Reopening The Anglesey Central Railway
Note that this post was updated in October 2021.
The Anglesey Central Railway is a disused branch railway, where the track-bed is intact although overgrown, that runs across the Island of Anglesey from the North Wales Coast Line to the port town of Amlwch.
It carried freight until 1993 and is one of those remote lines, where a case can be made for reopening., using simple station designs and affordable trains.
On its route it serves the County Town of Llangefni and these stations are proposed, either on the branch or the island
With the existing stations on the North Wales Coast Line, a useful local railway could be created.
But would it be value for money?
These are a few of my thoughts.
Bangor Station
Bangor station looks like the ideal place to terminate the service from the Anglesey Central Railway.
This Google Map shows Bangor station.
Note.
- Anglesey is to the West.
- There are four tracks through the station. This will allow trains to overtake.
- Only the outside two tracks have platforms.
- The platforms are long enough to handle at least a two-hundred metre long train. They could even be long enough to handle a pair of Aventi West Coast’s new Class 805 trains, which would be 260 metres long.
- There are a couple of Anglesey-facing sidings, which probably could be converted into at least one bay platform.
- I suspect in a city like Bangor, there is probably enough electric power to provide charging facilities in an Anglesey-facing bay platform.
I can’t see any problems with terminating Anglesey Central Railway services at Bangor.
Battery-Electric Trains Between Bangor And Amlwch
Consider.
- Bangor and Amlwch would be around 25 miles.
- Modern battery-electric trains have a range of up to 80 miles.
- Battery-electric trains can fully recharge in 15 minutes.
This means that with charging facilities at Bangor, modern battery-electric trains could handle a return journey between Bangor and Amlwch.
I suspect that a very acceptable two trains per hour (tph) should be possible.
Hydrogen Trains Between Bangor And Amlwch
These would also be possible, once a refuelling strategy has been decided.
The Anonymous Widower 
The branch line stayed open for so long because it served the Octel plant at Amlwch. See website : http://www.octelamlwch.co.uk/history/
I would be surprised if re-opening the line could be justified. There was talk of re-opening just to Llangefni but even this location as the “county town” would
not generate a lot of traffic. There is even limited potential for a “preserved” line as not a lot of holiday traffic to the centre of Anglesey with all the best beaches in the
South West of the island.
I had a summer student job at Octel, Amlwch, in 1979 and enjoyed my time on the island. I have a picture of “Amlwch Tanks” branch freight train by a Graham Holme at the Octel plant.The Octel plant extracted bromine from sea water. It was an interesting process as there is only 65 ppm of bromine in sea water. The sea water intake into the plant was sited to take in the gulf stream flow to ensure a fresh sea water supply.
Parys mountain behind Amlwch was a source of copper ore in the eighteenth century and it was shipped out through Amlwch port. The railway did carry some copper but the ore supply was worked out soon after the railway reached Amlwch.
There has also been an aluminium smelter and nuclear power station on Anglesey but it is very unlikely the population on Anglesey will grow sufficiently to justify
an additional railway line to the main Holyhead line.
Comment by Richard Evans | March 17, 2017 |
Thanks for that!
I think that under traditional rules, where Network Rail charge astronomic prices for a late delivery, will mean that this line never gets reopened. But some of the technology and ideas coming in, will mean that lines like this would have a smaller hurdle to jump to get opened.
It’s funny, but you have the same name of one of my friends and it wouldn’t be the post he’d comment on, as he is somewhere in the sun.
Comment by AnonW | March 17, 2017 |
[…] Amlwch is a possible reopened station on a reopened Anglesey Central Railway. See Reopening The Anglesey Central Railway. […]
Pingback by A Look At New Station Projects « The Anonymous Widower | March 29, 2017 |
Have just finished reading Chester to Holyhead the branch lines by bill rear and must admit it peaked my interest unfortunatly live too far away to be of help but would wish success to the project I am sure if reopened as a community/heritage line with trains from Bangor it could thrive , good luck.
Comment by michael roy smith | May 10, 2017 |
[…] I wrote about it in Reopening The Anglesey Central Railway. […]
Pingback by Anglesey Hydrogen Can Bridge UK’s Energy Gap Says Economics Expert « The Anonymous Widower | October 7, 2021 |
[…] I wrote about this in March 2017 in Reopening The Anglesey Central Railway […]
Pingback by Restoring Your Railway Planning Funds Allocated « The Anonymous Widower | November 3, 2021 |