Bure Valley Railway is Norfolk's longest narrow gauge steam railway, running nine miles through the beautiful Bure Valley countryside between Aylsham and Wroxham.
What's more, they are also our first heritage railway client on LOOP - perfectly timed to take advantage of our in-depth new Transport Timetable module.
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"Very impressed with the Semantic team! I’ve been working with them on a website development project for a client, and the entire experience has been smooth and well-organised from start to finish.
Our account manager, Dan, has been extremely accommodating - questions were always answered quickly and any issues were resolved without delay.
I also really appreciate that if the Loop website platform doesn’t currently support a specific feature, the team are open to adding it to their roadmap for future version updates.
I’d happily recommend Semantic to any future clients operating in the attractions sector."
- Sarah, Bure Valley Railway Marketing Team, Google Review
Background
When you get into it, heritage railways have a very complicated offering. What are the train times? What locomotives are running, and when? What's available at each station?
It's a lot to showcase online, and a challenge to condense it down to guests' phone screens.
Fortunately, with LOOP, the Bure Valley Railway team weren't starting from scratch - they were building on decades of our experience that we've built into the platform.
They also wanted to migrate their primary domain, moving from their long-established bvrw.co.uk to the more discoverable burevalleyrailway.co.uk. Handled correctly this kind of move can actually improve search performance, but managed poorly it can be damaging - we ensured a full redirect and SEO plan was in place from the outset to give them a seamless transition on launch.
How We Helped
- New LOOP website launched on a new primary domain, burevalleyrailway.co.uk
- Full SEO redirects and plan to migrate from bvrw.co.uk
- LOOP's new Transport Timetable module deployed for the first time
- Visisoft booking links integrated cleanly throughout the visitor journey
- Significantly more video used throughout, bringing the experience to life
- Seasonal events given clear prominence
- Mobile-first design for visitors planning their trip while exploring the Norfolk Broads area
- CMS giving the team full control over timetables, events and content throughout the season
What's Next
The Transport Timetable module created with Bure Valley Railway is now part of the LOOP platform, ready to serve other heritage railway attraction websites. We are looking forward to helping Bure Valley Railway grow their digital presence in the seasons ahead.
