North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

Looks promising start to the season for day 1

All diesel on EVL 31128

37264 replaced 80136 (1235), 80136 replaced 5428 (1330), 47077 replaces 80136 (1640), assuming 80136 instead of 5428 (1745).

 

I hear you both, I’m just aware that this is not an area designed with mass car transit in mind, and where there’s ready access from the centre of London by public transport, it’s a bit much to suggest visitors arriving by public transport should subsidise those who don’t, through higher ticket prices, in my mind.

Simon

 

I nearly posted this on a different thread last week, but The Jacobite seems a prime example of this sort of thing.
Apparently WCRC choice of Mk2's impacted the local community yet I did not hear anywhere that those same business folks were prepared to fund CSL on a bunch of Mk1's.
Also down here all I ever hear from my wife's non railway enthusiast friend is how expensive it is & is how local residents should have a fare no more than £5.

 

That is, anecdotally, what is stated a lot about the local response to the SVR's 2007 landslip, and it would be interesting to gauge the views of businesses in Bridgnorth this summer with the railway unable to reach them. I doubt however that there is enough near to Levisham, Goathland or Grosmont to provide sufficient influence to the railway.

Sent from my SM-S926B using Tapatalk

 

I agree, particularly for an attraction in London, even on the outskirts like Hampton Court. I happened to be at a wedding next door to Hampton Court at the weekend (which thankfully came with free parking) and I am not surprised that they have policy on parking designed to encourage public transport usage, even though getting the train there is not that easy.

Sent from my SM-S926B using Tapatalk

 

Things appear lightly loaded today. I counted just six people on the 1615 Pickering departure.

 

There are lots of things that might be tried. The key objective is to get more people through the gate, and send them home delighted they came. You of course have to be careful not to be seen as untrustworthy where price is concerned. That leaves lots of opportunities though. Like the timetables we usually operate we are all a bit guilty of pricing like a transport operation not a visitor attraction - of course the Moors is a transport operation, so it has a different challenge, how to viably not be one of it is to survive.

 

More of the same today - instead of three steam and one diesel, it's one steam and three diesel. 80136, 31128, 37264 and 47077 listed on the website.

 

Path for Bahamas presumably
edit Now this afternoon
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:69307/2025-04-01/detailed

 

I am hoping that this is an April 1st wind up. The actual roster is still showing as yesterday. I don't hold out much hope, though, as the Cl.37 is sat in pl.3

Edit: Just checked and it is mainly diesel. 80136 on the 09.20 and the diner. 5428 planned to take the last train back to Pickering.

 

5428 currently sat in platform 4 on the webcam, so may end up taking an earlier train?

EDIT: Its now on the front of the 13:30 service to Pickering.

 

Plus me! The 16.15 is always lightly loaded, basically returning back to Grosmont ready for the next day’s diagram (9.15 to Whitby)

 

It is also early in the year and whilst sunny still quite cool in the wind. The issue is how does any heritage line get bums on seats? I walked past the 15:20 service here earlier about 5 minutes before departure coming back from the surgery past a virtually deserted train. Most of the year that is one of the more heavily loaded services.

 

Could be a familiar sight given the dry forecast for the first part of April, plus following on from a dry March.

 

Getting marginally better. 80136 on the lunchtime diner, 5428 doing 1 1/2 round trips from Pickering, 31128 doing the Whitbys, 37264 and 47077 doing everything else.

 

I guess that it makes sense to have diesel on the last two trains to Pickering so that you dont have a couple of steam locos stabled out there until the service resumes on Saturday. I can see this being the norm (diesel for the last two in on Wed. and the first two out on Sat) for the five day running this season.

Peter

 

The timetables on the NYMR Diesel webpage certainly show this to be the case for a Wed/Sat - Timetable.

 

There’s not a lot of incentive there for steam footplate crew, especially firemen who are going to do little else that tie on and off. One of the reasons why I gave up was because I didn’t want to spend my day on diesels. Perhaps in an emergency but not when planned

 

Are the NYMR short of active steam locos at the moment? Is that why it’s mostly diesel?
I have to say it would put me off. I can understand the odd diagram but if all public services were diesel I’d choose to wait for another day.

 

I've commented on this subject on WNXX, however seeing the lively discussion here just wanted to add my two penn'orth.

Talking of paid staff... Whoever is being paid for the NYMR's marketing and/or PR clearly needs to have some serious questions asked of them, because there's a lot of negative publicity about this and, from what I can see, no public attempt whatsoever by the railway to address it.

What is immeasurably worse IMO (as a veteran of 30 years in high end, multinational marketing and PR) is that emails to the railway about it are being responded to with a lengthy, copy-and-paste load of corporate PR flannel. My partner and I both wrote very different (polite) emails to the railway and both received exactly the same response, word for word.

Hiding behind copy-and-paste and not engaging with people is sheer corporate cowardice. Making customers feel like their views don't matter by merely copying and pasting the party line does not reflect well on the NYMR at all.

Of course we recognise that the railway's primary market is the family £ (as it is for every preserved railway), that the previous annual pass was extremely good value for money and that the cost had to rise. But not everyone who visits the NYMR wants to join the bucket & spade brigade for an ice cream and candyfloss-smeared £50/£180 each.

If the railway had the imagination to offer a day rover at, say, £30-£35 and an annual pass around the £100-£110 mark for Pickering - Grosmont only, we would have happily shelled out for an annual pass for the times (plural) we'll visit the area this year. As it is, we'll not be using the railway at all (plus corresponding catering/souvenir spend), because it's too much to pay for a long stretch of the line (Grosmont to Whitby) which we will never travel over.

There is still the opportunity for the NYMR to mount a positive PR coup by retrospectively offering this sort of option and framing it as "We listened to our customers and..." (you can thank me later and put the cheque in the post), but I simply don't think the railway has the imagination to do it.

In the face of what was so obviously going to be an unpopular decision, what the NYMR needs right now is people in marketing and PR with the wit and courage to face the railway's detractors, engage with them and and mount a charm offensive. Not hiding behind the battlements and firing exactly the same piece of corporate flannel to all and sundry.

Seriously, have a word...