Trawsfynydd and Blaenau Ffestiniog Railway

There are less than half a dozen VOR volunteers and they are involved with trackside only. Any takers, gratefully received...

 

With all the other outdoor attractions coming to the area it would be good as a Velo-rail type thing and would probably be popular as one. . If not a cycle way for families who don't want to cycle up massive hills.

 

Just because you have joint marketing doesn't mean you have more visitors. You still have the same number of holiday-makers who probably only want to visit one railway during their holiday. So the existing revenue is spread more thinly.

Just like all those coffee shops on the high Street. Each new one opening doesn't make people drink more coffee. They just spread out more thinly, putting pressure on the smaller independent businesses.

 

Yes and no. Certainly, one of the reasons I keep going back to North Wales year after year is that there is such a concentration of heritage railways there; so there is always something new going on to draw me back, like an engine just returned from overhaul, or a gala event. Admittedly I am a railway enthusiast, though, and most people wouldn't think like that.

Also, there is definitely something to be said for not spreading volunteers and resources too thinly. The Gwili seemed to get a real fillip when the Swansea Vale scheme folded and joined them. Better to have one really good railway than two mediocre ones, IMHO.

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It depends whether the market is saturated, though. Similar new businesses opening can boost the overall market, by persuading more people that they want that type of service.

Whether there’s the capacity in that market in N Wales, though, is another question.


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This was the argument many within the FR put forward against rebuilding the WHR. Do the traffic figures support this claim? If we take the WHR as a major new competitor we would expect traffic numbers (assuming numbers across the region stay static) to fall across the board at everywhere from the FR to Bala, Llanberis, Fairbourne, Snowdon, down to TR and VoR.

The only line to struggle is Llangollen and that does not seem to be because of traffic related issues. PQR failed for other reasons.

What is perhaps significant is that the number of attractions in Blaenau are fewer than there were in the 1980s.

It seems to me that all those lines have survived the WHR and the WHR has survived despite the presence of so many other lines. IMO North Wales is a tourist location where visitors are more likely to be interested in going to more than one line.

But maybe someone with access to the numbers can give a more accurate assessment of how many visitors visit only one line or multiple lines.

 

Whats the problem with the Llangollen?

 

It may or may not have entered a voluntary insolvency agreement, see here for more: https://national-preservation.com/threads/llangollen-railway.22171/page-5#post-2551881

 

You have a point, but markets can grow. To use your analogy, people drink far more coffee these days than they did 20 years ago. People were writing to the Railway Magazine in the last 1960s bemoaning preservation schemes on the basis that more than enough railways and locomotives were preserved already and any more would dilute the market - before the SVR had eveb opened to the public.

That being said, this proposal seems like a no-hoper to this particular armchair observer.


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I think the Danish velorail has proper train days as well. Start off as a Velorail, and who knows. Would be appealing to the outdoorsy types, and you could have electric bikes for the less abled. But people go to Wales wanting a go on their great little trains, mot a diesel shunter and a mark 1. Remewmber, some 3 miles of it were 2 feet gauges a long time ago... Best left until Network Rail either close it or reopen it, like save the Llangollen springs to be a more pressing issue!

 

Would be fab as either an extension to the FR or a Velorail scheme IMHO. The scenery would rival the WHR, but by the same token, that could cause issues...

Will

 

As I've said before, in an area with so many already established lines (and other competing attractions) any new set up like this has to have a USP - and so far it doesn't.
The velorail idea might just offer that USP but I can't help feeling that these guys would be better off channelling their enthusiasm into supporting one of the established railways.
Ray.

 

Methinks that the proposed new nuclear reactor at Trawsfynydd may put a stop to this. IF Network Rail reopen the line for nuclear traffic again, or construction materials, then perhaps a proper station/platform at the site of the terminus may be a possibility for weekend extensions to the existing Conwy Valley line similar to what was done by BR. I have my doubts though whether the proposed battery units would be able to cope though...

 

I thought the proposed (due to arrive this year) units were hybrids?

 

Llangollen is certainly not the only Welsh line to have struggled. I gather that for a long time the Talyllyn basically relied on the preservation society to subsidise operating losses - although in the last few years they have been pushing hard to turn things around. (How successful they have been, I don't know.)

Similarly, Fairbourne relied on subsidy from its owners for many years. Since the principal benefactor died they, too, have been pushing to cut costs and increase visitor numbers. They have had some success but I gather they are still well short of the numbers they were getting even in the early '80s - and the line was considered to be in deep trouble then!

As marshall5 says, new lines can succeed but they need a USP. I would argue that most of the Welsh lines do have a USP - no two of them are the same after all! - but they need the right marketing to get that message out there and entice the visitors a.) to come to North Wales in the first place and b.) to ride on their railway once they get there.

 

Isn't the Fairbourne doomed along with the village? Its sea defences are no longer to be maintained?

 

Currently planned demise is around 2050.

 

See me out then.

 

I can remember 'The Great Little Trains of Wales' advertising venture in the 1970s. Unfortunately, despite the Welsh Assembly, and devolution, there is no joined up thinking anymore.

Cheers,
Julian

 

It's still going

https://www.greatlittletrainsofwales.co.uk/