Conwy Valley Line

Conwy Valley Line
Overview
Type	Heavy Rail
Locale	Conwy Gwynedd
Termini	Llandudno Blaenau Ffestiniog
Stations	13
Operation
Opened	1879
Owner	Network Rail
Operator(s)	Arriva Trains Wales
Character	Rural
Rolling stock	Class 150 and Class 153
Technical
Line length	30.8 miles (49.6 km)
No. of tracks	Single track throughout
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) (Standard gauge)

[v · d · e]Conwy Valley Line
Legend Llandudno Deganwy North Wales Coast Line Llandudno Junction North Wales Coast Line Glan Conwy Tal-y-Cafn Dolgarrog North Llanrwst Llanrwst Betws-y-Coed Pont-y-Pant Roman Bridge Blaenau Ffestiniog (LNWR) Blaenau Ffestiniog Ffestiniog Railway Trawsfynydd Power Station Bala and Festiniog Railway

The Conwy Valley Line (Welsh: Llinell Dyffryn Conwy) is a railway line in north Wales. It runs from Llandudno via Llandudno Junction (Welsh: Cyffordd Llandudno) to Blaenau Ffestiniog, and was originally part of the London and North Western Railway, being opened in stages to 1879. The primary purpose of the line was to carry slate from the Ffestiniog quarries to a specially built quay at Deganwy for export by sea. The line also provided goods facilities for the market town of Llanrwst, and via the extensive facilities at Betws-y-Coed on the London to Holyhead A5 turnpike road it served many isolated communities in Snowdonia and also the developing tourist industry. Although a little over 27 miles between Llandudno and Blaenau Ffestiniog the journey takes over one hour. Most of the stations along the route are treated as a request stop.

History

The first section from Llandudno Junction to Llanrwst (now called North Llanrwst) was built as the Conway and Llanrwst Railway and opened in 1863. The LNWR took over in 1863 and opened the extension to Betws-y-Coed in 1868.^[1].

The next extension was to Blaenau Ffestiniog to access the output of the large slate quarries there. The LNWR first proposed a narrow gauge railway via the steeply graded Lledr Valley to Blaenau Ffestiniog. After construction began, it was decided that the extension would be built to standard gauge, allowing through running of trains. Between 1874 and 1879 the railway tunnel underneath Moel Dyrnogydd was bored, allowing the extension to open in 1881.^[2]

Blaenau Ffestiniog's other standard gauge railway, the Bala and Festiniog Railway, was closed to all traffic in 1961, and a portion was flooded in the creation of the Llyn Celyn reservoir. A rail connection was desired for the nuclear power station under construction at Trawsfynydd, and a connecting line was built from Blaenau Ffestiniog North to the site of the demolished Blaenau Ffestiniog Central station for freight use. With the reconstruction of the Ffestiniog Railway, passenger services were relocated to a new joint station on the site of the old Central station in 1982. Regular freight traffic to Trawsfynydd ceased in the 1990s, and the power station is being decommissioned.

Modern services

The line from Llandudno Junction to Blaenau is single track, and includes the longest single track railway tunnel in the United Kingdom (over 2.5 miles / 4.02 kilometres). Between Llandudno Junction and Llandudno the service uses the double track branch line from the North Wales Coast Line. The fully signalled passing loop at North Llanrwst is the last remaining between Llandudno Junction and Blaenau Ffestiniog and trains on the branch must stop at the signal box there to exchange tokens for the single line sections on either side^[3].

The train service is operated by Arriva Trains Wales and is being marketed as the Conwy Valley Railway (Welsh: Rheilffordd Dyffryn Conwy). A feature of the service is the availability on Conwy Valley trains as well as on local buses in Snowdonia of the new "Tocyn Taith" day ticket. The services run every three hours on weekdays and Saturdays, with six departures per day each way in total. There is also a limited (three each way) summer Sunday service in operation from the beginning of the summer timetable in May until early September

From 20 May 2007, Concessionary Travel Pass holders resident in Conwy and Gwynedd have been able to travel free of charge on the Conwy Valley Railway line between Llandudno and Blaenau Ffestiniog, as well as between Llandudno Junction and Llandudno on all Arriva Trains Wales services, as a result of funding provided by the Welsh Assembly Government. Also, there are plans to upgrade the line to take slate from Blaenau Ffestiniog to the coast, sponsored by the Welsh Assembly Government ^[4]

Route

The towns and villages served by the route are listed below.

North Llanrwst station platforms - railcar leaving for Blaenau Ffestiniog

150253 heading into the Lledr Valley in the Summer of 2007. This unit has now been repainted into Arriva's standard livery.

• Llandudno
• Deganwy
• Llandudno Junction
  • for North Wales Coast Line
• Glan Conwy
• Tal-y-Cafn
• Dolgarrog
• Llanrwst (for Trefriw)
• Betws-y-Coed
• Pont-y-Pant railway station
• Dolwyddelan
• Roman Bridge railway station
• Blaenau Ffestiniog
  • for Ffestiniog Railway

Proposed to reopen

• Tanymanod
• Manod
• Llan Ffestiniog (to reserve the welsh town/village of Llan Ffestiniog, and those who live there could commute with services on the conwy valley line)

The original line terminated at the North Western station (where there were extensive slate yards) to the west of Blaenau Ffestiniog town centre. However, following the closure and removal of a section of the former Great Western Railway line from Bala, a short section of new railway was built alongside the Ffestiniog Railway Company's narrow gauge line in order to connect the Conwy Valley Line with the isolated section of the GWR line, which had been retained to serve the nuclear power station at Trawsfynydd. Years later a new Blaenau Ffestiniog station was constructed in the centre of the town. Beyond the new station, the line was used only for goods traffic connected with Trawsfynydd, although occasional special passenger trains have been run at times. In recent years, the traffic from Trawsfynydd has ceased completely and the line has been disconnected from the Conwy Valley Line just outside Blaenau Ffestiniog station. However plans could be considered to reconnect some of disused branch to as far as Llan Ffestiniog in order to expand Conwy Valley services a little further and to boost tourism and offer further most beautiful scenery along the way such as the welsh town-villages of Tanymanod and Manod and expand the current total of 30 to at least 37 miles in length, furthmore it could mean travelling through a part of the Snwodonia National park along the way to Llan Ffestiniog.

There are connections at Llandudno Junction with the North Wales Coast Line (the main line between London and Holyhead) and at Blaenau Ffestiniog with the Ffestiniog Railway to Porthmadog.

References

1. ^ Baughan 1980, page 117
2. ^ Baughan 1980, pages 128-130
3. ^ Photos of Llanrwst station, signal box and crossing loop]www.penmorfa.com; Retrieved 2010-06-08
4. ^ BBC NEWS | UK | Wales | North West Wales | Campaign to improve railway link

Sources

• Baughan, Peter E. (1980). A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: Volume 11 North and Mid Wales (1st ed.). Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-7850-3. OCLC 6823219. 
• Baughan, Peter E. (1991). A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: Volume 11 North and Mid Wales (2nd ed.). Nairn: David St John Thomas. ISBN 0-9465-3759-3. OCLC 26361284. 

External links

• Conwy Valley Railway - Official Site