Llandudno railway station

[DaveR]

Like the ones at Llandudno Junction then! Doesnt one of the railfreight companies 'own' them?

[Cambrian]

No Dave, they belong to Network Rail.  If you look carefully at the Junction ones you can just see some wagons there which I think are owned by EWS (if that operator still exists).  They were left there by the freight operator to ensure the sidings were not "lifted" by Network Rail - or so I was told by a local railwayman!.

[DaveR]

Found this on a Forum:

"I assume that the rake of waggons is still languishing at Llandudno Junction. The freight sidings behind the station are somehow for the exclusive use of EWS/DB (so I dimly recall). Some years back, there were grumblings about the fact that they denied anyone else permission to use them, yet didn't use them theirselves. When NR pressed them about it, a rake of waggons were stabled there to make a point. Weeds and long grass then went about hiding them!"

[SDQ]

Basically they dumped the old wagons there to stop Network Rail using the sidings to stable trains in busy periods or engineering trains overnight and now they're so knackered they can't be moved by rail. I don't think there was ever a plan to lift the sidings as they're quite useful to the company.

[wrex]

Im back,only because Cll P Evans did try to get the Wrex express back into Llandudno,unfortunatley he has failed,we have to make our way to the Junction so that is it ,no more specials for town,so lets close the station and get a cycle path with no sand on it.This town is going to end up like Rhyl and not even Cll Evans or Mostyn estates can stop it,guest houses going to flats and who can blame them,no indoor facilities in this weather is a KILLER.

[Ludo]

I saw this article  in the NWWN when idly browsing the other day - it seems to bear out what you say Wrex....

[SDQ]

so that is it ,no more specials for town,so lets close the station and get a cycle path with no sand on it.This town is going to end up like Rhyl and not even Cll Evans or Mostyn estates can stop it.

With the greatest of respect nobody has said 'specials' can't come to Llandudno, all they have to do is limit the size to 9 carriages instead of 10, it's not rocket science!

[Yorkie]

Watt!! L0L

Nothing to get steamed up about!!   

[wrex]

Obviously its not economical to run small trains so Llandudno does lose out end of.

[SDQ]

We're talking about reducing it by ONE carriage Wrex, I'd hardly call that a small train. I think there's a difference between economical and pure greed by the operators trying to milk as much profit as possible regardless of the rules & regulations of the infrastructure company. I can't understand the rationale behind them saying it's ten carriages or nothing, it sounds like blackmail to me!

[wrex]

Its very hard for me as i used to take my dog on to Trinity Ave playing fields every lunch time in my dinner break and watch train after train pour in,they would be piled up everywhere,now your told they can;t even handle one train due to the sidings having been left to wrot with no maintance,due to the extravaganza there would have been 3 specials calling in over that weekend which would not have happened in decades and unfortunatly will never happen again,anyway im off to catch the 6.34 service train to connect to the Llandudno-Scarborough special what a shame and cock up.

[SDQ]

On another note, how is this train good for tourism when it's actually taking people AWAY from Llandudno to another seaside resort?

[Ann Greeman]

I do believe it would be possible to have 2 specials in LLandudno station at the same time as well as running the normal timetable bringing visitors into Llandudno.Providing all train companies liaise with Network rail regarding the maximum length of train permitted, it is really quite an easy rule to follow, and if done properly makes it SAFE for everyne.That seems to be the key word  you all seem to be missing !

[wrex]

SDQ the train was taking locals away for thot tourists and we spoke to the manager of Statesman rail on our way to Scarborough and he cannot afford to hang around,they are already selling tickets for next years Extravaganza,so he will have to cancel it in a few weeks,so i hope all concerned can get their heads together and quick before this jobsworth loses Llandudno thousands in income.I hope Craigydonian follows this one up this week ,because the Statesman company are not happy.It has taken the extravaganza committee years to encourage specials to come in and we would have had 3 on the Saturday,unfortunatley Llandudno could not cope with 3 so a special from Norwich was not allowed to enter town(Nenta),we had the Statesman and Vintage trains doing steam,which then could not return back into town for some reason,so Ll;andudno is being treated as a joke by Network rail and they need sorting out quick Guto bebb

[Cambrian]

Wrex makes some very valid points.  I get the impression Network Rail are not very positive when it comes to thinking outside the box (no pun intended!) and encouraging charters which ironically add to their revenue.  If there was a will to have 10 coach trains plus top and tail engines, it would happen. The latest excuse (by local management) was apparently they could not change the timetable - surely this was agreed a year ago.  Also they could not provide a couple of signallers to do 30 minutes overtime.  I too am sure Guto Bebb will sort this out as the there seems to be a problem with the management of this organisation.