Editor,

Another year is passing with no excursion trains running on the Cambrian Line.

What is the importance of excursion trains? One such train can bring 300 to 400 passengers to the Welsh coastal resorts. Those passengers will patronise cafés and shops and so keep Welsh people in employment through the trade generated.

The present operating system has to change to allow more trains to access the Cambrian Line. West Coast Railway has fitted the necessary equipment to two of its diesel locomotives to operate from Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth and Pwllheli and so allow excursion trains to run but they have never been used.

Transport for Wales has allowed steamhauled trains to operate on the Conwy Valley and Heart of Wales Lines this year but not on the Cambrian. When Thomas Savin and his men built the Cambrian Coast Line it was to bring people into Wales. There is a demand to reopen the Aberystwyth to Carmarthen railway. Before this is done, the money has to be found to change the present operating system on the Cambrian Lines, possibly reinstating some of the passing loops to bring it back to British Rail days when excursion trains were a regular feature. The regular service trains are the most important on the lines, but with more flexibility you can have excursion trains too and so benefit the Welsh economy.

Chris Magner, Bridgnorth, Shropshire.

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