Campaigners behind calls to reopen the Aberystwyth to Carmarthen railway line along with Afonwen in Gwynedd have launched a fundraiser to help keep the project going.

Traws Link Cymru was formed in 2013 with aims to reinstate the railway lines between Aberystwyth and Carmarthen, and Afon Wen and Bangor, both of which were closed to passengers in the 1960s under the programme of Beeching Cuts.

The group is aiming to raise more than £2,000 to fund the ongoing campaign.

On Justgiving, Traws Link Cymru says: “Mid and West Wales are currently some of the most deprived areas of the United Kingdom and, indeed, of Western Europe.

“Yet this region has considerable potential in terms of tourism and agriculture; it has an employment pool that could service a wide range of small and medium-scale industries; it has three university campuses and several linked colleges of further education on seven campuses; it has the National Library of Wales; the Royal Commission for Ancient and Historic Monuments; the headquarters of the S4C television channel; and it has a rich and diverse cultural history.

“The current road system is inadequate for the region’s needs, and while the existing railway links eastwards from Bangor and Aberystwyth, and east and west from Carmarthen, are both well-used, they do little to improve regional connectivity.

“Traws Link Cymru has argued that new railway lines between Aberystwyth and Carmarthen and Afon Wen and Bangor could provide the stimulus needed to kick-start economic and social regeneration throughout the region.

“Moreover, a railway line running from Bangor in the north to Carmarthen in the south would not only provide an important transport link between industrial South Wales and the rural north, but it would also bind the country together to produce a more integrated Wales.

For more information visit https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/trawslinkcymru3