The Ffestiniog Railway is inviting passengers to step back into a long-gone era of train travel as it introduces ‘The Victorian' to its portfolio of journey options.
All eight of the other options which were available last year on the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways will also be on offer and tickets go on sale tomorrow at 10:00 for all journeys between late March and early November.
‘The Victorian' will operate on selected days throughout April and May and those booking onto the service will ride in preserved carriages which feature the ornate original livery of the era. They will also be hauled by a traditional Ffestiniog locomotive.
Departure will be mid-morning from Porthmadog Harbour Station and, after being greeted on the platform, the train will set off across the Cob causeway, passing Boston Lodge workshops.
This site houses the world's oldest railway works and has been building and maintaining locomotives and other rolling stock in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
The first steam locomotive, the Double Fairlie Merddin Emrys, was built in 1879 and is still in use today.
A £3.1m grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund has enabled extensive preservation work on Boston Lodge works, preparing the site to work well into the future.
‘The Victorian' will continue up the Vale of Ffestiniog until it reaches Tan-y-Bwlch station, which is set in woodland in the midst of the Snowdonia National Park.
Passengers will have an hour to explore the area with its extensive woodland trails. For those who are less adventurous, the station tearooms will be open and there will be a chance to catch up on history by taking a look at the Interpretation boards which have installed as well as opportunities to watch the woodland birds come to feed on the bird table.
Further ‘Victorian' services may be added, subject to demand. Other services planned include ‘Woodland Wanderer', which also runs between Porthmadog and Tan-y-Bwlch. ‘Mountain Spirit' will run from Porthmadog to the line's terminus at Blaenau Ffestiniog while ‘The Quarryman' will run in the opposite direction.
‘Gelert Explorer' will run from Caernarfon to Beddgelert and ‘The Aberglaslyn' will operate between Porthmadog and Beddgelert. ‘Snowdonia Star' runs from Caernarfon to Porthmadog with ‘The Harbourmaster' running in the opposite direction. Finally, ‘The Cwellyn' will operate between Caernarfon and Rhyd Ddu.
Passengers may also wish to visit the Talyllyn Railway, a little further south of Porthmadog, with trains operating between Tywyn and Abergynolwyn. Both the Ffestiniog and Talyllyn Railways are part of the UNESCO Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales world heritage site.
There is a timetable, but you need to know which service runs on which day! https://www.festrail.co.uk/pdf/timetable_2024.pdf
Not really a timetable then is it.
Named trains might seem odd to the seasoned train traveller…. but it works…… the majority of customers arent enthusiasts… .. they just want a good day out. More important is….. it works! Festiniog accounts are very healthy compared with other preserved railways
I visited last year and found the train name system very difficult to fathom. One could easily give up and not bother. Just give us a timetable in the traditional way. It works!
Absolutely correct George. Had to prise a working timetable from the booking office staff, who couldn’t sell tickets for intermediate stations, options for train+walk not evident. Too hard. I e:mailed a polite moan, no reply.
As _everyone_ else so far has said:
This idea of booking trips like picking food from a restaurant menu is bizarre, though I can see that cash-strapped passengers may want to book a trip halfway and back only at a reduced fare, but surely that was an option already? If not, it could have been done without dressing it up as an ‘experience’ with a name (presumably a consultant in the marketing industry is involved?), which is a bit… much? A return to a plain, old-fashioned timetable would be most welcome.
I’d also hoped to travel Caernarvon to Blaenau and back in a day, which I don’t think is now possible? Maybe not even Caernarvon to Blaenau one-way, then get back via the Conwy Valley and North Wales Coast lines?! As John Dillon has commented, that’s putting me off from travelling.
Why on earth can’t we have train times and destinations? The Woodland Wanderer means nothing to the average customer.
My family booked a train trip last year and on the day it only went halfway to tan_y-bwlch instead of to Blaenau Ffestiniog grandchildren and grandad very disappointed at the results and the expense
Lots of named services travelling over bits of the line. No doubt there is some kind of philosphy behind this, but I miss the plain, straightforward end-to-end timetable.
Agree John. I have given up travelling on the Ffestiniog Railway and Welsh Highland due to lack of of timetabled trains.