North Yorkshire Moors Railway General Discussion

Dynamic pricing only works if there is no alternative if you want to do a particular thing, such as watch a one day performance in your area. If there are alternatives, people will seek out the cheaper ones. Or not bother.

 

I think all agree that it was a pathetic gathering, and we can safely assume that they will not do anything of the sort, in terms of hanging their heads in shame. Rather, I expect them to award themselves a big pay rise as soon as they feel it is safe to do do so, regardless of the situation the railway's finances are in at the time - that's the level of faith I, for one, have in them.

 

Dynamic pricing is for the likes of Sleazy Jet and Ryanscare.

Brutal capacity management by dynamic pricing has no place with leisure/ heritage businesses such heritage railways.

However, there is definitely scope for heritage railways to respond to variations in passenger demand within and outwith traditional periods of decent passenger numbers like school holidays.
Maintain your headline fares at busy times, and offer discounts away from school holidays and enthusiast events.

 

Would you like to be the new GM at the NYMR? You are talking reality sense, and that's something that is desperately needed at Park Street!

 

Dynamic pricing has given me an idea. How about dynamic salaries?

At a rough estimate our CEO, FD and other Directors owe the railway about £1.5 million due to overpayments for the last three years.

 

A serious answer - this idea is precisely why dynamic pricing is so disreputable. People make decisions and then find the ground moving underneath them. That works both ways. Even if more financially advantageous, it stinks

 

The CEO of Yorkshire Water has resigned. Hopefully this will be the start of a trend.

 

That is what used to happen, there were peak fares that applied during the periods you suggest, and cheaper fares the rest of the time.
There were times the trains would fill themselves and times you need to coax people on to them.

Sawdust.

 

The risk with that is like the package holiday companies you get accused of hitting those tied to school holidays. I fine balancing act I suggest.
The "big railway" of course forces more dynamic pricing by the year, but calls them advance tickets. Apparently we all prefer the set up, or at least according to Lord Hendy and the TOC 's

 

There’s considerable evidence

 

You could debate pricing models until the cows come home, and clearly different railways have chosen different models based on their own insight about their passengers. (One very clear divide for families, for example, are lines - such as the Bluebell - that basically offer full-price adult fares but "kids for a quid" for children during school holidays; and those such as the SVR that offer child fares about half adult, but a family ticket pitched somewhere around the cost of 2+1, and a bargain at 2+2).

What is striking about the NYMR though is that their prices just seem to lurch about erratically, to the point I'd defy anyone to discern any kind of strategy. What are they trying to achieve with their price model? All it seems to do to me is say "if you don't like these prices, hang around for a day or two and we'll show you some different ones".

And it's not as if the fares are very clear on the website either. Here's the exact wording of "day rover" ticket prices:

DONATION DAY ROVER TICKETS

Adult (16+) from £38.12
Kids Go Free (1 Adult + 1 Child) from £38.12
Additional Child (4-15) from £9.45
Your Thank You Voucher from Adult £5.72 / Child £1.42
Effectively You Pay* Adult £32.40 / Child £8.03
Gift Aid Eligible Yes
Booking Fee Per Transaction £1.50

STANDARD DAY ROVER TICKETS
Adult (16+) from £34.65
Kids Go Free (1 Adult + 1 Child) from £34.65
Additional Child (4-15) from £8.55
No Thank You Voucher
Effectively You Pay* Adult £34.65 / Child £8.55
Not Gift Aid Eligible
Booking Fee Per Transaction £1.50

(Source: https://shop.myonlinebooking.co.uk/NYMR/sessions.aspx?tid=258)​

Can anyone tell me how much a ticket actually costs? It's all just a muddle of words.

Tom

 

As soon as I see "from" in a price for anything the seller has put a serious dent in my interest in pursuing the transaction further. Adding "effectively you pay.." into the equation means the seller has pretty much lost my custom.

 

Exactly my thought. As soon as I saw “from ..” my mind jumped to “much more than …”

Tom

 

Tom,
Have you not realised that it is an IQ test. The NYMR only want intelligent people travelling on their trains, certainly none of the Hoi Polloi that might want to do so. It helps keep the numbers down on what would otherwise be busy days, meaning that there's no overcrowding, even when the Railcar is running with all of 2 coaches. There's less money to spend on maintenance, too, as a result.

 

Well, I'm glad that Tom has taken up the cudgels on the subject of marketing incompetence - though he is far too polite to be as blunt as me! I have been arguing reasonably consistently that no part of this years business plan shows any real evidence of consistent thinking about what needs to be done or to happen. The NYMR has been rescued once or twice along the way by special events, such as Flying Scotsman visits, but has shown no real continuity in its operations, other than periodic failures. It really is time for a reset and fresh start and there are so many ways that could be done; for instance, when on holiday in Cornwall in the summer of last year, I heard about the fish barbecue Held on the beach at Coverack Cove and went to that - it was very well attended but to my eyes was rather pricey, and not what I expected, in what is a small fishing village all the produce came in boxes from fish markets elsewhere in Cornwall! Why could the NYMR not run one of these once a week in the summer season? The fish is all stored on ice and only what is ordered is cooked so no wastage, and any leftover could be used on a Pullman service. A special "DMU" (i..e including the NER autotrain) could run from Pickering to Levisham, or Grosmont-Goathland to a barbecue at the latter site. It might even be possible to get volunteers to staff the event, and if it ran on the same night as the Pullman service the signalboxes would be open. It is just a thought, but Whitby is still an active fishing port and the fish should be available. It is the sort of thing that could be advertised as a novelty and could potentially be built up into a larger event - but we have a sales and marketing department on the NYMR that seems to be devoid of any initiative, and a senior management team that seems devoid of any ability to encourage. A new SMT equipped with electric cattle prods, but even better a sense of encouraging the more junior members to come up with new ideas and approaches, really is needed urgently, as well as sweeping away the stultifying old guard - one of whom regularly demonstrates his lack of initiative and connection with the real world of operating a commercially minded heritage railway with his posts on here. He's keen to smother all thoughts of increasing the turnover of the business whilst maintaining employment at an unfeasibly high level. He is someone else who needs to withdraw gracefully and keep his thoughts to himself, unless they are positive ideas - and as I haven't seen him post any, that shouldn't be too hard!

 

I'm mid digitising a four hour VHS tape, the first 90 minutes is Moors video footage from 2003, given to me by the late John Reddish, LNERCA volunteer and NYMR member. I'm going to put it all on YouTube. But how best to package it up? There is kind of an LNERCA story running through the footage, although there are a couple gaps in that. These were the days, I could have a bright idea, talk to managers, make a few phone calls and make things happen, get carriages added to the Pullman for an LNERCA volunteers party at the end of our coach week, or suggest putting out a four carriage LNER set on the quietest diagram at the autumn gala, again at very short notice, which proved to be a highlight of the year and a resounding commercial success.

Sawdust.