All aboard for the wonder of Wales
Robert Harries went on one of the most epic train journeys in the world right here on our doorstep – it runs so close to the sea, you feel like you’re in it...
AS Soon as you glide away from Aberystwyth, it’s pretty clear that you’re in for a rather special train journey. Wales is full of beauty, full of wonder, but I’m ashamed to say that thus far in my almost 40 years of living in it I have mainly only experienced what the south of the country has to offer.
I’ve been to north Wales before (an Eisteddfod and I went to Yr Wyddfa once), but I’ve never really sat and watched it. Today, all of that is going to change as I take the three-hour train trip to the Llyn Peninsula which ventures north along the west Wales coastline from Aberystwyth.
It basically hugs the seaside for the majority of the journey, leading the Guardian to describe it in 2016 as one of the “10 most epic” train journeys in the world. IN THE WORLD.
Well there was only one way to discover if the hype was justified, so a quick chat with an editor later and I set off early in the morning from south-west Wales to Aberystwyth by car. I had hoped to make the whole journey to Pwllheli by rail, but since we live in such a massive and vast nation I decided it would take too long to travel by train from Carmarthen to Aberystwyth.
Instead, I drove to the student capital of midwales and the first win of the day occurred when I was kindly told that if you’ve booked a train ticket, you can park for free at Aberystwyth station. What a wonderful way to encourage rail travel and reduce the amount of cars on our roads – if only more stations followed suit (hi, Carmarthen).
Now, I’ve been on nice train journeys in Wales before. The opening of the jaunt from Carmarthen to Swansea is beautiful as it wraps around the estuary which splits Llansteffan with Ferryside, as is the Heart of Wales line from Llanelli to Craven Arms. With those two journeys, you have to wait for the beauty as you hurtle past more modest, industrial views.
on this journey, the beauty hits you in the face as soon as the train begins to move. Even before you reach Dovey Junction (13 miles north of Aberystwyth), you’re surrounded by green fields, the beautiful River Dyfi and mountainous backdrops which are part obscured by the mist of a summer’s early morning. As a boy from a town in south Wales, this is like being in a different country.
The journey I’m on is part of the Cambrian Railway line, which wows in two different parts: you can join it further east into England at Shrewsbury or, like I’m doing, at Aberystwyth. The main line – which calls at Welshpool, Newtown, Caersws and Machynlleth – meets the coastal line at Dovey Junction, where I change for the remainder of my trip north.
The Cambrian Railway spans 120 miles in total and was completed in the 1860s and has been lauded as an “incredible feat of Victorian engineering” by Visit Wales. It did not form part of the thousands of miles of track affected by the Beeching Report of 1963 (“The Reshaping of British Railways”) which looked to cut costs across the UK’S railway network, but parts of the route have been subsequently threatened in the ensuing decades.
Thankfully, although some stations have closed since the 1960s, the line is still very much alive and clearly acts as a huge shot in the arm for tourism in mid and north Wales, especially during the summer months.
Managed by Transport for Wales, the train I’m on is very comfortable and spacious. As someone whose main experience of train travel is the commute between Carmarthen and Swansea and coming home from Cardiff on a match day, I’m not really used to this – leg room, a cushioned headrest, my own plug and USB port and a decent Wi-fi connection. I barely have these luxuries at home. There’s no coffee trolley, but I can’t nitpick too much – it’s just nice to sit on a train and not feel like a giant locked in an attic.
After the change at Dovey Junction, the train takes you north through more glorious scenery and past seaside spots including Aberdyfi, Tywyn, Fairbourne and Barmouth and climbs further and deeper into north Wales, including past the wonderful Harlech Castle, Porthmadog and Criccieth.
It truly is a coastal line in every sense of the word and I’m extremely fortunate to have picked one of the few-and-far-between sunny and clear days that post-june 2023 has thrown up. It’s beautiful, relaxing and tranquil. At some points the line runs so close to the sea that you feel like you’re in it.
The beauty is clearly not lost on both those who live along the route and tourists alike, as every stop attracts more and more passengers and it’s very nice to see parts of Wales thriving. People are getting on with buckets and spades, bats and balls, inflatables – this could easily be a magical mystery tour of sandy locations.
As if the journey along the Cambrian Railway wasn’t exciting enough, a new and innovative concept was introduced earlier this month which enhances the experience for train travellers even more. The Window Seater Audio Guide app, which is available to download on mobile phones, connects rail travellers to the world outside their window, free of charge, with place-based audio guides that draw on stories from communities along the line.
My only criticism of the whole near seven-hour round trip (including a 50-minute stop at Machynlleth on the return) is the fact that the train only has two carriages, something which seems to be a wider issue across Wales – most trains I catch outside Cardiff and Swansea seem to be made up of no more than two carriages.
This part of the country is so pretty that it deserves to be shown off to as many people as possible, but at times there is standing room only as we chug north beside the sea. That aside, there is nothing to criticise along this journey and with a return trip offering you a full day out for just £20.80, it’s hard to imagine another journey, anywhere in the UK, which is as simultaneously spectacular and peaceful as this one.
The Heart of Wales line is superb, but the Cambrian Line on a summer’s day – where views of the sea are only interrupted by the odd campsite, a collection of holiday lodges or a golf course here and there – just puts it on another level again.
It’s a wonderful day out which showcases the very best that coastal Wales has to offer, with scenic delights so perfect that they achieved something I didn’t consider possible – they enhanced my pride at being Welsh.
After the Aberystwyth to Pwllheli service, the next trip mentioned by the Guardian in their “world’s most epic train journeys” list is the one which connects the city of Vancouver and the alpine town of Jasper in south-west Canada, so I might ask my boss if I can experience that on expenses in order to compare it to the one I enjoyed in north-west Wales. It would only be fair.