Welsh Highland Railway trip planning

[Vespa]

Considering going to WHR for a Lo g weekend, Porthmadog to Caernarfon and back, tho king of travelling by train or car to Festinniog or Caernarfon, staying in either towns before coming back as I believe it would take 7 hours each way, for the distance I'm thinking of travelling first class, is there a multi day rover ticket ?, what do you get for first class and do they have toilets and dining cars or a case of bring your own packed lunch.





Thanks

 

[ajs]

You might be best to look at the web site for WHR/Festiniog as trains between the 2 towns do not run every day and when they do think there is only 1 return journey a day.

When l travelled the line a couple of years ago, there was no buffet but you could pre order a picnic basket that you collected before boarding.

There is a Pullman observation coach and the adult single fare is now £93 each way. I don’t remember there being toilets on the train.

As l said earlier, you are best advised to look at the website.

 

[WAB]

There is a Pullman observation coach and the adult single fare is now £93 each way. I don’t remember there being toilets on the train.

Considering going to WHR for a Lo g weekend, Porthmadog to Caernarfon and back, tho king of travelling by train or car to Festinniog or Caernarfon, staying in either towns before coming back as I believe it would take 7 hours each way, for the distance I'm thinking of travelling first class, is there a multi day rover ticket ?, what do you get for first class and do they have toilets and dining cars or a case of bring your own packed lunch.

The whole line trip runs once daily on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at around 10 o'clock. If staying in Caernarfon, you could start your journey from there? First class is provided by some rather luxurious Pullman observation carrs with comfortable seating and great views. Worth noting that standard class is pretty good too. There are normally two toilets onboard each WHR train, and one onboard the Ffestiniog. No rovers are available. I believe there is now a trolley service on the WHR or pre-order picnic hampers; as there are just under two hours in Caernarfon over lunch, you might want to visit one of the cafés nearby on Y Maes.

Would be happy to answer further questions.

 

[Egg Centric]

Am going to travel first class Caernarfon- Porthmadog and back tomorrow is there anything you want me to investigate for you*?

*investigation is subject to availability!

 

[Vespa]

Thanks I would be interested in the differences between first and second class, food offerings, coach seatings soft or hard even a first class lounge if there is one and importantly the cost is it cheaper to book on the day or in advance ?.

Thanks

 

[WAB]

Thanks I would be interested in the differences between first and second class,

First class interior
Third class interior

food offerings

Food hampers
Station pub at Porthmadog (recommended)
There is also a café at Caernarfon.

Both ends have plenty of cafés within walking distance of the stations.

coach seatings soft or hard

They are pretty comfortable, particularly in first class.

even a first class lounge if there is one

Not something offered on the railway, unfortunately.

importantly the cost is it cheaper to book on the day or in advance ?.

Thanks

There is no difference in price, but WHR journeys on busy days can sell out a few days in advance, first class particularly so.

 

[Vespa]

Looks very interesting, all those different offerings and specific express train does seems slightly confusing, I'll have to sit down and study the options.

The observation car is particularly interesting, can you book a specific seat ? The rear ones will be very popular.

 

[Egg Centric]

From what I saw today:

1. This is 100000000% worth it. Scenery astonishing except perhaps a couple of miles around Caernarfon where you can't see much other than trees surrounding a cutting and going the other way once you're a mile out from Porthmadog it's pretty samey for two or three miles, but you do at least have some great mountain views. Of course the day today has been glorious which helps.
2. Re: booking - as someone else said, I think we bought the last tickets for first class when I got them on Thursday evening. There were no observation seats at that point. I would forget doing it during the day.
3. The observation car is actually the "non observation" first class car as well in that it's split 50/50 (without a divider) - it would have been marginally better for us had we been at the observation end but I don't think it made much difference at all really. Importantly there isn't a balcony or anything like you might get on a full size observation car.
4. I had kinda skim read the website as this was rather last minute so thought that either there was an observation car at both ends of the consist or perhaps they turned the observation car on a turntable or something. This wasn't the case so bear in mind on one end of the journey you'll be right be behind the locomotive and not really seeing the "view" out the front. Now if you're a rail enthusiast like me (and presumably you) that's actually brilliant as you get to feel the raw power of the Garrat pulling a ten coach train up a - in one part - 1 in 40 series of S bends - but if you were a normie purely out to look at the view it might not be so great
5. On that note both WHR trains today seemed to have the observation car at the Caernarfon end.
6. I was very glad - again from an enthusiasm perspective - that we chose to leave from Caernarfon. This is because no fewer than 3 Ffestiniog trains came in to Porthmadog during our layover there with all the associated run arounds and so on. The signalling is quite interesting there too.
7. On the other hand if you are a foodie my impression is the lunch would be much better at the Caernarfon end. I don't rate Spooner's cafe for lunch, at least not today - but it does seem like it does a carvery at certain other times. Equally the food offerings (and we looked at a few) around Porthmadog don't seem as good as Caernarfon. Locals may know better though.
8. You almost certainly know this as a Merseysider but DO NOT SPEED in North Wales no matter how much you want to. Saw 3 camera vans on beautiful roads good for extreme discretion had they been in England. Not a problem as I was already aware of this act of naked hostility towards tourists.
9. Additionally, maybe showing my naivety with North Wales here but I was just amazed how much everyone spoke Welsh. People were lovely though, not doing the stereotypical "speak Welsh cause there's an Englishman around". The couple next to us spoke to themselves in Welsh but we had a (very) long chat in English about the merits of vaginal birth and so on...

As a bonus tomorrow we will do the Great Orme Tramway, will report back if I have any insight...

 

[30907]

Just out of interest, was it worth doing both ways? I have done both ways as singles using the N Wales Rover discount, but reckoned Northbound was better for the climb out of Beddgelert.

 

[Egg Centric]

Just out of interest, was it worth doing both ways? I have done both ways as singles using the N Wales Rover discount, but reckoned Northbound was better for the climb out of Beddgelert.

In my view not really but not sure if there's any alternative if going in first