Llangollen Railway Reopening

[Spagnoletti]

The Llangollen Railway Trust are pleased to announce that the railway will be re-starting a limited train service between Llangollen and Berwyn this coming Friday, 9th July.
Trains will run on Friday, Saturday & Sunday departing from Llangollen at 11:00, 12:00, 13:00, 14:00, 15:00 & 16:00.
On the evening of Friday 9th July there will be two additional departures at 19:00 & 20:00 to coincide with the start of the Llangollen International Eisteddfod and the Illumination of the Town Bridge taking place at 21:00.
Train services will be extended to Glyndyfrdwy & Carrog over the next few weeks as essential maintenance works are completed.

 

[D1012]

The Llangollen Railway Trust are pleased to announce that the railway will be re-starting a limited train service between Llangollen and Berwyn this coming Friday, 9th July.
Trains will run on Friday, Saturday & Sunday departing from Llangollen at 11:00, 12:00, 13:00, 14:00, 15:00 & 16:00.
On the evening of Friday 9th July there will be two additional departures at 19:00 & 20:00 to coincide with the start of the Llangollen International Eisteddfod and the Illumination of the Town Bridge taking place at 21:00.
Train services will be extended to Glyndyfrdwy & Carrog over the next few weeks as essential maintenance works are completed.

Fantastic news. Good luck with the reopening. Hope to visit later in the year once the line is open to Carrog.

 

[nigelpryor1]

I'm pleased to here the Llangollen railway is back running again
i hope it goes well tomorrow

 

[Flying Phil]

Well done!
Many people have obviously been working very hard to make this happen. They should feel proud. I hope it all goes well.

 

[ic31420]

Gutted I've only just seen this. Good luck guys any time scales on further progress?

 

[Spagnoletti]

DMU to Berwyn until the end of June. Essential works in Berwyn tunnel and Glyndyfrdwy to be completed before the line reopens any further, hopefully that will be early August.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

DMU to Berwyn until the end of June. Essential works in Berwyn tunnel and Glyndyfrdwy to be completed before the line reopens any further, hopefully that will be early August.

End of July presumably?

 

[Spagnoletti]

End of July presumably?

Ah yes, brain fart.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Ah yes, brain fart.

No worries. Been using the info on this thread to keep up-to-date, someone I know over in North East Wales, who's wanting to visit the Llangollen Railway with his lad.

 

[Ralph Ayres]

I realise things are probably in a bit of a muddle, but someone at the railway really does need to do something about their website. Once you get through various warnings about an expired security certificate it still says that no trains are running for the foreseeable future. Just a long message from the administrators, who if only they now have access to update the website should surely be doing all they can to keep people updated. Nothing on Twitter either since March. Anyone not in the loop on discussion forums like this would never know it had reopened which won't do much for visitor numbers. I'd like to visit later this year but really need a better source for the latest info than stumbling across it on a forum.

 

[kje7812]

Comments on FB suggest the Trust are making a new website.

 

[ic31420]

Comments on FB suggest the Trust are making a new website.

Would still be a good idea to get the old one under control. But wasn't it taken as an asset by the receiver and this may be out of their control?

I'm not sure how receptive the receiver would be to an approach to kill the old site or edit it to direct to a new one. They'd probably just want to sell it. Then again the hosting company may be owed money / be in the creditor list and may not be allowing access

 

[E759]

The Llangollen Railway Trust are pleased to announce that the railway will be re-starting a limited train service between Llangollen and Berwyn this coming Friday, 9th July.
Trains will run on Friday, Saturday & Sunday departing from Llangollen at 11:00, 12:00, 13:00, 14:00, 15:00 & 16:00.
On the evening of Friday 9th July there will be two additional departures at 19:00 & 20:00 to coincide with the start of the Llangollen International Eisteddfod and the Illumination of the Town Bridge taking place at 21:00.
Train services will be extended to Glyndyfrdwy & Carrog over the next few weeks as essential maintenance works are completed.

I think you need to urgently get your Facebook page under control. From reading some of the comments you need to:

Market your services properly (how to get here, timetable, ticket prices, Covid stuff, etc.)
Block comments entirely
Remove all the recent comments from anyone that wasn't a paying customer from 9 July 2021.

For people here who haven't read the Facebook comments: Once you'd waded through the congratulations you find many requests for basic information - which is not provided - and threats of litigation from cancelled wedding customers.

