North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

25th April was the date posted on Wednesday (5 days ago).
Second answer on a postcard.

 

One possible reduction for a registered charity is saving the VAT. I've just googled that and found this: https://truemanbrown.co.uk/charities-and-vat-building-projects-guide/
But if that is what they're referring to, it should be 20% of the basic cost before VAT, so 25% of the gross figure.

 

As it says in the statement, season was meant to start 28th March but Whitby running won't be until 25th April at the earliest. If they haven't appointed a contractor yet, I'm guessing that date will get pushed back.

How are bridge props constructed? I assume you can't simply pop down to BridgeProps'R'Us and get what you need, and there'll need to be some sort of customising to fit? Maybe that's why the Thomas event is being held at Pickering, in case the line hasn't reopened by then.

 

That sounds like one of the better decisions I've seen from NYMR in recent times.

As for reopening through Grosmont, I'm not convinced on any dates until contracts are let and any required permits are in hand.

 

As a business, they reclaim the vat in any case. It’s only the end user (you and me) that can’t reclaim the vat. Or a small trader that isn’t vat registered.

 

Church chair of finance here. Charities do not get to reclaim VAT on repairs because they are charities - as @Steve says, any reclaim is associated with the cost of VAT being "Input VAT" which they can reclaim against what they sell that has had VAT charged on it.

 

I always wonder about anyone who feels the need to say 'Being honest'. Being a trusting soul I would usually assume that anyway. To me if they need to state that, then does it imply that sometimes they might not be?

PS. The wife often starts a sentence with 'Being totally honest. . .' too. Which leads me to sometimes ask if she is being totally honest when she doesn't start with that.

 

Thank you ever so much for letting me know that you couldn't make the numbers work either, so I haven't gone (even further :--) mad (OK, OK, maybe that's a stretch on what you've accomplished :--)!

If someone does know the correct numbers (including the issue that @5944 raised). please forward them, and release us from our misery!

It is with no ill will (really!) that I observe that I understand what may already be obvious to many, which is why the NYMR is having issues. (For one, don't they have the wit to have important communications with the public proof-read?)

Noel

 

Agreed my wife is better at maths than me.

Sent from my SM-A556B using Tapatalk

 

I hope she doesn’t read Nat Pres.

 

I think that even Chris Price had started losing the plot by the time he left - take his summary removal of the Levisham volunteers, for example - but, really, the rot started when John Bailey became Trust Chairman, with his obsession with diminishing the input of the volunteers and increasing the level and influence (or power) of the "professional" management. He shrank the Trust Board dramatically, made it almost impossible for volunteers to get elected onto it by setting " candidacy selection criteria" that eliminated most with practical railway - or even volunteering - and replaced them with "business professionals" with no real clue or connection to the operation of the railway. Basically, Bailey scrapped and/or drove away most of the institutional knowledge that had accumulated over the years. I could go on, but I think that the point has been made. We are now left with a CEO whose background is in marketing, but who apparently doesn't even bother to proofread press releases, or ensure that timetables that are issued are error free. It's a sad state of affairs for those of us who remember when the railway was run by competent people who understood that the NYMR was a heritage railway hat happened to be a tourist attraction, not a tourist attraction that uses steam engines.

 

I wouldn't expect a CEO to proof read press releases, or check timetables. Those are jobs for marketing and operating people. A CEO has to deal with the global, not the minutiae.

 

CEO is a misnomer. General Manager is more apt. In such a small organisation as NYMR, I would expect the GM to check timetables.
I'm sure Philip Benham checked them.

Someone skilled in railway operations management should be GM. It is a railway, after all.

 

Senior managers also need to be able to dip into the detail.

 

Issuing a timetable, on which the railway's income depends so heavily, seems to me to be a detail worthy of the CEO's (or GM's) attention. I'm sorry to have to keep saying it, but I don't think this CEO is sufficiently competent. If she had a conscience she'd be questioning her own ability.

 

I don't think it matters what you call them, but this is another mistake attributable to John Bailey's opinion that the NYMR is a medium size business which, really, it isn't. It's actually quite a small, but very top heavy with employees, business. The change in title purely came about to massage Chris Price's ego..

 

The 20% discount... could perhaps be on one element of the works, not the total bill?
But in any case, given that they haven't appointed a contractor yet, how do they know the total price, let alone whether it's discounted? Surely they haven't gone out to tender with a document that says "we'll pay you x-20%"...
And they seem very confident of when it will be done, given that they apparently don't have listed building consent yet either.
As a distant outsider, I wish the NYMR well, but it isn't a good look.

 

Seems to be the same as what was posted yesterday. See post #9816