B&FRHT

The business model has been developed by the trustees of the trust in consultation with companies house and the Charities Commission.

6.2 Operational structure and trading activities

The current and future operations of the legal entities in the group structure are as follows:

Bala & Ffestiniog Railway Heritage Trust
Bala & Ffestiniog Railway Heritage Trust owns and lends the assets of the trust, namely steam locomotives, diesel locomotives, rolling stock and equipment used by Bala & Ffestiniog Railway Heritage Company.

The operational assets are lent to the company under a formal loan agreement, with conditions such as maintenance included in the agreement.

This loan agreement will also cover a payment for the use of the assets to the Trust in order to enable the trust to generate further funds for acquisition of further relevant assets.

Bala & Ffestiniog Railway Heritage Company Ltd
The company will operate the assets of the trust and will also be engaged in encouraging and promoting public interest in preservation of anything related to railways. This is achieved by:

• Maintaining and restoring the collections of assets on loan from the Trust.
• Operating heritage services on the railway between Blaenau Ffestiniog and Trawsfynydd Lake Halt.
• Maintaining the formation of the line between Blaenau Ffestiniog and Trawsfynydd.
• Generating an operational surplus with a % of this surplus to go to the Trust to enable the trust to acquire further assets, the intention being for the balance of the surplus being reinvested into the company in order to develop for the future.

6.3 SWOT Analysis

Strengths

• A new committee elected by the members with strong support from the members
• A new operational entity leaving behind negativity of previous entity.
• A strong stable financial base proportional to the Trusts current activities.

Weaknesses

• Lack of current track access agreement.
• An ageing membership profile – need to encourage younger members to join
• No fundraising system in place
• Lack of engineering or surveying experience on committee

Opportunities

• Significant tourism opportunities in the area
• Visit Wales tourism adverts creating opportunities.
• Snowdonia Enterprise Zone can create commuter traffic from Blaenau Ffestiniog to Trawsfynydd Lake Halt.

Threats

• Permission to access line may be refused by Network Rail
• Local community may not want the project due to past history of Trawsfynydd Railway Company.
• Lack of funding
• Onerous National Park Conditions

6.4 Addressing the SWOT

Our current lack of track access agreement is not something we can address in the short term, however the work we are currently undertaking is designed to ensure that we reduce the chances of being refused access to the track when the appropriate time comes to request access from Network Rail.

We have recognised that a large number of our current members are under the age of 60 however without encouraging new recruits at the younger end of the membership profile we run the risk of not being able to sustain the number of members we need to make the project viable. As a result the intention at the next AGM in 2020 is to change the membership fee structure to encourage the creation of an under 18 junior members club and a reduced fees level for students who are in full time education (mainly aimed at those in 18 to 25 bracket but student fees will be applicable to all age groups). We envisage that these changes will result in an increase in member numbers to offset the decline in the individual fee per member. Existing members will be encouraged to donate the difference in the old and new fees to the trust to offset some of the decline in individual income.

We are currently working on the fundraising aspect of things and one of our plans is to recruit a volunteer with experience of applying for grants to support the project.

It is our intention to recruit two more members to the committee to provide direct support in the areas of engineering and surveying to help with compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.