North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

I'm not the greatest at getting info online, but it seems that there is a 2025 timetable somewhere for the NYMR; there has been mention of it not running on Thursdays or Fridays, and i read the fare system has changed. I can't find it from going to their website. can anyone help, please?

 

Go onto the website, select menu and then timetable wheee you can get train times. There’s no detail on fares, yet.

 

Menu>Visit>timetable if on mobile.

 

Thank you.

 

Thank you.

 

But presumably the two days should be consecutive? If so, it is Mon/Tue vs Thu/Fri. What proportion of traffic is people on a week's holiday? I would have guessed that for that cohort, Mon/Tue would be prime days for a day out on the train.

 

Not surprised. The website is one of the more useless examples of heritage railways in general many of which are very poor . I was once told by someone who knew that the three questions a website has to answer are "where, when and how much?" Then they are not opening until the end of March .....

 

As someone with 30 years (yikes! has it really been that long!) experience of running websites for heritage railways in one form or another, YES. Anything else is very nice but those 3 are the must haves, and should therefore be the easiest to find (There are some railways/websites where they are somewhat hidden!). I would add a 4th, that being a clear introduction to the railway (so many seem to assume that visitors already know enough about them that they don't need to explain what 'the show' is all about).

 

Also, when you visit NYMR.co.uK you ought to see the 2025 opening season announcement, press the “read more” button brings you here.
https://www.nymr.co.uk/News/2025-season-opening-announcement
This details the operating days plus gift aid proposals for 2025 (10% donation on standard fares with a 15% thank you voucher) and a link to the forthcoming 2025 timetable. It also highlights a 10% discount if booked online 4 days in advance.

 

Of course it is only an own goal for those that had one in 2024.
If I was not a member on here I would not have had a clue that there was the option of an annual pass at any price, and hence would not at all feel disadvantaged this year. I wonder how many turning up this year would even know?
I once looked at becoming a member just to have a couple of trips during a Yorkshire holiday as I think back then members paid half price.
And although it is probably the highest fare on any Heritage Line it is not that far out of kilter with others really. I remember back in 2009 thinking the fare was way more than I had paid elsewhere.

 

I was meaning that the 2024 al- line pass was an own goal for the railway. The very fact that it is not being continued sends out the message to me (and no doubt, others) that it has been a significant failure, probably costing more in lost revenue than the Gift Aid it has brought in. Of course, without any valid statistics to show the truth, it is all speculation but the NYMR hierarchy remains a secret society.

 

I draw no such conclusion in the absence of figures. My surprise when it was introduced was that NYMR had opted for something so generous, when the previous tenor of policy had been to count the "cost" of concessions as though customers would have paid full whack otherwise. My speculation is that this faction have regained the upper hand, and that the focus is on "lost" income, measured simplistically as repeat visits * fare.

 

No conclusion drawn, simply speculation on my part.

 

For several years ,NYMR ,have ,it appears ,had an annual change in ticketing policy of varying levels of dubiousness .
First we had the second year of prebook nonsense abandoned by others all except a couple of NG lines ,then we had the sell them cheap ,stack them high repeat free ticket policy ,now we have the pay for a drinks voucher .
For some reason very few of these ideas have been copied elsewhere .
I wonder what 2026’s policy will be ?

Meanwhile ,without the lottery grants and various benefactors such as Mr Wonga and Mr Best the line would have long since died and the SMT redundant.

Each season NYMR appears to start the season with a smaller fleet than the previous one ,and it reduces over the season .Not sure they can afford to lose more coaches and let’s hope the black 5s ,92134 and 80136 (with its dubious axle ),can see out another season .
Is there a sweepstake for how long the NER railcar will survive when introduced to the Levisham -Goathland section ?

 

As one of the engineers in the sheds, there is only so much we can do with the little team of fitters and related other personnel on shed (plant, machining, boiler shop)
926 has been steamed this week and tested ready for next week, 80136 and 44806 are being steamed Friday as spare engines should we need one. The Autocar and it's carriage flew up the hill today on its test run.
The other engines are progressing nicely and will be ready for the start of the season, or just after.
Help is always appreciated on shed to get them back in traffic quicker

 

No dig at the TMD ,I know you suffered in the round of redundancies last year ..already involved at two other lines and four locos (and about to add a third line ),sorry .

 

Each gift aid donation brings an additional
£12.50 to the railway.
Therefore £400k in gift aid income comes from 32,000 ticket sales.
I would have thought there would be more gift-aided tickets than that.

80,000 tickets with GA would bring in an additional £1M.

If income from GA is £400,000, that's a significant disappointment.

 

Totally disagree. I think it was courageous of the NYMR venturing the 2024 all line pass in order to secure £400,000 gift aid, with the lost revenue (from returnees) being hopefully balanced by a mixture of
- some returnees would never have made a return visit without the annual pass
- some passengers paid the full £49.50 fare in the first instance rather than a discounted fare (eg local residents and even some RST holders)
- passengers who only travelled in the first place because of the annual pass offer
- a slight uptick in secondary spend (I say “slight” as I would expect the major benefactors of secondary spend would be the local businesses off the railway eg Whitby fish and chip shops)

Equally I recognise it would be difficult persuing the model on a 5 day railway given that 2024 peak services (from observation) were running comfortably full but with a not inconsiderable number of annual pass returnees (and attendant children).

 

I think £400k gift aid is a significant success, but not enough to match the rising costs.

 

At least it shows the NYMR are trying to be innovative!

pre booking wasn’t nonsense and was introduced post covid as a way of getting the railway back up and running whilst maintaining separation between passengers on the train. One advantage was it also guaranteed a seat whilst obviating the need for queuing at Whitby. However, it did reduce flexibility for some passengers, particularly those travelling on the 9.20 ex Pickering wanting to return on the 17.10 ex Whitby.

Equally I disagree the annual pass was a dubious idea for the 2023 and 2024 season when operating as a 7 day railway as a method of securing £400k of gift aid.

But equally I recognise that persuing a 12 month annual pass model to secure gift aid won’t work on a 5 railway as the NYMR hasn’t infinite carrying capacity .

Rather than knocking the NYMR it ought to be applauded as it looks to balance its books.