North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

Looks like they certainly don’t have any interest in their SM profile …..
Just take a look at their Trust Pilot rating - I’ve screenshot the most recent ones, mostly 1*
Zero response from the NYMR …

 

Oooft, that minibus story especially does not read well!

Honestly, NYMR's management need to see how the railway is viewed.

 

This was posted the other day on Facebook. Nothing changes - S160 being worked on, 80135 in bits, West Country boiler being overhauled, and piles of crap everywhere.

 

Honestly, NYMR's management need to see how the railway is viewed.[/QUOTE]

.... but you are asking the management to do an honest self-assessment of their own performance, and act upon it. At the very best, I feel that (however urgently desirable) is a highly improbable possibility, and the Trust Board has become so emasculated now that the likelihood of there being even a single person on it with the guts to stand up and try to hold them to account is equally improbable. It's a matter of great regret to me, but I think the only route to change things will be some form of cataclysmic event where change will have to be unavoidable. The incumbents will have to be forcibly ejected, rather than pushed out.

 

Writing as someone who has no personal experience of the situation inside the NYMR, I'm not sure (from the dribs and drabs of clues I do have) how much of the blame for the NYMR's poor situation can properly be laid at her feet. I'm not saying she's a genius at running a heritage line, mind, but I suspect that a lot of the time she's going in a direction that is given to her (and said direction is not a good one). If so, a lot of the blame lies 'above her pay grade'. Yes, she should have the wit to realize that she is in way deeper water than she has any knowledge of how to deal with, and respond accordingly. However, I reckon that even if she vanished tomorrow, to be replaced by an Einstein of heritage lines, things would not right themselves.

In this particular case (the expensive faux 'award'), a lot of the blame may in fact be due to her (she may have thought it was a good idea) - but in the overall NYMR picture, it is but a tiny corner. I suspect that the person who is withdrawing their legacy is responding to the overall picture at the NYMR, not just this particular incident (which was likely merely a 'final straw') - indicative as it may be of 'what's wrong at the NYMR'.

Noel

 

I think that

I think that is probably a fair summation of the likely situation, (we hear mention of the "gang of four", who seem to be the driving force; in terms of the fares fiasco, for instance, the CFO should have provided better guidance ) which is why I think it will take a cataclysmic upheaval that will force the guiding rats to desert the inking ship. Nevertheless, the CEO has to take some of the responsibility, and should have realised that the CEO's position represented a poisoned chalice that a perso9n of greater experience and wisdom would have resisted drinking from.

 

The NYMR has a CEO, at vast expense both in terms of salary and inepitude, who constantly pronouces her thoughts on the NYMR webpage and elsewhere. "Laura Stangeway CEO says blah blah blah" has become such a cliche to NYMR readers that it oozes a senses of PR balls before even being read.

The fares structure is a mess. The timetable a mess, albeit simplified by the Goathland terminus situation. The marketing is a mess, despite this being the one area where she is said to have some expertise. The infrastructure is decaying. The volunteers are walking away. The paid staff are increasing. Joe Public is staying away. Benefactors are deserting in favour of funding cats homes.

The whole edifice is riddled with bureaucracy, stupidity and neglect but as a wise contributor to the NYMR Unofficial forum has said "A fish rots from the head down".

If a CEO isn't taking responsibility for fares, for timetables, for marketing, for infrastructure, for volunteers, for passenger numbers, for budgeting or anything else then what exactly is the point of having a CEO at all.

In an organisation the size of the NYMR a CEO, or better still a General Manager, should be there to lead. The current CEO is leading us us to three different places. To a gala dinner we can't afford, to a future we can't afford and finally up the garden path to oblivion.

 

Unfortunately the above post seems to sum this situation up perfectly. Just had a few days near the NYMR and though it was good to see trains running again the whole feel of the place has changed. I didn’t speak to many people but one of the uniformed staff described morale as rock bottom and at Grosmont a contractor sent out to do something with the river described the bridge scheme as idiotic and what he had been sent to do was physically impossible and they were going to have to come up with another plan.

I had a couple in a pub near to the railway and was surrounded by small groups of railway people slating the management. One of the railway staff said that his team’s budget had been cut to zero but 4 new staff had been recruited into office positions one of which was never even advertised.

it all just stinks of inefficiency and incompetence and the people seem so defeated which is such a shame.

On the plus side it seems that people are travelling so there will be some income, I thought some of the trains may have been quiet but they looked pretty well loaded.

