YORK’S National Railway Museum could be given powers to preserve railway heritage in the Government’s shake-up of quangos.

Lord Taylor of Holbeach, a Government Whip in the House of Lords, said he would consider a plea from Labour’s Lord Faulkner of Worcester, a former chairman of the Railway Heritage Committee, for its powers to be given to the National Railway Museum (NRM) in York if it was shut down.

Lord Taylor said ministers “see merit” in the idea of transferring powers to preserve railway records and artefacts to the museum.

“Positive discussions on the detail are continuing,” he said.

A spokesman for the NRM said: “The board of trustees of the Science Museum, the legal entity which stands behind the National Museum of Science and Industry which includes the National Railway Museum, have agreed in principle that, should the Government decide the statutory powers of the Railway Heritage Committee can be transferred, they would be pleased to accept them.

“Future arrangements regarding the preservation of railway artefacts would then be under our control, however at this stage it is still very much under discussion as to whether this is possible and how this will work.” The NRM has also just recorded its best February half-term holiday figures for nearly a decade after a report last week showed that visitor numbers for 2010 were down on 2009 by 16 per cent.

A spokesman for the NRM said 2009’s figures were boosted by an award-winning production of the Railway Children.

Difficult economic times had contributed to its drop in visitor numbers, and recent developments at the Yorkshire Museum and Jorvik Viking Centre attracted repeat local visitors who would otherwise have gone to the NRM.

But Wizard Week and wet weather during half-term caused a surge in visitor numbers, which were 45 per cent up on February half-term in 2010, attracting more than 8,000 visitors a day.

In June last year one of the NRM’s principal exhibits, The Mallard, which broke the world steam speed record in 1938 when it reached 126mph, moved to Locomotion, the NRM’s sister museum in Shildon, County Durham.

NRM director Steve Davies said the famous blue loco had been a favourite with visitors since 1975.

He said: “We hope the best is yet to come, as we have a fantastic programme of events planned this year, including the return of locomotive legend Flying Scotsman from restoration, our Easter Japan Festival and the opening of a purpose-built art gallery this summer.”

Visit York’s annual figures for 2010, released yesterday, showed York Dungeon increased visitors by 14 per cent, Clifford’s Tower by 11 per cent, the Castle Museum by nine per cent and Jorvik by three per cent, excluding January when it was closed. The Yorkshire Museum increased visits by 165 per cent compared with figures before its refurbishment.

Visit York’s figures, measured by calendar year, showed York Minster’s visitors had dropped by one per cent, although figures produced by the Association for Leading Visitor Attractions, from April to March, showed a 2.5 per cent decrease. Hotel occupancy figures stayed constant, with a one per cent increase.