The North Yorkshire Moors Railway has announced that it has been awarded a National Portfolio Organisation grant worth £750,000 by Arts Council England.
The grant aims to help the heritage railway to continue its work in preservation, education and conservation.
£250,000 will be received by the North Yorkshire Moors Railway each year for the next three years.
The funding will be used for:
- Restoring visitor numbers to pre-COVID levels
- Improving on-station and on-train interpretation
- Expanding NYMR dining services
- Improving the educational offer to school groups
- Implementing and embedding its comprehensive ‘Fuss Free Access‘ programme to remove all barriers to travel for those with specific needs and their friends and families
- Building on NYMR's diverse demographic strength to broaden still further its audience base
- Working with urban community leaders and its existing urban area groups to encourage volunteer engagement
- Creating an enhanced focus on long-term skills development in traditional and new technology
- Setting standards for rail heritage by confronting CO2 emissions, and working with local partners to offset them
Chris Price, CEO at NYMR, commented: “We are extremely excited to be one of the first operational heritage railways to receive NPO funding. This is such great news and a real testament to the work that we do; it's also recognition of the importance of NYMR to the region, both economically and culturally, and allows us to continue our work and reach even more individuals, groups and communities to share our passion for the history of the region through steam travel.”
Arts Council England Chair, Sir Nicholas Serota, said: “As well as continuing our commitment to our many established and renowned cultural organisations, I am deeply proud of the support we will be giving to those new organisations which will help ignite creativity across the country. We are facing economic pressures at present, but this funding is about an investment in our future. This portfolio will support the next generation of visionary inventors, makers, performers and artists. In particular, the growth of our funding for organisations that support and develop work for children represents a profoundly important long-term investment in our country's talent.”
I agree with the previous comments; very brave of the person with the disabled son to say that but well done to say what you think. I understand the NYMR holds a train operators license for operating on the national network. Northern Rail has a driver shortage. It would be good to see the NYMR helping the local community by operating trains that would otherwise be cancelled from Battersby to Whitby assuming Northern could manage connecting trains from the north. It just needs a can do attitude all round and of course Department of Transport funding.
Lets hope the long arm of wokery thst comes with such grants does not diminish the pleasure such an organisation can give everyone. I doubt it.
Having a severely disabled son i am not in favour of wasting lots of money on extraneous schemes to accomodate everyone. Some things are just not for everyone, it is just a fact of life.
A very interesting viewpoint. One which the wokerati – as they are ALWAYS in the right and nothing they say may be questioned – will dismiss with a cistomary sneer. Spend the money wisely NYMR.