CALL FOR NEW RAIL LINK

ACAMPAIGN to re-open railways that could 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 was closed as part of the Beeching cuts 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.”

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. 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.

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.

A meeting at Y Galeri, Caernarfon, to discuss the plans is currently scheduled to take place on April 17 at 7pm.