Blog Article: Direct London-Aberystwyth services with new Aberystwyth-Carmarthen Line

[iantherev]

Let us not forget that an actual Aber station does still exist. It is on the Rhymney line.

Although it owes its name to Aber Junction which is no longer with us. The Aber in question was Abertridwr which was also locally referred to as Aber when I was in school.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Although it owes its name to Aber Junction which is no longer with us. The Aber in question was Abertridwr which was also locally referred to as Aber when I was in school.

There are times when running the Closed Stations Journey quiz comes in useful on matters such as this. The Rhymney Railway opened that station as Aber on 1st February 1894, then re-named it as Abertridwr five years later on 26th June 1899. Closure took place on 15th June 1964.

 

[snowball]

Abergwyngregyn is generally known as Aber and has even been shown on maps as such. It once had a station which I suspect was officially called Aber.

 

[6Gman]

There were a couple of "nice" ex WR Cross Country sets - which had orange curtains and proper high backed seats. There was a sort of 1st class on the Met Camms - orange seats to match the HST's with seat squabs on the very few refurbished sets that somehow Chester Control allowed onto the Cambrian (joke was they kept the best sets for their own area) . The Park Royal sets were without doubt the very worst.

I rather liked the Park Royal units. Always found them restful compared to the rather raw and plastic-ky (if that's a word) Met Camm units.

Even did Pwllheli - Machynlleth on one memorable occasion.

 

[HowardGWR]

Sorry I raised this (well, not really ). What do you controllers do when someone phones in with 'we've got a derailment at Aber'. Send out four (and still counting) breakdown crews?

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Abergwyngregyn is generally known as Aber and has even been shown on maps as such. It once had a station which I suspect was officially called Aber.

The station to which you mention was opened as Aber by the Chester and Holyhead Railway on 1st May 1848 to serve the settlement you mention, but never carried the name of the settlement on its station's nameboards at any time. It was a location of a camping coach. The station closed on 12th September 1960.

 

[Gareth Marston]

Oh well looks like the OP's intention to canvass support for the idea (if that what it was) has fallen on stony ground !

 

[Hetlana]

Oh well looks like the OP's intention to canvass support for the idea (if that what it was) has fallen on stony ground !

Why on earth would an OP not want people to discuss their idea. It has been discussed, so what's not to like?

 

[The Ham]

I keep seeing references to students using the proposed service but how many students use rail these days? When I went to Aberystwyth in 1971 BR picked up my lugguage the previous week and it was waiting at my digs when I arrived. When my daughter left York I had to drive there to collect her belongings.

Although it's not uncommon for parents to Rick up at the start of the year with a car load of stuff and again again to try and get twice as much stuff back again, it is fairly common for students to travel around by train during the rest of the year.

You also have to bear in mind that Uni's like international students (more fees) and given that many of them have to arrive by air the limits of a train are no problem.

My thought on through trains is London isn't a great target for trains via Cardiff (for the various reasons outlined above. As such why not look at a service that could be extended to run on the new line, the one that would appear to be an option would be the Portsmouth/Cardiff services. As it would give good connections to London, the South West and South Coast. You could even run the new services as 2 or 3 coach units and join to/split from with a further 3 coach unit at Cardiff so that you're not carrying around a lot of fresh air.

 

[70014IronDuke]

....
I suppose I will have to agree to disagree, for me Wales is a country and therefore it should have railways that connect up just like any other. Now of course, there is the issue of demand and the fact that the towns up the West coast are small in population. In the 1990s, with devolution, the government had a perfect opportunity to help re-balance and 'reunify' Wales so to speak but blew it. If only the Welsh Assembly and it all the offices had been located in Aberystwyth rather than Cardiff, with the capital moving to Aberystwyth, then a) Wales would have had a capital and a Welsh Assembly situated centrally enough to unite Welshmen, north and south, and b) Wales's population would be a tad more ballanced, if only by a small degree, as Aberystwyth would naturally grow. ...

That's a sort of Attaturk solution/plan - a la moving the capital from Istanbul to Ankara. The Turks worship Attaturk, of course. The problem is, for Attaturk to be worshipped, he needed a war and invasion, or two. And a few million deaths. (Turks, Armenians, Kurds, Greeks etc) Be careful of what you wish for.

So yes, we can talk about levels of demand, or a lack of them even, but its also worth asking why that is the case, namely, why Wales is so divided ...

Because of the reality of geography, perhaps? S Wales had/has coal. C Wales has mountains, lots of them, which can support merely a few sheep farmers, except when said mountains contain gold or slate. N Wales has coast - within reach of Liverpool and Manchester, which just happened/happen to have lots of jobs and people wanting nice places to live and holiday in.

 

[Marton]

Depends how much per head the people of the country are prepared to pay for it.

What is “the country”. Barnett still applies...

 

[Gareth Marston]

What is “the country”. Barnett still applies...

There is a devolved pot of money for Welsh Rail Infrastructure - its spent on ineffectual playing to the gallery schemes like the A465 dualling and the M4 Pretend Relief Road instead.

 

[Michael.Y]

Quite why one train a day taking in excess of 5 hours via Carmarthen would be more attractive is unclear.

The Welshywonks don't like having to travel "through England" to get between Aber and Cardiff; simple.