The Economic Value of Tourist Railways

Adrian Shooter
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how Tourist Railways in the UK have sought to
determine the economic added value that they have created for their communities.
It is hoped that this presentation will be useful for railways that are interested in
demonstrating the extent to which they bring economic benefit to the communities that
they serve. This may be because they are seeking public funds or simply to create a
positive image of their enterprise where this does not exist.
In the UK there are more than 100 Tourist or Heritage Railways. These include many
standard gauge lines which were formerly part of the national network, usually until about
50 years ago. They range in length from less than 5km up to over 30km and are, for the
most part owned by non-profit organisations which benefit from substantial amounts of
voluntary labour. There are also many narrow gauge lines mostly either 381, 600 or
750mm gauge. They range in length from a few tens of metres up to nearly 70km.
There are over 500 standard gauge steam locos and 150 narrow gauge locos in working
order.
Within the UK more than 8million passengers ride these railways annually for a total of
around 125million miles. Passenger revenue exceeds $52million while total revenue is in
excess of $130million per annum. The additional revenue over and above that paid for
travel includes sales of food, souvenirs and locomotive engineering services which some
of the railways specialise in. The average train carries 96 passengers.
About 2600 people are employed by these railways and they are supplemented by nearly
20,000 volunteers many of whom devote a great many years to the activity.
A number of the railways have benefitted from quite substantial amounts of public money.
This has almost always been provided in the form of a capital grant intended to increase
the scope and range of facilities offered to the public. There is usually a requirement for
any public money to be matched by donations and revenue support, ie operating subsidy,
is almost never provided.
Increasingly, because there is ever greater competition for public funds, the railways
concerned have had to demonstrate that they are more deserving than other supplicants
which might include sports, historical or cultural venues. One of the ways that this has
been done is to evaluate the financial and other worth of the railway to the local
community. This might be done by conducting a very simple survey in which they ask
passengers how much money they have spent in the immediate area on, for example,
hotels, restaurants, travel and entertainment as a result of having come to the railway.
More substantial pieces of work have been done when considerable sums of money are
requested. For example the Ffestiniog Railway in North Wales, which is a 600mm line, had
a plan to rebuild many kms of derelict railway which it could only do if it received
substantial monies to supplement the considerable amounts of both labour and money
which its supporters had obtained. A very major piece of work was done, actually as a PhD
thesis, which examined in detail both the direct contribution the extended railway was
expected to make by employing staff, paying taxes, buying goods and services from local
companies and in other ways, and it looked at what it's passengers would do. For
example, it was able to quantify the likely extent of spending under an extended list of

headings. The work concluded that the new, enlarged, enterprise which would employ
about 60 people would actually support another 240 or so as a result of passengers and,
to a lesser extent, volunteers spending money in the surrounding area.
One of the larger standard gauge lines, the Severn Valley Railway, which is near
Birmingham, suffered a major setback in 2007 when abnormally high rainfall caused
numerous landslips above and beneath the line. This meant that for many months it was
not possible to run services. The report that was done enabled the railway to persuade
several public bodies to join with many private individuals in providing enough money to
re-instate the line fully.
My presentation will expand on and illustrate these examples and some others.
Adrian Shooter