In 1801, the British Government passed an Act of Union, and all Ireland became integrated with the United Kingdom, with its own members elected to the London Parliament. The only communication link between London and Ireland was by horse-drawn road coach and sailing ship; the shortest sea link to Dublin being between Holyhead and Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire). One of the first of the great British engineers, Thomas Telford, was employed to improve the Holyhead road, later called the A5, and created the suspension bridge at Conwy (now cared for by the National Trust) and the high bridge over the Menai Strait to the island of Anglesey. North Wales is a mountainous area, but Telford brought his route from London on a direct route through Llangollen and Bettws-y-Coed.
The invention of railways led to demands for a rail route to Holyhead, and the great George Stephenson, predicting that fast and heavy trains would need to use the line, proposed a northern route which avoided the mountain passes by running along the coast from Chester. The Chester and Holyhead Railway Act was passed in 1844, and construction began on 1 March 1845 with George's son Robert Stephenson as chief engineer. (The Chester and Crewe line was built by a separate company, and opened in 1840.) Even though the route was largely along the coast, some bold engineering was needed, especially the high bridge across the Menai Strait (required by the Government to give clearance for shipping). The Irish Mail went to Holyhead by train for the first time on August 1 1848, and on the same day the present Chester station was opened, replacing the separate stations previously used by Crewe and Birkenhead services.
Small companies such as the Chester and
Holyhead
rarely kept their independence, and in 1859 the north Wales coast line
had become the property of the London and North Western Railway Company
(LNWR) which had in fact been working the train services from the
opening
day. The LNWR, which owned the west coast main line from London Euston
to Carlisle, set out to promote traffic on the coast line by
encouraging
tourist traffic to the seaside resorts, notable Rhyl, Colwyn Bay, and
Llandudno
which was reached by a short branch line opened in 1858. Many sections
of the line were expanded to four tracks, and larger stations built to
handle the traffic; level crossings were replaced by road bridges, as
can
clearly be seen today near Rhyl and Prestatyn stations.
After World War I, many of the railway companies were in a poor state, and an Act passed in 1921 merged them into larger groups, with effect from 1923. The coast line thus became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway company, which ran it with few changes or improvements through the depression years and the Second World War until 1948, when the post-war Socialist Government took over all the railways, by now very run-down, and merged them into British Railways, renamed British Rail in the 1960s. The post-war years saw the introduction of paid holidays for the majority of workers, which in turn led to booming summer traffic as people took their holidays in the resort towns. Operationally, however, little had changed since 1923 except that the locomotives became somewhat larger. Steam locomotives, increasingly neglected in appearance and maintained at a large number of labour-intensive depots, reigned supreme on long-distance trains until the early 1960s, although diesel railcars had appeared on local trains soon after the publication of the 'British Railways Modernisation Plan' of 1955. This era is seen by many who were young at the time as a golden age: the reality, however, was one of slow, crowded dirty, and not always frequent services.
No sooner had the diesel locos begun to turn the coast line into a modern railway, the Conservative Government appointed a manager from the chemical industry called Richard Beeching to try to transform the railways into a profit-making concern. To Dr Beeching and his advisors, this meant concentrating on profitable traffic, to the exclusion of any lines and stations seen to be loss-making. Many coast line stations were listed for complete closure: there would have been no stations in the 30 miles between Chester and Rhyl if the plan had been carried out in full. The plan was modified following many objections, but a number of stations still closed in the 1960s, as Beeching seemed to have no understanding of the idea of unstaffed stations with conductors on the train. Most branch lines lost their tracks, leaving just the Llandidno and Blaenau Ffestiniog branches open to passenger traffic. Later regimes were more sympathetic, and with support from local authorities some stations later reopened: Shotton, Llanfair PG, Valley and most recently (1987) Conwy.
