Railway museum buoyed by huge rise in visitors

Some 931,000 people visited the museum in 2013, 30 per cent more than in 2012, making it the 30th most popular visitor attraction in Britain and the most visited in Yorkshire.

According to the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, the UK’s main sights welcomed six per cent more people last year, with outdoor attractions up eight per cent thanks, in part, to the warm summer.

Today’s figures are a lift for National Railway Museum director Paul Kirkham. Last July, it emerged that the museum was one of four run by the venue’s parent organisation, the Science Museum Group, that could have closed due to Government funding cuts. It was handed a reprieve when the cuts amounted to half of the total feared but the Group still faces a £4m shortfall in 2015.

Mr Kirkham said: “It’s been an amazing year for the National Railway Museum, and our increase in visitors is mainly due to the staggering success of our Mallard75 series of events of which HRH, Prince of Wales is Patron. Our Great Gatherings of all six steam survivors set new visitor records at both our York and Shildon sites and now the season is over we hope that people will still flock to see the record breaker at its York home.”

So far in 2014, visitor numbers remain over 30 per cent ahead of the same time last year, Mr Kirkham said, adding: “Our financial situation in the light of recent cuts is challenging but we are committed to telling a bigger and broader story about the railways and engaging larger audiences.”

The British Museum, with numbers up a fifth to 6.7m, was the UK’s top attraction. Clifford’s Tower in York experienced the largest boon in Yorkshire, recording a 34 per cent rise to 138,624 visitors.

Numbers grew elsewhere, with the warm weather helping to help visitor figures at Whitby Abbey by 12.8 per cent, RHS Harlow Carr by 7.1 per cent and Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal by 6.8 per cent.