A derelict railway in Llangefni

Well, it wouldn't be a trip to Wales without a lot of railway photography, though there's something a bit different with this one.

We went to the town of Llangefni, Anglesey, to meet up with my (Ben's) family who live on the island, for a bit of a walk through the Dingle nature reserve up to the reservoir.  The walk started at the former Llangefni station, on the old Anglesey Central Railway, and the paths generally follow the line north.

I don't agree with trespassing on railway lines, but there wasn't a chance of getting run over on this one, as a) a bridge on the other side of Llangefni had been ripped out after a collision by a lorry, and b) no trains have run here for three decades.

Mindyou, always best to take care, and be wary of the condition of the trackbed... this bridge was fenced-off for a very good reason.

The trackbed was easily accessible in several places, and was indeed being used as an unofficial path and dog-toilet in several places.

It's a real shame this line is closed, as it's wonderfully scenic.  The railway shut to passengers (like so many others) in the 1960's, but was kept open for chemical freight to Amlwch up until 1993.  When the chemical traffic switched to road, the line was mothballed.  And then nothing.

A preservation group have been pushing for a mix of heritage line, and mainline railway, and valiantly clearing the greenery on much of the track to make it clear there's still a railway here.  It's come painfully close a number of times, but the privatisation of the railways of the UK in the early 1990's stalled progress, and it seems that whenever the railway gets close to being reopened, the owning body (British Rail, Network Rail) goes through a change of ownership.  Sustrans, the cycle charity, have been pushing to rip-up the tracks and have a cycleway installed instead since the chemical traffic ceased, even to the point of carrying out negotiations with Network Rail and local political authorities to try and hurry the scheme along.  The Welsh Assembly Government, pro-public transport (at least, as long as it's within 20 miles of Cardiff) have recently rejected reopening the line at all in their transport plans, but the preservation body have a lease on the line (not that this matters, as Network Rail put their lease negotiations on hold before, whilst talking to the cycle-path supporters), and it's not terrifically clear what's happening now.  

It's appallingly short-sighted an attitude, as the railway is, effectively, there.  Yes, after 30 years the tracks need relaying, the embankments would need work, and several bridges would do with replacing.  Maybe if things had moved quicker in the 1990's, and either British Rail or the preservationists had cracked-on whilst the line was still in use, it would be different.  With privatisation looming, delay was the order of the day however; why spend money on an asset that you were planning to sell off?

  But... there's no buildings across the trackbed, no gardens cheekily extended over the line, no compulsory-purchases needed.  There's just a railway line, overgrown in places but formation intact, serving several villages and a couple of large towns, with a few potential industrial sites, in a country that's supposedly pushing to get more cars off the road.  The WaG decision is, bizarrely, apparently to have more diesel buses instead.

Slight tangent, up at the reservoir.  There's an Instagram group we follow called 'Accidental Wes Anderson', with compositions like this (looking like the angles he shoots from in his arty films).

Back along the paths down towards a feeding station for the red squirrels, passing back under the line.

Again, exercising caution, as I had no idea what condition the bridge deck was in.  The wood looked in quite good condition, but I wasn't about to bet my life on it, so stayed on the parapets.

Sustrans and the pro-cycling groups have apparently been reaching for a compromise with the railway, with plans for a cyclepath running alongside the line.  I'm broadly in favour of this; yes it might be a bit of a squeeze in places, and would ruin the atmosphere, but that's the selfish point of view of the railway photographer who likes to see the line running through the forest. From a practical point of view, it makes sense to put a cycleway complementing the trains, and it's been done elsewhere to good effect.

Yeah, so this turned into a bit of a rant, but then as a railway enthusiast, it annoys me when assets like this sit disused.  It's painfully close to being reopened, but then it seems to have been painfully close to reopening since about 1993.  

In the meantime, here's this wonderful railway, surrounded by nature, picking its way through the woods.  There's something fascinating about an abandoned railway line, and I'm glad I visited and photographed it before it's either ripped-up, tarmacked over, or reopened.