FR & WHR & WHHR News

I’m not sure this is great news. Speaking as a resident.

 

From the link, the decision seems to be very dependent on a previous (2006) approval which was even bigger. I see the advantages of the facilities proposed, but I'd say the building looks tall and modern for the locality, whilst the existing shelters fit in well.

 

I’ve not seen the application, but it mentioned it was a lower profile building in sympathetic materials - certainly not another Caernarfon?
If we travel on the WHR it’s normally from a base at Beddgelert and the station always seems rather lacking.

 

Doesn’t strike me as being an attempt at a heritage style building:
https://www.placenorthwest.co.uk/wp...lert-station-building-from-das-p-plandocs.jpg

 

I think the design is unsympathetic, and I think the effect on the village overall has not been fully taken into account.

 

Thanks, I can see the problem now @21B

 

Really? It's no replica yet is clearly influenced by traditional railway architecture, much like the modern WHR. Much more attractive than the previous proposal and the adjacent housing estate IMO.

 

It’s rather large and sits on a dominant position. In addition the village is reliant upon visitors. It is certainly not the case that they all arrive by train, but there is a noticeable positive effect in trade on the days the trains terminate at Beddgelert. If that goes away because the railway captures that trade, then there are fewer positives about having the trains. Railways are not universally popular, and good relations with the neighbours are important. I cannot say I was impressed at all earlier in the year when there were some really large fires started by the trains, and I am a supporter and WHR member.

 

I haven’t seen the previous proposal so I can’t comment.

This version only has a vague railway look.
Since you ask, here’s my 2p worth:
The flat canopy looks cheap and awful.
The floor to ceiling windows beside the platform look like something from a modern church.
The side of the building looks far too modern with so many windows.
There’s no decoration which was typical of most railways.

I’m pretty sure 99% of people would identify it as a modern building.

There are many examples of new build railway buildings that blend well with their location/railway. On the SG see Kidderminster or Broadway and on the NG, several stations on the VoR or Seathorne Bank on the LCLR.

A missed opportunity

 

Personally I don't think the VofR station at Aber blends well with it's surroundings at all. It's very in your face and luminous. It doesn't look very narrow gauge railway at all. It's all nicely executed but also very pastiche at the same time. Each to their own though.

The WHR house style was mostly cheap as chips rusty tin shack. Beddgelert looks nothing like the original station and neither do the trains. So how would a mock GWR station work any better? It won't even be on the platform like a traditional railway station.

The surroundings at Beddgelert station are mostly open landscape and the ugly Oberon Wood estate. So I can see why the national park want a building that is quite unobtrusive and uses similar materials to the landscape it sits in.

At the end of the day the railway needs a building that meets it's needs and gets planning consent. It will be a lot better than the current arrangement. There are far too many things to do and anything that gets pushed into the too difficult pile just ends up not happening.

 

I’m sure plenty will spend their spare cash in the village. There will also be those like my family who had a return trip last year, pottered into the village, bought a postcard, then sat on the train waiting for it to go. Nothing against Bedgellert but it wasn’t what we wanted to do - the train ride and scenery sold it to us. We would have loved to sit in a station cafe and have a brew!

 

Beddgelert.

You’re sort of making my point.

There are multiple places in the village that do tea and cakes or something more substantial. The concern I feel is how much trade that currently comes to the village by train might in future stay on the railway. Great for the railway in one sense, but doesn’t help with its image within the local community, which is a bit mixed.

I am sure that I would do the same if I were running the line, but more outreach is needed.

Over the winter the railway was looking for local volunteers to help clear the trees post storms. A fairly common view was why should I, it does nothing to help me. Fair or not, that’s the perception of a significant number. All I observe is that this development doesn’t really help that.

 

sorry to loop back to this but I don’t regularly look at this thread.. when they say T.R.S. Do they mean TRPS?

 

I’m not sure that was the point I’m making. Those like me out for the train ride and scenery will probably have a brew at the station (instead of the one we had at Port!). Those who are going to see the village will likely still do so and have a brew there.

I presume the reason the railway runs trains is to benefit itself and enable its growth and survival. I suspect the reason a Beddgelert shop sells things is to enable its growth and survival. Neither owes each other a living.

 

People go to Beddgelert by train. At present more of them go into the village than may well be the case once the building is built. When that happens there will be fewer reasons for the village to support the railway.

 

How does the village support the railway currently?

 

Beddgelert was a thriving tourist spot before the railway was reopened and yet there was opposition to its restoration. Now it's been open for a while there is a fear that the railway will keep some of it's custom to itself by adding some onsite catering? Classic nimbyism.
I remember talking to the then manager of the forest campsite before the railway was reopened. I suggested that it would be a worldwide attraction and bring lots of tourists to the area. His response was a highly negative string of contradictions.
" Nobody will get off, they'll just stay on the train. It will be too expensive and no-one will travel on it. It will never pay it's way and close again after a couple of years like last time. It will spoil the peace. We get enough congestion already. Nobody in the village wants it."
This from someone who's livelihood depended on tourism! I got much the same when I went into one of the village shops.

 

It’s a very difficult place to earn a living.

 

As is most of North Wales. There must be many villages and towns that would relish having the F&WHR on their doorstep - onsite catering or not.

 

It’s also over 15 years since the railway reopened to Beddgelert. The WHR is a local business. If some of the other traders in the village don’t see it that way, perhaps at least part of the problem is of their own perception.