Swansea; Sunday, 05 August, 2007

Wales is a little devoid of rail links across the middle of it. There is a busy rail corridor running along the south coast through Cardiff and Swansea, and a similarly busy line running along the North through Wrexham and onto Holyhead. There are even some lines running down the West cost and the English/Welsh borders, but across the middle there is only one line.

It’s, aptly, named the Heart of Wales line, and is described as one of the most scenic railway lines in Britain. It runs, roughly, in a diagonal line up from Llanelli, skirting along the edge of the Brecon beacons, before finally crossing the border into England and joining the Shrewsbury to Hereford line at Craven Arms, a place I had previously visited when I stayed in Worcester.

The line has twenty or so stations, though the vast majority are request stops only, and on a Sunday there are only two trains in each direction all day, the first leaving Swansea at 11am. Most of the passengers who boarded at Swansea with me were all doing the same thing – the “Heart of Wales Circular Day Ranger” a special ticket which lets you travel in a circle from any station on the line, back to it using the Heart of Wales line, as well as the main route from Shrewsbury to Swansea via Hereford, Newport and Cardiff.

The journey is very slow, taking over 4 hours to cover the 100 or so miles, but the scenery, for the most part is beautiful, running along the edge of the Brecons, the Black Mountains and crossing the Wye Valley and Offa’s Dyke before entering England via the rural backwaters of Shropshire at Knighton, a town which itself straddles the border. The train stops for about 30 minutes, in Llandrindod Wells for about 30 minutes, so that the trains can cross, most of the line is single track, and so that the crews can swap. The guard and driver come up from Swansea, and then go back, with the guard and driver who have come down from Shrewsbury taking the Northbound train back there. The 30 minutes is not enough time to see more than the station and stretch your legs, but the whole area has been “revictorianised” to make it look closer to what it did in 1900 rather than 2007.

By the time I got into Shrewsbury it was almost half three. There were two options for the return leg, either a train at 16:11 or one at 18:13. I decided, as I had 45 minutes to the earlier one, to have a quick wander, if I found stuff to do I would come back for the later train. Having left the station I walked up the hill towards the centre of town and came across the castle and regimental museum, which were just in the process of closing, as were most of the shops and none of the restaurants, with the exception of the McDonald’s, were open, so I took that as a good a sign as any that dinner would be in Swansea and I should catch the earlier train. Shrewsbury itself looked like a very interesting town, but probably a place that disserves a little more than a quick 45-minute, or two hour, wander.

I got back to the station to discover that the train had been delayed by about 10 minutes, so I got a sandwich and drink from the buffet and then waited. The train eventually pulled in 20 minutes late, and then proceeded to loose yet further time over its journey. By the time it pulled into Cardiff at 7pm it was 45 minutes late, so late in fact that they turned everyone off the train and made us all get in a much smaller train in front as the carriages were needed elsewhere! At least this train managed to claw back some of the lost time, and I arrived back into Swansea at a little before 8, stopped off for a quick bite to eat in the town centre, and then, feeling very lazy, caught a cab back to the hotel.