Welsh Narrow Gauge Loadings 2009 season

The effect of the economic downturn on the Welsh lines is complicated by the Welsh Highland extension. Thankfully the poor loadings observed by me just after Easter have not proved typical with reported increases in the region of 200%. It remains to be seen if this is at the expense of other n.g. lines or is maintained.

Unconfirmed reports (from a promising source) suggested the loadings on the T.R. and V of R. were poor over the Spring Bank Holiday. Does anyone have any confirmation of this or more up to date news please?

The W&L does not release interim statistics. However it appears that 2009 is a substantially better year than 2008 so far and the railway press has referred to double heading of substatial trains being necessary on a number of occasions.

This limited picture suggests that lines with something new to offer, or which lie in easy day trip range of population centres have fared well so far. Has anyone information relating to Corris, Bala, Teifi or Llanberis please?

 

The Teifi Valley Railway is on my doorstep (5 miles south of me), so I'll pop down there soon and find out what's going on. I know they have a new station platform open at Henllan, which is right by the car park. I might pop down there tomorrow, it's only 10 minutes from me.

I guess I ought to get involved there at some point as well - after all they are a 2' gauge railway, with connections to North Wales ("Sgt Murphy" worked at Penrhyn Quarry, and later on the Ffestiniog, before being purchased by Teifi Valley, and quarry hunslet "Alan George" also worked at Penrhyn Quarry - plus the Joffre being restored was at Blaenau Ffestiniog for a while).

My general feeling is that they are a very small operation (2 miles long at the moment, but hoping to extend back to Pentrecwrt, and on to Newcastle Emlyn - a total of around 6 miles maybe?), but their overhead costs seem low, and they always seem to keep ticking over. That's just my general feeling though - I'll ask how they are doing when I visit and report back.

I think the very small lines (e.g. Teifi) with low operating costs, and very large lines (e.g. FR/WHR/WHHR network) with large numbers of volunteers and financial support, seem to do well, it's the "in between" ones that can struggle most. I hope the wonderful Talyllyn Railway (one of my favourites) is doing better now - I'll call in there on the way back the next time I'm up at WHR on track maintenance (3 weeks from now). If I didn't work at FR/WHR/WHHR, I'd be volunteering at the Talyllyn in a hearbeat! Lovely atmospheric line...

 

I'm told FR loadings are up around 20% on last year.

 

FR loadings

These numbers from the FR staff newsletter:

FR half year figures 'make pleasing reading'. July was the best this century, as traffic on the FR and WHR continued its upward trend. On the Ffestiniog, traffic income to the end of June is up 12% on 2008 and on WHR it is 82% up, a rise from £186k to £338k.

The most satisfying thing about these figures is that the FR is well up too. Many sceptics had predicted a fall as passengers opted for the new WHR section, especially now it has come so much closer to Porthmadog.

We had to start manning Beddgelert station from early June when the guards’ takings topped £1,600. We have appointed our first station mistress at Beddgelert to sell tickets, talk to passengers, help with departures and generally keep things moving.

Passenger totals on the FR are going up as well. On two separate trains we have had loadings of 300 people, a figure not seen for a number of years. On one day 1,242 people passed through Harbour Station.

In the first three weeks of use, the new Casio on-train ticket machines brought home approximately £11,000 in on-train ticket sales.

 

I did a tour of the some of the Welsh Narrow gauge last week and they all looked in rude health, admittedly that is on the basis of a single visit to each.

On the journies I took, the two busiest were W&L where I had to stand on the carriage end platform as I couldn't find a seat on my return journey, and on the FR where again I struggled to find a seat out of Porthmadog due to several pre-booked coach parties.

The Snowdon mountain railway was equally as busy with packed carriages on all the ones I saw when I visited. The summit visitors centre makes an amazing difference to the experience though and there is apparently in excess of a 1000 people a day using the service according to the guard I asked.

The TR, V of R and WHR all seemed to have good load factors as well, although all had spare seats when I travelled, probably due to indifferent weather on those days.

 

Slightly off topic, so please accept my apologies....

Pontypool & Blaenavon were also slightly down at easter, but are now approx 15% up in total on last year. Must have been all those easter eggs!!

Regards,
Ian,
Isle of Wight