 

If a fish rots from the head down, it seems as though the rotting process is now well on the way to reaching the tail.

 

So now we are up to v2.5 of the timetable, so 8th edition.

 

Extra services in April are due to be operated by the autocar. There have been comments about the lack of seating on the normal service trains - about 220 seats on the four coach set that's been used so far. The autocar adds 106 seats. Not a lot, but that's potentially an extra load of passengers to carry back on the last train of the day, especially when the diner is taking up the fourth path. And it now looks like they're steaming a loco simply for the diner each day as well. They might be getting some income, but using four locos and one railcar per day won't be cheap.

 

I see the extra mid morning train doesn't start tomorrow, but next Wednesday.

 

I come back to this thread with an increasingly heavy heart having just enjoyed reading (something you can't say about the totally uninspiring Moorsline these days) the excellent monthly Bluebell Times, produced and edited by our very own Tom James (@Jamessquared) of this parish. Like all heritage railways there are massive economic hurdles to be overcome but none the less the railway still feels that it is run by people who have a passion for railway history and preservation. They understand what motivates the volunteers because they too come from a volunteer background and can talk the language of the volunteer. Particularly inspiring is the article about The Bluebell Railway Trust and how it supports the railway and manages legacies. As a Bluebell member I feels that it talks to me. As an NYMR volunteer I feel that Moorsline and the weekly newsletter talk at me. What a contrast.

For me the rot set in when the traditional railway role of General Manager was changed to that of CEO. It seems that along with that inflated title came an inflated ego which natrually required an inflated salary. At the same time it seemed that the railway lost its soul. I'm not one for knocking something when its down but I find it very hard to see a way forward from where we are now. The biggest pity is that at an operational level there are some really good and dedicated lower managers who understands what makes the railway tick.

Peter

 

This "borrowed" from another forum, with their permission.

"Well here we are at the Acadamy Awards in star-spangled Las Pickering. The cars of the stars are gathering by the red carpet because the gates to the car park seem to be obstructed by an ad-hoc performance involving a minibus with three workers being harangued by a diva in full voice.

Among the nominees this evening are a bevy of office workers sporting pink timetables, Margaret Thatcher handbags and computer says no tee-shirts.

They are closly followed by a chorus line of accounts staff each clutching the highly priced invitations to tonights exclusive gathering. They are escorted by a troop of contractors complete with theodolites and laptops all guaranteed to solve any financial problems even if they can't pay for them.

Inside the show is well underway with classic impersonations of Buster Keaton, Rod Hull and DMU, The Keystone Collapse and the Chuckle Brothers. They really are dextrous with those too short planks.

And now the highlight of the evening an award to the magnificent North Yorkshire quartet who have carried off the statuette for Best Unsupported Bridge in a Northern Comedy.

As the credits roll there only seems to be one musical guest missing. Please will the great Female Vocalist we booked to sing and close the show make herself known to the organisers. We really can't wait much longer..

 

The Grosmont gossip is that the £450 project manager has walked off the job and said that the job is not possible, not sure if that means he can’t work in that kind of place or if he means the physical job can’t be done but I’m very worried for the future of the railway and the businesses of the village.

I’m going to my railway at the weekend and I'm going to appreciate it for the little few miles of joy that it is. It might be small with a loco and a couple of carriages but by God its in a better state than what used to be the UK’s premier heritage railway

 

Meeting on Monday evening with the NYMR according to the Grosmont co op Facebook page

Sent from my LGN-NX1 using Tapatalk

 

I think the bit I have put in bold is absolutely correct. Many of the people in the senior trustee / director positions started as volunteers and then became directors - rather than the other way round. So I think that instills a passion for the place. Of course, it can be useful to have a leavening of people who can look at the place with outside eyes, but ultimately you want people who treat the place as a passion project.

About a month ago, I went to an open meeting at the Bluebell about the proposed governance changes. Having read this thread I went in with a slight trepidation but emerged considerably reassured that we weren't sleepwalking into a big lineisclear type trap. It's probably not co-incidental that the trustee leading that piece of work is also, when not being a trustee, deeply involved as a volunteer in the C&W department working on our heritage carriages.

Tom

 

£450 ?

 

The NYMR recently advertised for a project manager to oversee the bridge works for a duration of 3 to 6 months at a daily rate of £400 to £450 pounds. That is probably where this figure originated.