File:1980-04 Railway Magazine p178-179.jpg

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JOHN ROUTLY, CHAIRMAN OF THE FESTINIOG RAILWAY, ANTICIPATES THE COMPLETE RESTORATION OF THE LINE, A CHALLENGE FOR THE FESTINIOG RAILWAY SOCIETY

HOW can it happen when public expenditure is being cut hard in almost every direction that nearly £1 million of public money is being spent to enable the Festiniog Railway to restore its terminus in the High Street of Blaenau Ffestiniog?

We always knew, when we started 25 years ago, that it was a community project, that it was something that should be done for many reasons and was well worth doing. We knew it had traffic potential. Above all, we knew it would be enjoyed by many thousands of people as a volunteer project for leisure time and on which we should all get hooked. In these years of restoration it has become obvious that there would be much wider community benefits.

When we started Porthmadog was a dead town, but 79 per cent, of our passengers told us on survey forms that they visited Porthmadog in order to travel on the railway. The prosperity of the town grew with us. Blaenau Ffestiniog is still a dead town and it can hardly wait for the return of the FR with the influx of tourists it will bring. Apart from those travelling from Porthmadog (nearly 250,000 in 1979) there should also be great numbers from the North Wales coastal resorts to start their Festiniog Railway journey at the mountain end. Before the severance, 60 per cent of our traffic originated at that end. The opportunities are terrific.

Why this great expense when the Festiniog Railway, largely by volunteer work, is already at Tanygrisiau only 1 1/4 miles from Blaenau?

Our Board had plans, made some years ago, to establish our terminus opposite the unmanned BR station (formerly LNWR) on a seven-acre site with car parks and ancillary buildings. The people, particularly tradesmen, of the town thought otherwise. They have seen hundreds of thousands of tourists each year going to the old slate quarries, which are now tourist attractions situated outside the town, giving the town a miss. They could see the same happening to the FR tourists if we terminated on the outskirts.

Democracy then took over and, of course, we helped. The County Council has the statutory responsibility to co-ordinate transport in its area and so the Gwynedd County Council, led by Alun Jones, its Chief Executive, together with the Meirionnydd District Council, called meetings of all the various interested parties including the Welsh Office, MPs, the European Economic Community, the Development Board for Rural Wales, the Welsh Development Agency, the Wales Tourists Board, local business interests and, of course, British Railways and ourselves. We were asked to change our plans and return right to the town centre, near where the old joint GWR/FR Central Station used to be.

We found our original Diffwys terminus, hemmed in by the mountain at one end and the High Street at the other, was simply not long enough for a modern peak-period train. We need 500 ft. platforms plus 200 ft. for engine turn-round. We then looked at the site of the old Great Western station on the other side of the High Street adjoining the Queens Hotel. Some massive land clearance would be needed to create enough space but it could be made big enough. This appealed to the planners who realised the Queens bridge would no longer be needed to allow the railway to pass under the High Street to Diffwys. Removal of the bridge would open up the possibilities of a really attractive town centre. We said that British Railways would also have to move to the same terminus because of our connection with the Conwy Valley line for tourists and the main line to Euston and the fact that we are the link between the Conwy Valley and Cambrian Coast lines. Consultants, Robinson, Jones Partnership Limited, were instructed to work with us, the County Council and British Railways, and so the new Central Station scheme was born. The station will comprise a single platform for BR and an island platform for the FR, the two linked by a footbridge leading from station buildings in the High Street.

The Festiniog Railway will be double-tracked from Central Station to the outskirts of the town so that a separate line will be available for the FR to reconnect to Llechwedd Slate Caverns and Gloddfa Ganol and finally restore its links with the slate industry (in its new tourist guise) which gave birth to the railway in the first place. There are some details relating to buildings at the Central Station which are subjected to alteration, but the contract has been placed and it is likely to be completed in the summer of 1981.

The total contributions from the various agencies and authorities involved in financing the scheme are: Development Board for Rural Wales £285,000 Welsh Development Agency 68,000 Welsh Office Urban Aid Programme 247.000 Meirionnydd District Council 166,000 Gwynedd County Council 166,000 Highway Authority (Gwynedd County Council) 56,000 £988,000 These contributions will be reduced by any aid 'which may be forthcoming from the European Redevelopment Fund.

Only nine years ago the Board was in the final stage of the 16-year legal battle for totally inadequate compensation from the Central Electricity Generating Board whose power-station lake at Tanygrisiau had severed the line from Blaenau Ffestiniog and almost frustrated our restoration.

Perhaps the challenge of that almost insuperable obstacle was what galvanised the tremendous volunteer effort, aided by the Wales Tourist Board and Manpower Services Commission, to build the deviation and reach Tanygrisiau. It now seems that the gilt is being put on our gingerbread by this ambitious scheme of public expenditure.

It is all for extremely sound socio-economic pur poses, of course. How else could a hard-headed government authorise it, but to the thousands of Festiniog Railway supporters it seems almost like correcting an error of legal history.

Every penny of FR profit has to be spent in supporting the immense voluntary engineering project which has brought the railway back to Blaenau. The National Westminster Bank has also supported us with loans for these capital expenses and at the seasonal peak the overdraft approaches £300,000, dropping to a little over £100,000 in the summer.

The Festiniog Railway relies on volunteers not only to help to run the service and man the shops, but also to continue much pioneering work still to be done. There is a lot of civil engineering to be tackled between Tanygrisiau and Blaenau if we are to be ready to enter the town when the Central Station is complete in 1981. This presents a big challenge, particularly as simultaneously we have to uplift the wages of the fifty or so permanent staff who have made their contribution, which has been almost a sacrifice, by wage restraint during the years of reconstruction. The Central Station scheme therefore has much relevance to volunteering.

The Foreword of the EEC application submitted by the Chief Executive of the Gwynedd County Council reads: “The Festiniog Railway Company has had one aim since the restoration of the line from Porthmadog began in 1954—to return to its upper terminus in the centre of Blaenau Ffestiniog. When it is achieved it will signify both an end and a beginning for the Festiniog Railway.

“It will mark the completion of one of the largest light railway restoration schemes undertaken anywhere in the World. From its commencement the work has relied largely upon voluntary labour. It will also mark the beginning of a new era for this world-famous narrow-gauge railway which should double its potential as a tourist attraction over the next decade. In the process it will undoubtedly bring about an increase in the prosperity of Blaenau Ffestiniog, much as it had done over the last twenty years for Porthmadog.

“The Railway Company could have chosen to locate its Blaenau Ffestiniog terminus on the outskirts of the town by the present British Rail Station. However, the Company is aware of its social responsibilities and considers that the creation of a joint narrow-gauge and main-line railway terminus on the derelict site of the former interchange station with the Great Western Railway will do more than restore the Festiniog Railway to the town centre. It will also create a unique opportunity for the town and its neighbourhood to help itself to develop a new and permanent element to their economic base founded on tourism.”