The last BR mainline steam train rain in 1968, and the coast line settled down to a diet of diesel-hauled expresses and diesel railcar locals. Seasonal resort traffic fell away as car ownership and foreign holidays increased, but traffic to and from Ireland remained a major source of income. Class 40 diesels, built by English Electric and an older and larger brother of the Class 37s, were the mainstay on major trains for many years until they were withdrawn as life-expired in the early 80s, but Classes 45 and 47 were also seen as well as some of the smaller diesels of classes 24 and 25. The four-track sections of the line gradually reverted to double track. The next upheavals, however, came as a result of the decision to divide British Rail into 'business sectors' in the mid 80s. Most trains on the coast fell into the province of the Provincial Sector, later renamed Regional Railways, which was forced to make huge economies in order to make a case for new trains which materialised as the Class 150 'Sprinters' and the bus-based Class 142 'Pacers.' For a period, discomfort and overcrowding reigned: it became common to see Class 142s, comprising two four-wheeled coaches with low-backed seats, on services between Holyhead and Hull or Scarborough on the east coast of England. Meanwhile, a new dual-carriageway road called the North Wales Expressway was being blasted along the coast, creating an infernal noise at many lineside locations and stealing even more passenger traffic. Freight was abandoned almost completely, including all the container trains to Holyhead, and even the locomotive fuel to Holyhead depot, leaving just a handful of weekly trains carrying specialist materials.
Fortunately, as the 90s dawned and the
Government
began to think of privatising the railways, the management of Regional
Railways North West, later renamed North West Regional Railways. saw a
solution to the coast line's problems in the shape of Class 37 diesels
displaced by railcars in the Scottish Highlands, and coaches from,
among
others, the London Waterloo - Exeter route which had been modernised
using
new railcars originally intended for use on the coast line. The
political
reasons for this remain obscure, but it certainly provided more
seats
than would otherwise have been available as well as a treat for 'real
train'
enthusiasts. The Class 37s appeared gradually, until by 1995 a
basically
hourly service between Crewe and Bangor was running, with some trains
extended
to Holyhead. Another 1990s development was the introduction of
'InterCity
125' trains on the London services which were operated by the Inter
City
sector, largely displacing Class 47s, although the 47s returned a few
years later for a final farewell.
In 1994, a new organisation called Railtrack
came
into being, taking over ownership of all British Rail's land, track and
signalling. All the shares of Railtrack were sold on the open marker
during
1996, so it is now a wholly private company responsible for all
signalling
as well as track laying and maintenance, so all signalling staff are
Railtrack
employees. Also in 1996, the majority of freight locomotives and wagons
in Britain were sold to a consortium led by the Wisconsin Central
Railway,
and formed into a company called English, Welsh and Scottish Railway
which
in fact owns all the Class 37/4 locos used on the coast line. Most
passenger
equipment was sold to new 'leasing companies', and finally the
operation
of the passenger trains themselves was 'franchised' to what are called
Train Operating Companies.' North West Regional Railways operations
were
taken over in 1997 by a new company called North Western Trains, and
the
London services passed to Richard Branson's Virgin Group.
By 1998, both
had fallen under the spell of large groups from the bus industry;
49% of Virgin Trains is in the hands of the Stagecoach Group, whilst
North
Western Trains was taken over by FirstGroup and was known as First
North
Western. Toewards the end of the seven-year franchise for the local
services, it was decided by the Stretegic Rail Authority to re-arrange
the franchise map and create a new 'Wales and Borders' company which
would operate all the non-inter-city services in the area. North Wales
services spent a few months being run by a subsidiary of the National
Express group, before the whole passed to the Arriva company to become
Arriva Trains Wales from the end of 2003.
New
passenger trains have entered service in North Wales at the start of
the 21st Century,
basically diesel railcars although perhaps more luxurious than those in
use previously. Locomotive haulage of the traditional kind finally (?)
ended in 2006, although an unusual version continues, as Virgin's
'Pendolino' electric trains on London services are towed by locomotives
along the non-electrified line between Crewe and Holyhead.
Freight traffic occasionally shows signs of
revival, although
the
coast line has very little the time of writing, even though modern,
underused,
terminals exist at Llandudno Junction, Valley and Holyhead. The only
freight trains to be seen west of Mostyn are stone trains serving
Penmaenmawr quarry and the short 'flask' trains to Valley which service
the power station at Wylfa. Maybe one
day
some traffic to Ireland will return, perhaps as 'piggyback' lorry
carriers:
only time will tell.