Llandudno railway station

[Cambrian]

Interesting point Bri.  Llandudno does appear as a destination but none of our local stations (except Bangor) feature as originating points for examples.

I had a look at the latest annual passenger statistics from Office of the Rail Regulator which I found on Wikipaedia by searching on Llandudno Station - there are links to all other stations for the same sort of info.

The numbers are interesting:

These rate a mention in ATW's examples

Carmarthern 365k passengers
Milford Haven 54k passengers (yes, 54k)
Pembroke Dock 41k passengers
Haverford West 144k

Now let's see our local ones which are not in:

Junction 313k
Colwyn Bay 290k
Llandudno 287k

The Llandudno figure seems to contradict those "doom and gloom" people who say the trains on the Llandudno line only carry 2 or 3 people!

[mull]

I dont think there is much hope for rail travel in North Wales.
Just read a piece in the latest Railmagazine,issue 687 by Andrew Mourant on Network Wales. He wanted to interview Carl Sargeant   Welsh
 Government Minister for Transport ) but he declined so could only interview Mark Langman ( Network Rail Wales Route Director ).
The whole article runs to 5 pages and is almost all about what is happening in South Wales.
The North Wales coast is not even mentioned the only interest seems to be a link up with Merseyrail for Wrexham to Bidston sometime in the very distant future.
On Page56 is a list of Welsh schemes and the only one in the north is to redouble the track Wrexham to Saltney Junction, perhaps in 2015.
Llandudno Station does not get a mention so I suspect it will not happen.
Plenty of schemes for Cardiff, the Valleys and Swansea areas.
You would think it is 2 countries.   

[Fester]

Funny??  Our local politicians and Councillors (who are readers of this Forum) are very quiet on this subject??

[Cambrian]

Very interesting piece Mull.  A year or so ago Sargeant made appoinments to the "Passenger Users Committee for Wales".  Not one of the members lives north of Abergavenny! Network Rail created a Wales entity last year - previously we had been run from Manchester, Birmingham and Swindon depending on the line of rail.  So our North Wales lines are now managed by NR in where else ..... Cardiff!

[wrex]

All i know is JFS has written to Networkrail and Carwyn Jones so all we can do is wait and hope they send a reply,Mike Williams has promised to let me know as soon as.Of course if we all made our County Councillors aware that they should be asking the questions and earning their wages.

[Cambrian]

Trouble is Network Rail and Welsh Government take not a blind bit of notice of Councillors (at any level) or AMs (of any Party) in the latter (WG)'s case on any issue not just the station.

[DaveR]

WG is run by Labour who are as bent as they come, their powerbase is in South Wales and that's where they spend all their cash to keep their voters happy.

[wrex]

Janet has been in touch with Carwyn Jones and he assures us that the project is on the list but there are just a few problems

[SDQ]

The biggest one being it is in NORTH Wales!

[wrex]

SDQ you are right,there is no real hurry to push the Llandudno station through,they are probably just making sure all southern plans have got enought funding then they will see if the funds are there for us.We should be thankful JFS is on the case,but why do these politicians not get on the case before we get on to them.This development has been stalling for years and i don;t recall one councillor coming out and saying so or pushing thr assembly to acknowledge the north

[Bri Roberts]

wrex, did not this earlier post within this thread address your issue?

There's stuff in the minutes of the Town Council on this.  They have a Public Transport Committee which has the station on each agenda.  Dave is right - but it is the Councils themselves that have no real power over this as the bulk of funding is from other sources (WG, WEFO etc) and the place itself belongs to Network Rail who are the project manager. Ian makes a very valid point as there wouldn't be any discussion locally but for the Transport Committee chaired by Cllr Evans.

[wrex]

As IT SAYS B  RI THE TOWN COUNCIL HAVE NO SAY,SO WHAT HAVE THE TOWNS TEN COUNTY COUNCILLORS BEEN DOING FOR THE LAST 10 YEARS

[Bri Roberts]

I take your point, wrex, and reading this latest Press Release doesn't offer much encouragement either for the future of North Wales Line over to Holyhead.

NEW INQUIRY: CROSS-BORDER ROAD AND RAIL CONNECTIVITY
 
Call for evidence

The Welsh economy is sustained and developed by road and rail links across the border with England and into Ireland. Two routes in Wales form part of the Trans European Network, which link Ireland to Wales and then to England and the rest of the world. The primary cross-border routes are the South Wales to London road and rail corridor and between North East Wales and North West England which share many economic, social and environmental interests. In more rural areas, such as mid-Wales, the social importance of cross-border transport links is also significant.
 
Building on previous Inquiries by the Welsh Affairs Committee in 2008 and 2010, the Committee has agreed to undertake an inquiry into cross-border road and rail connectivity. Among the issues that the committee will examine are:
 
•   the extent to which cross-border public road and rail services are currently provided for and accessed by the Welsh population;
•   the arrangements currently in place to co-ordinate cross-border road and rail transport service provision;
•   the potential impact on Wales of the plans for a High Speed 2 (HS2) Rail Service between London, the Midlands and North of England;
•   the funding of cross-border transport infrastructure; and
•   the progress made on improving co-ordination between the Welsh Government and Department for Transport on cross-boundary issues and matters of strategic importance.
 
The Committee asks for written submissions on these and other relevant issues in accordance with the guidelines stated below. The deadline for written submissions is Thursday 12 April 2012. Public oral evidence sessions are expected to commence soon after.

[wrex]

Ihave just recieved an e-mail confirming that the Assembly has handed over 3.5 million pounds to CCBC and it is the council who is in overall charge of the project.Of course they are now still in talks with Network rail so it is CCBC THAT IS HOLDING UP THE PROJECT.

[Fester]

Could CCBC be holding up the process due to being over cautious, due to the dogs dinner they made of the Maesdu Bridge project?

It's very important that they do not repeat those expensive foul ups.