Press release from North Wales branch
Railway Development Society
North Wales Branch
Cymdeithas Datblygu Rheilffyrdd
Cangen Gogledd Cymru
++++ Press Release ++++ Datganiad I'r Wasg ++++
28th March 1999
Contact: David Sallery 01745 889783 Rod Fairley 01352 756964
The North Wales branch of the RDS welcomes the announcement that train services between North Wales and South Wales will be improved. At its Annual General Meeting, held in Conwy on Saturday, chairman Rod Fairley said the news that the improved services would all go through Wrexham was especially welcome, as it was something the branch had campaigned for over the last eight years.
But the RDS is also warning that Caernarfon will be left on the sidelines when the new services begin. "Every big town in North Wales will be on the route of the new North-South Wales services," said chairman Rod Fairley. "The exception is Caernarfon, the County town of Gwynedd, because it has no main line station".
In the early 1990s the RDS tried hard to convince local authorities that the short railway line between Bangor and Caernarfon should be relaid. Unfortunately, the idea was rejected and since then the track bed of the old line has been built on, e.g. for the Port Dinorwic/Y Felinheli bypass, but the project is still possible.
"For the price of a small bypass road Caernarfon could gain the benefits of being on the main line rail network of Britain," continued Mr Fairley. "We would expect at least one service a day to Cardiff, plus connections at Bangor. Virgin Trains could run a through service from London to Caernarfon and there would be a train at least every hour to and from Chester. The benefits for tourism are obvious, and the trains would help the town's unemployed to search for work without the cost of buying, insuring and running a car. The environmental benefits are also obvious."
The RDS recently asked the Plaid Cymru group that runs Gwynedd council to state its policy on the Bangor-Caernarfon railway scheme but received no reply.
Said Mr Fairley: "We are now asking Plaid Cymru to make a public commitment to this project, as it will clearly fit all the criteria for European Objective 1 grants. Plaid Cymru makes all the right noises in its transport policy statement but there is no commitment to specific rail schemes such as Bangor-Caernarfon. The voters of Gwynedd need to know before the council election in May if Plaid Cymru is still focused on new road schemes or if it really will support the Labour Government in the drive to encourage people out of their cars and on to the trains. A commitment to Bangor-Caernarfon reopening would also reassure voters all over Wales before the Welsh Assembly election."
NOTES: The Railway Development Society is an independent, voluntary group representing 20,000 rail users in the UK. It is not funded by train companies, political parties or trade unions and uses the principle of one-member one-vote democracy.