To celebrate National Walking Month, the Heart of Wales Line Community Rail Partnership has launched a new bilingual website with details of circular walks that start at stations along the line.
The walks from the railway stations are described in detail by walking guide Lisa Denison of Quiet Walks.
She has meticulously mapped them out, presenting them in English and Welsh to provide accessibility to a wider audience and champion Welsh language and culture.
To make them easy for both novice and seasoned hikers to navigate, each walk has comprehensive route instructions, as well as Ordnance Survey maps and GPX files.
This is the first time that instructions for the Heart of Wales Line Trail route have been produced in Welsh, and is aimed at promoting linguistic diversity and inclusivity.
The bilingualism not only facilitates a deeper connection with the local community, but also encourages greater appreciation for the country’s linguistic heritage.
More information about the circular walks and suggestions for planning a next trip along the line are available online at www.heart-of-wales.co.uk
The Heart of Wales Line covers the 121-mile route with 34 stations between Swansea and Shrewsbury via Llanelli, Llandovery and Llandrindod Wells, with train services operated by Transport for Wales.
The Heart of Wales Line Community Rail Partnership aims to support, promote and develop the line for the benefit of communities, businesses and passengers.
National Walking Month is a nationwide celebration of walking and the benefits it brings to health, well-being, and the environment.
Last year, in association with Ramblers Cymru, Transport for Wales launched 22 walks from railway stations and a ‘Train, talk, walk’ initiative to encourage more people to use public transport when they are accessing local walking routes.
We are delighted with the new layout of the website. There is so much information packed into it, it is easy to navigate and more accessible for all users.
With a lot of patience and expertise provided by Neil from Touchdown Design it is now a much cleaner user experience which looks as good on mobile as it does on desktop. This has allowed us to increase the amount of walks hosted on the site, with these wonderful new circular walks from stations along the line, some of which link with the Heart of Wales Line Trail.
Owen Griffkin, Community Rail Officer
Responses
It would be nice if the walks could be put into a leaflet that could be picked up at stations, along with a printed pocket timetable.
Insofar as the ‘service’ is concerned, Transport For Wales are an absolute shambles and quite frankly do not have any idea how to run a railway. Services should be taken out of their hands and awarded to a recognised railway service operator that knows what it is doing.
Trains do not have enough carriages, services run late, or as stated in one of the earlier comments, do not run at all.
Its about time TFW had its licence to run the railway services withdrawn.
As it happens, have you seen Ken Skates’ comments in WAG today (press released just now) claiming WAG wants full autonomy over Walens and Borders Line and ,a large measure of the same, over “English” lines coming into Wales!!!
What when they can’t run what’s already been devolved to them.
And as I wrote that below 153 382 has failed yet again this time with a brake problem before leaving Shrewsbury with 2V08 (11:22 to Swansea) and 2M08 being cut back to Llanwrtyd.
This time TfW haven’t even bothered to organise a replacement bus service because the next train will be along in 4 or 5 hours…?
Can you see why passengers don’t travel
I agree with Steve Foster. I have the misfortune to live near the line and have seen how the number of passengers have dwindled to almost nothing because the service cannot be trusted. Indeed there are frequently days when it would be quicker to walk (or perhaps cycle) the Heart of Wales line.
The recent spate of Class 153 failures – unable to climb the hills to Sugar Loaf from Llandovery or Llangynllo from Knucklas – reduces the line to a complete shambles with passengers just left to await a replacement bus service which may or may not arrive.
Take last Sunday for example: 153 382 on 2M39 – the second and last northbound train of the day – failed teatime at Llandovery and so the southbound service was turned back at Llandrindod and passengers were dumped at both stations to wait for a bus being sent from Swansea about four hours later. As for passengers at intermediate halts…
With the service being cut back later this year, and no money to remove restrictions on using better units at places like Llandovery where almost everything except 150s and 153s are banned from the Down platform, you can see where the line is heading: Dr Beeching would have been proud!
The problem with contemplating a journey over , part of the whole of the line, is the sparsity and unreliable of the train service.My wife and I have contemplated a holiday there, using the trains, since the end of COVID. However, we now feel it is not worth it , particularly if thinking about staying overnight and expending money for such.The announcement of TfW cutting back services does not give any cause for optimism.
Better stock is needed ( say a class 158 sprinter) and more trains each way.
I am afraid that with the way TfW have over committed their resources there is no chance of more services, consistency and reliability.