The tour company celebrates the life and times of its driving force, Mair Watson.

A remarkable lady had an idea for a business which has organised holidays for thousands of rail enthusiasts for 50 years.

In 1969, Founder and Director of Ffestiniog Travel, Alan Heywood was working as the traffic manager at the Ffestiniog Railway. He originally recruited Mair Watson to work as a booking clerk at Harbour Station at Porthmadog on the original Ffestiniog Railway.

Now part of the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railway group, the Ffestiniog is the world’s oldest narrow-gauge line, which climbs 700 feet along the 13½-miles journey from Porthmadog to the slate-quarrying town of Blaenau Ffestiniog.

After the Dr Beeching cuts, British Rail wanted to de-staff the stations along the Cambrian line but not to actually close the railway. 

Closing the booking offices would accomplish this, so they came to an arrangement in the mid 1960s whereby the Ffestiniog Railway Society would sell national British Rail tickets as an agent.

Once on the job, Mair noticed that Ffestiniog passengers from Europe, particularly from the Netherlands, would often ask the booking office for tickets all the way home. But because they were only selling domestic UK rail tickets, Mair could get them as far as the ferry port at Harwich, but no further. So Mair suggested they apply for a licence to sell Sealink ferries and continental rail tickets.

Alan leapt at the idea and, together with Mair, steered Festiniog through the often frustrating process of negotiating the arrangement with British Rail (BR). BR was initially dubious about setting up an international rail bureau, as it would mean training a team and acquiring new equipment and systems. 

But Alan knew that the Ffestiniog Railway Society had about 5 thousand members and they would, as railway enthusiasts, be more than capable of booking tickets for continental railways. And probably, they would be more determined and enthusiastic than locally recruited workers. As a result, the railway got its international agency agreements in place, and Ffestiniog Travel was born – all thanks to Mair’s original suggestion.

Although Ffestiniog Travel owes its existence to Mair, she wasn’t one to travel for work and turned down the offer to run tours, preferring to run the railway back at base.  

Mair was with the Ffestiniog Travel company until she retired. Working closely with Alan, she built up a huge amount of experience selling continental rail tours and running the ticket office. She passed away in 2009.

We should pay tribute to Mair as in a manner of speaking it was the start of where we are now

 Alan Heywood, Founder and former Director of Ffestiniog Travel

You can see an example of a classic Ffestiniog Travel Italian tour here.