As we start 2014, we can look back on last year with many successes thanks to a huge effort by all our volunteers.

Focusing on passenger facilities first, the completion of the toilets at Oxenhope was long-overdue, as was the need to make progress on a cafe development for the Railway. The planning application for the cafe was submitted in December (with an outcome expected about the end of January).

We have been working on a new smartphone ‘App’ that will guide passengers around – and of course to! – the Railway, generating itineraries to help them make sense of the timetable, responding to the needs of a new generation of visitors.

We are now working much more closely with the Bronte Parsonage than we have ever done before, and as a result, they have agreed to make a financial contribution to the operation of the school holidays heritage bus service that links the Railway and Main Street, which I hope many of you will enjoy.

Their funding means we can extend the current weekday operation to Sundays in the summer, providing an appropriately vintage connection between the railway and the Parsonage. We will also be working with them to celebrate the connections between the Brontes and the railways, marking Charlotte’s birthday on April 21 and Emily’s on July 30 with special events.

This Bronte railway connection was also mentioned on the recent BBC Great British Railway Journeys episode, which covered Haworth, Oakworth and – more briefly – Keighley, as Michael Portillo travelled down the valley.

We operate every weekend throughout the year – including during the winter months – so seeing and hearing steam engine Big Jim, with its distinctive chime whistle, rejoin the operational fleet of locomotives for the first time in more than 20 years just last weekend was very welcome. He can now take his place as the star of our Steam Spectacular in March.

Finally, I would like to thank all of you who visited the line during 2013, and hope to welcome you on board during what should be a very exciting 2014.