Now I'm totally sympathetic to the fact that the fund put aside for cancelled ticket holders turns out not to be protected after all. But having that conversation played out in public on a forum read by millions of people is doing damage to your company at the worst possible time - approaching peak holiday season.

Anyway, good news you have reopened. Had a very pleasant ride on your line pre-Covid. Loved the tea-room at the station in the middle of the line.

 

[Maybach]

Would still be a good idea to get the old one under control. But wasn't it taken as an asset by the receiver and this may be out of their control?

I'm not sure how receptive the receiver would be to an approach to kill the old site or edit it to direct to a new one. They'd probably just want to sell it. Then again the hosting company may be owed money / be in the creditor list and may not be allowing access

From the current (August 2021) issue of 'The Railway Magazine':

A new website for Llangollen Railway Trust (LRT) is expected to go live shortly. Regrettably, the LRT says the plc's administrator has retained control of the old one and has refused to take it down, which has led to confusion.

 

[ic31420]

From the current (August 2021) issue of 'The Railway Magazine':

Seems a bit bloody minded of them if it is a point blank refusal and would suggest a poor relationship.

I wonder how much they want for the website.
While significant investment will have gone into it I can't imagine the IP or the domain has much resale value.

 

[Worf]

After getting no sensible response from the receiver/administrator as to why they were doing this, I wrote to the Advertising Standards Authority and Google saying the site was showing misleading and factually inaccurate information.

I see the website is now gone completely and is no longer found by Google search.

Whether these two things are related, I do not know, but I imagine a number of other people probably did the same thing.

 

[E759]

There are plenty of llangollenrailway domains available for purchase. Only .co.uk is taken.

 

[Worf]

The actual domain name wasn't important, it was the fact that the duff info came up as No1 on a Google search, and may well have put some people off looking any further. and visiting the railway.

 

[1955LR]

Where does one actually find information on if and when trains are running?

 

[peteb]

So how do you find out if trains are running today if you don't do Facebook? Could someone post a link to a timetable on here? (Apologies to 1955LR, we posted at the same time!)

A visit to North Wales next week in the sun could be a very popular move.....

 

[Worf]

So how do you find out if trains are running today if you don't do Facebook? Could someone post a link to a timetable on here? (Apologies to 1955LR, we posted at the same time!)

Google is your friend.
Try their FB page https://www.facebook.com/llangollen.railway/

 

[1955LR]

If I go to the Facebook page as per link above , and look at page transparency it states "LLANGOLLEN RAILWAY PLC is responsible for this Page.". If I then check in Companies House it advises the Company is in Administration C/O COWGILL HOLLOWAY BUSINESS RECOVERY LLP.
Which raises a doubt in my mind as to what is going on, and can I trust what is listed?

 

[Worf]

If I go to the Facebook page as per link above , and look at page transparency it states "LLANGOLLEN RAILWAY PLC is responsible for this Page.". If I then check in Companies House it advises the Company is in Administration C/O COWGILL HOLLOWAY BUSINESS RECOVERY LLP.
Which raises a doubt in my mind as to what is going on, and can I trust what is listed?

Pretty obvious the FB page is not under control of PLC or administrators. It is being updated virtually daily!
Trains are running as timetabled. Just watch them on Railcam if you don't believe me.
However, the Trust really do need to get their act together and create an up to date website. Not that difficult.

 

[seagull]

Bit of an update, positive news:

https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/llangollen-railway-hit-administration-now-22192592

"A popular heritage railway, which went into administration earlier this year, is now in a healthy financial state according to its new trust board.

It was in March when the Llangollen Railway PLC announced it was insolvent and not legally able to continue to trade with debts of £350,000.

The Llangollen Railway Trust recently held its first annual meeting since the PLC trading arm went out of business halting trains on the scenic line in the Dee Valley."

More text available by following the above link.

 

[D1012]

Good news for the railway. What a shame that I'm going to get very little refunded, if anything, from my train driver experience which I paid a lot of money for in 2019. The current "Trust" do not seem very concerned about the customers who have lost significant amounts of money.

 

[seagull]

It would certainly be nice to think that once on a stable footing, the Trust might be able to work towards restoring some of the goodwill lost because of things like, as you say, bookings cancelled because of having gone into administration. Whether by offering free or heavily discounted replacement experiences, travel and events, or some other means.