UP THE JUNCTION AT LLANDUDNO

MY WIFE and I were due to visit Llandudno on holiday the week following the publication of Gary Thomas’s note titled ‘Rockin Robin’ (September issue) and so we decided to replicate his journey.

Transport for Wales do not make it easy to use this particular ticket as it cannot be booked on the website (although the website says it can). Nor can it be booked by telephone as the call centre said it had to be booked at one of the stations on the route. As, perhaps I should have expected, the ticket office at Llandudno Junction had never heard of the product. Anyway, with persistence I bought the tickets. We also rang The Ffestiniog to reserve seats, which they willingly did, even though we were not buying tickets from them.

We chose to start the journey an hour later, but otherwise followed Gary’s route and timings. Could I suggest for future articles of this type you include an inset table showing arrival and departure timings for each transfer point, and the waiting time for each. Exactly as Gary reported, timings were adhered to and the trains were clean and comfortable.

The high spot of the journey for us was the sector from Dovey Junction to Porthmadoc along the coast, which was spectacular. The narrow gauge trip was fine, but the undergrowth and the trees obscured the views.

In summary, a great day out for a very low cost. Transport for Wales needs to market this experience and fill many more of the seats on the very nearly empty trains we used. I look forward to the next trip in the series.

Chris Edwards By email