Walk-up passenger numbers halve during Moorsline’s diesel summer

THE demand for steam traction could not have been made clearer to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway management as it saw a drastic reduction in walk-up passenger numbers during its diesel-only services brought on by the summer heatwave.

Nine days of diesel-hauled services commenced on July 19 before steam was partially reintroduced with diesel assistance until August 10, when a lineside fire once again saw steam curtailed. During the July period, the number of passengers walking up to buy tickets on the door dropped by 50%, reasserting the stance that steam sells.

“The phrase ‘run diesels, they’ll come’ – I’m sorry, that just isn’t the case,” said NYMR’s CEO, Chris Price. “If you want a graphic demonstration, then we are it. We are talking a loss of thousands that will hurt us.

“We are not seen as interesting when we’re not running steam. There is a following for diesels; there is a place for them and at times like this, when we can’t run steam. But this really has shown that steam is still the big draw.”

With summer steam bans not becoming an uncommon fixture in the heritage sector, railways across the UK will no doubt be considering how they can respond to such situations in future.

NYMR marketing manager Luke Hudman added: “We already have a number of mitigations in place to help us prevent lineside fires, such as smokebox spark arrestors and ashpan guards and sprinklers. We further mitigate this by adding diesel traction to either assist steam engines or replace them fully.

“We also have FireCon crews on duty to follow trains through at-risk areas, and work closely with resident landowners and authorities to monitor conditions.”