to be thus far:
NYMR - ??
SVR - ??
Swanage Railway - 217,080
WSR - 182,764
NNR - 165,908
ELR - Between 163,000 and 164,000
K&WVR - ??
GCR - Circa 100,000
SDR - Circa 96,400
GWSR - 88,569
Strathspey - Over 70,000

SVR Santa Specials were reported to be at a record number in 2015 which must put them well over 30,000 I would have thought.
MHR Santas carried 17,851 apparently.
GWSR Santas reached 9,476 as mentioned above.

EDIT - Changed period to read "2015 Timetable Year".

 

Officially, TTIs are supposed to note the number of passes seen on their return sheets but in practice it is sometimes hard to keep count.

 

The SVR figure will be till the end of the running season which for 2015 was 3rd January. The passengers numbers till the middle of the year were actually behind on budget but then September was good, October had 60163/46100 running which brought in a lot, November also good with Manor 50, and then a sell out santas with what seemed quite a good Festive season as well. So we shall see...

 

The GCR figures are very interesting, because they seem very low for a railway so close to many large population centres. It just goes to show that what appeals to the enthusiast does not necessarily appeal to the wider public. It will be interesting to see how their figures are affected by the NRM outstation, if they get it, because one would have thought that a working railway would have more appeal than a static museum, but if the railway by itself doesn't attract the wider public, will the outstation make much difference?