North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

It's the biggest weekend and half term of the year in Whitby. The railway is closed today and tomorrow. It's nuts.

 

Negative waves again (I jest!) At one time, the NYMR did have a significant business with coach tour operators, but it was allowed to lapse for various reasons - the discounts that had to be offered and the fact that most journeys tended to be one-way only - meaning that the coaches had to access Grosmont at some point, which wasn't ideal, given the roads in and out in both directions. On the other hand, coach tours do provide some certainty of business, so perhaps one part of any new business plan ought to be to try to revive them in some degree - maybe from Pickering to Goathland, and on internal services? Others may not agree, but I'm still convinced that the NYMR has increase its visitor numbers by whatever means it can.

 

The idea of the NYMR doing dynamic pricing is suicidal and could only come from a mind wildly out of touch with reality. Heritage railways need a set price point per journey. Offer specific discounts for low traffic weeks or for the last return of the day, but making dynamic pricing a part of the model can't even be a serious suggestion, can it? Do you have any concept of how unpopular it is in every other part of life where it's been tried?

 

....and that in itself sums up the current management. Not a ******* clue! (and I think we have seen that applies too to their very (but seemingly only) vocal supporter!)

 

Embsay has been mentioned; the experience there suggests that the questions are about degree (the railway is now almost entirely oriented towards coach traffic), and managing the reservations so that coach parties get their seats (easier for a Pickering - Goathland journey than the opposite, for example).

Commercially, it's a form of dynamic pricing - offering discounts for volume and early booking (better still if early payment can be achieved!). But that takes us back to understanding the customers and the segments they fall into - something that recent years' results suggest seem not to have been a strength

 

I’m not sure that the coach tour is as prevalent as it was pre-Covid. It may have recovered somewhat in the last couple of years since I stopped observing, but there was a cliff edge drop in 2020 that was very slow to come back, and hadn’t reached the levels pre that. So it may now be much more difficult to find coach firms that want to come at all?

 

Load 6 …

 

Just remind me which railway’s management decided earlier this year decided to reduce ticket prices in the summer school holidays .

I suppose we should be grateful NYMR have managed to run any full line trains this week and not replaced them with a Thomas or Bluey event that claims to cover its costs instead .

Keep on leaving those begging envelopes around and wonder why no one donates …

 

A slight improvement on last year I suppose - October half term week last year, Flying Scotsman hauling prebooked trains, non Flying Scotsman services were only 5 coaches long and completley packed. Oh and no services running on the Thursday + Friday last year either.

 

I certainly wouldn't suggest trying to build a business that is heavily focused on coach tours to the exclusion of "turn up on the day" visitors, but surely any well-run business should be looking to maintain a range of customer types to diversify its risks? The apparent lack of interest in any form of commercial variation or experimentation in the face of declining visitor numbers and ongoing annual losses leaves me completely bewildered when the most senior one of them started out as the marketing manager (although I don't think she was very highly regarded in that role either). It's almost as if the senior management don't really care, since they'll still get paid.

 

I agree that all avenues should be explored. I wasn’t commenting on the competence or activity of individuals, just reflecting that the market has definitely shifted where coach parties are concerned.

I think it is important to be tolerant of mistakes at present. There is no stability in the market for days out, the pressure on cost of living sees to that. A lot of experimentation is required.

Of course if you are going to experiment it’s essential that everyone knows what is going on. Both the potential market and the internal stakeholders have to understand, and those are things which don’t seem to be very well executed at present.

 

By all accounts the place is heaving and a parking wardens paradise.