Heritage Railway Association Information

The voice of heritage railways, the Heritage Railway Association is the UK-wide trade association for heritage and tourist railways, heritage tramways, cliff railways, steam centres, related museums, railway preservation groups and supporting societies. Through influencing and collaboration, we undertake advocacy on behalf of our 300 members to policy makers, parliament, regulators, the media, national and international tourism organisations, funding bodies and other organisation, to ensure that legislation works well for heritage organisations ... And we work to ensure that heritage railways, tramways and museums are valued as attractive visitor attractions, employers and as custodians of our transport heritage. Helping our members to be more productive and successful in their world, we provide business support across every possible aspect of heritage rail ownership, management and operation, and we manage a vast and constantly-growing library of guidance notes, technical documents and information papers. We stage events for training, development, knowledge-sharing and networking to advise and inform members on current topics. And annual awards are made for excellence and achievement. The Heritage Railway Association represents some 139 operational heritage and tourist railways, 8 operational heritage tramways, 9 cliff railways, 26 museums and steam centres, and over 100 societies, funding groups and locomotive and carriage owning trusts, all located thoughout the UK. Our members employ some 4,000 staff and 22,000 volunteers, and between them our members own and/or operate • 560 miles of track • 460 stations • 800 steam locomotives • 1,000 diesel locomotives • 2,000 carriages • 4,000 wagons The HRA is funded by corporate subscriptions and through the highly popular InterRail pass scheme which allows staff and working volunteers at our member organisations to travel on heritage lines at heavily discounted rates and often on an entirely complimentary basis.