DigiTickets and Website Vision provide a new online journey for Lynton and Barnstaple Railway

Stretched over the North Devon countryside, the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway offers a unique train ride that provides a fantastic experience for families and train enthusiasts alike. The team at Lynton and Barnstaple tasked DigiTickets and Website Vision to create a seamless online journey. Our teams collaborated to make a stunning and more modern website paired with an online ticketing system to match.

Spanning across wild moorland, beautiful coastline and rolling countryside, Lynton and Barnstaple Railway has long held a special place in the North Devon community. First opened in 1888, the 19 miles of track once connected parts of the remote countryside from Lynton to Barnstaple. Sadly, the railway was shut down in 1935, and it was possible that trains would never run on the line again. However, the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway Trust, formed in 1979, began to breathe new life into the railway and in 2004, the railway was home to the hissing sounds of steam once again. 

Since then, the attraction and its volunteers have grown substantially. Incredibly, the tracks of Lynton and Barnstaple Railway are the longest piece of railway track to ever have been restored solely by volunteers. Now, the team at L&B have even greater plans to continue the reconstruction of the line to bring it to its former glory and beyond.

You can see why DigiTickets and Website Vision were incredibly excited to be involved in this amazing project!

All aboard

We love a good team-up, which is why our solutions work perfectly together. Our website and ticketing teams worked together to make sure that all elements of the customer journey were considered. Firstly, our Digital Project Managers and Design Team began scoping and wireframing the new Lynton and Barnstaple website. Working with the entire L&B team from the outset, it was important to make sure all stakeholders were involved, especially with an attraction so volunteer-focused. The aim was to keep the traditional aspects of the previous website, whilst incorporating a more modern feel. The website would then need to pair with a ticketing system that was easy to use and would maximise conversions.

On the right track

The teams began branding the website and building the ticketing page to match. A large part of the new feature set was to integrate the DigiTickets availability into the website calendar on the homepage, making it much easier for customers to know what's on, and reducing the number of clicks to find that information. The calendar feature helps streamline and focus the ticket booking process, by providing customers with the timetable early on in the customer journey. Now, customers first visit the calendar, see what is happening on any given day and click through from the calendar. If there is a special event that day, the customer has to first find out more about the event before moving on to DigiTickets to book their tickets.

Secondly, being able to link from the new website to DigiTickets to purchase memberships and visit the shop has made the process much more streamlined. Now customers can view the membership details and pricing, whilst easily clicking through to begin the booking and renewal process. 

Picking up steam

Run by volunteers, it was important for Lynton and Barnstaple to partner with a software provider they could trust, as well as one who would be on hand to help when needed. For the L&B team, having dedicated Project Managers for both the website and ticketing build and an Account Manager post-go-live meant that the railway received the support it needed. Plus, the Website Vision CMS allowed the team to give flexibility to their staff by providing log-ins for the different areas where needed. Finally, the L&B team will save a massive 40% on using our integrated payment services; Payyo, going forwards, which means so much more of the money they raise can go back into the railway.