A new business model has been announced by the Mid Norfolk Railway to help address its financial difficulties.
This news follows on from the recently announced management restructure, with the railway saying the new business model is ‘urgently required’ due to the current financial climate, adding that the current revenue levels does now allow for the railway to keep up with the deterioration of the railway infrastructure.
The greatest issue that needs tackling is the Permanent Way around Crownthorpe Brige and the weigh beams. The track needs replacing immediately to allow trains to run to Wymondham as the deterioration of the infrastructure has accelerated since the last six month inspection, meaning the bridge and track are currently unusable.
This means that an emergency appeal will soon be launched to raise funds to allow the railway to reopen to Wymondham.
Additionally, this means that a change in services has been announced. Originally, the railway was reopened on the 4th March, but now reopening has been delayed until the railway is confident it can run a service, which initially will be a 12 mile round trip to Thuxton – details of which will be announced soon.
The new business model means that new revenue streams must be found to run alongside the ever-popular Polar Express – this will require more working members to allow the railway to grow.
The current Chairman of the Mid Norfolk Railway Preservation Trust Charlie Robinson said: “The MNR has not been immune to the financial pressures that the sector has been under, our costs have risen dramatically and therefore to achieve the ambitious objectives that the railway set itself, when the Trust was set up we have to pull together as an organisation and find ways to grow the business so we can raise the funds that are needs not just to stand still, but carry out the projects that have long been aspired to.”
He added: “the railway is a significant contributor to the regional economy and as such we are very aware of our responsibilities to maintain that contribution, but to do so we also ask for the support of the business community and people of the region to ensure the long term future of the railway.”
Graham Watts a new Trust Council member, who after a career culminating in being a senior manager in local authority leisure services, has now taken on the railway’s commercial portfolio. He said: “From a commercial perspective the railway has a significant portfolio of activities already, but what we must do is be ruthless in driving our costs down to increase the profit element of the revenue we already generate and introduce new services that grow the business.
“Key to that is also to growing the working membership. We need not just people interested in railway activities but also people with the skill sets any business needs including administration, Information technology, marketing, human resources management and many more.”
Responses
Two thoughts:
1/ I’m sure the proponents of Norfolk Orbital Rail would want the right of way preserved, but clearly it needs to be repaired sufficiently to enable public use (standalone or shared with heritage operations). Yes I have concerns that NOR is not entirely practical (developing the Holt to Dereham section will be challenging, likely needing some amount of street running as the original right of way is now the bypass and there is limited room to insert a railway as well)
2/ Given the proximity of MNR to NNR, should these merge to share resources: administrative, technical, volunteers. This is also relevant in the context of NOR (creating a sort of modern day M&GN Joint, although the MNR route was originally GER not M&GN)
The only bypass is at Holt. Dereham to Fakenham is mostly clear, with half of it owned by the MNR and with track on it.
Not going to happen as a) the NNR doesn’t like sharing and b) that would make the scale of operations even worse for both sides.
Hi I have just moved into the area and live in Watton and was looking at joining the railway, I recently retired and was an operations director In manufacturing, warehousing and distribution for a worldwide company, many years ago I worked for British Rail as an on board ticket collector and later worked on shunting.
I love railways and have been looking forward to doing that when I retired.
If those skill sets may be of use to you feel free to contact me.
Kind regards
Nelson Oliver
Hi. This is the MNR volunteers landing page. Hope that’s useful.
https://www.midnorfolkrailway.co.uk/volunteering
Hi Nelson,
I’m a member of the MNR myself and I think your skill sets would be of use.
You can join the railway as a member here:
https://www.midnorfolkrailway.co.uk/membership
Hope to see you in future.
Kind regards,
Sarah Kershaw
This is sad and concerning – but everyone in the heritage sector must know that there is a limit to how many lines can possibly be commercially viable within one small island. There’s also the issue that while steam operations have great appeal to the general tourism market, heritage diesels have much less appeal to those who aren’t enthusiasts. It may unfortunately be time for some local groups to realise that their dreams of running their own railway can never be commercially realistic.
The same comment can be found in Railway Magazines from the late 1960s. Steam is popular, which is probably why the line uses it despite the crippling costs involved in boiling a kettle these days. What the MNR needs to do is sort of its financial management and open more often. Last time I tried to visit it was shut for someone to have a wedding.