THE MISSING LINK
ACAMPAIGN to re-open two railways that could help provide a line linking North and South Wales within the country is set to be established in Gwynedd.
The railway from Bangor to Caernarfon and onwards to Afonwen near Pwllheli were closed as part of the cuts made by Dr Beeching in the 1960s.
There have been repeated calls to re-open the line to Caernarfon in the past few years.
Spokesman Elfed Wyn Jones said: “Reopening the railway would benefit villages and towns along the track and by reinstating the line between Afonwen and Bangor, as well as reopening the line between Aberystwyth and Carmarthen, would create a rail network within Wales, between the North and the South, rather than travelling for extra hours and distance through England to complete the journey,” he said.
Campaign group Trawslink
Cymru have been battling for several years to re-open the line south from Aberystwyth to Carmarthen and a £300,000 feasibility study has already been carried out.
The Bangor and Carnarvon Railway was created to build a branch line connecting Caernarfon with the main line at Bangor.
It opened in 1851 as far as Port Dinorwic (now Y Felinheli) and was extended to Caernarfon the following year.
At first Caernarfon station – where the Morrisons supermarket now stands – was a terminus, but a through line to Afonwen and a second branch line to Llanberis were built by other companies.
At first those lines were separate, but in 1870 the Carnarvon Town Line was opened with a short tunnel underneath some streets and connecting the other lines.
The use of the lines declined after 1945 and the line to Afonwen closed in 1964. But the Investiture of Prince Charles at Caernarfon castle in 1969 involved special use of the branch until it too closed in January 1970.
In May of the same year, there was a catastrophic fire in the Britannia Bridge and the rail-borne container traffic was unable to use Holyhead for the Irish ferry services.
Caernarfon goods station was quickly brought back into use. When the Britannia Bridge was reopened to rail traffic the Caernarfon line was finally closed in January 1972.
The line to Afonwen had two branches.
The one to Llanberis branched off almost within sight of the castle. Built by the Carnarvon and Llanberis Railway it opened in 1869.
The other ran from Penygroes to Nantlle and formed part of the narrow gauge Nantlle Railway.
All were eventually incorporated into the Carnarvonshire Railway and later into the London
Midland Scottish (LMS) network on grouping in the 1920s.
Regular passenger service on the Llanberis and Nantlle branches ceased in 1930 but summer passenger excursions from Llandudno to Llanberis ran until 1939 and again from 1946 until 1962.
Since closure the trackbed from Felinheli to Caernarfon has been adapted for use as Lon Las Menai a four-mile long cycle and footpath.
South of Caernarfon a section of the line from Caernarfon to Dinas was incorporated into the reopened narrow gauge Welsh Highland Railway as the first phase of the line, in 1997 and used as part of Lon Eifion.
Prior to use as a cyclepath the trackbed was used as a dedicated road for heavy lorries carrying gravel and sand from a quarry at Bryncir to the construction site of the Dinorwig power station in the late 1970s.
The tunnel under the centre of Caernarfon has been reopened for road traffic.