Keighley & Worth Valley Railway increases summer profits (From Keighley News)

Keighley & Worth Valley Railway increases summer profits

3:00pm Thursday 10th January 2013 in News By Keighley News reporter

Keighley’s heritage railway increased its profits during the summer months despite losing passengers.

Changes to ticket offers helped the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway make a £126,000 profit between April and August.

Finance director Ian Mitchell said this figure was £93,000 better than in the same period last year. But passenger numbers fell sharply in July and August, and Mr Mitchell warned that action needed to be taken to preserve a healthy income.

Writing in the railway’s magazine Push and Pull, Mr Mitchell said the withdrawal of the Family Full Line ticket could have been a reason for the decline.

This led to an increase in people buying the more expensive Rover ticket, but other people may not have been able to afford to travel at all.

Mr Mitchell added: “We can either have more money or more passengers, but probably not both in the current economic circumstances.”