Anglesey Central Railway Ltd – WBF 94

                                                                               National Assembly for Wales
                                                                   Enterprise and Business Committee
                                            The Future of the Wales and Borders Rail Franchise

Dear Sir/Madam,
May I first apologize for our late response to your letter regarding the inquiry into the Wales and Borders Rail Franchise.

I believe Walter Glyn has been in contact with David Beer (Passengerfocus) over the phone regarding the above matter, and he has asked me to provide a written response which I believe represents the views of the Company.

Any upgrading of the train service in Wales would receive our full support, especially as traffic has increased traffic on our roads, and an improved train service would help alleviate the problem and would also offer environmental benefits.

We would support any decision to re-open old lines which have been closed for many years as this would help to extend the network in Wales and provide essential economic support to those areas.

We are taking direct action and campaigning to re-open the Amlwch line – the old Anglesey Central Railway which runs from Amlwch to Gaerwen. The Assembly has discussed investigating the possibility of re- opening the line from Llangefni, and work has already taken place on the line with the intention of re-opening this section to Gaerwen and then onwards to Bangor. This would alleviate the problem of traffic congestion on the bridges from Anglesey to Arfon.

We would support this but stress that opening the line would benefit the whole island,not only by alleviating traffic problems by encouraging more people to use the railway but also by helping communities such as Llangefni , Amlwch and Llannerchymedd which have suffered because of unemployment and a lack of investment in work and new ideas to promote work opportunities on the island.

There is talk of plans to open a Science Park in the Gaerwen area. The railway would surely be of great benefit to this Park as it would provide employees with an alternative method of commuting to work.

I hope that our view will be of interest to the Enterprise and Business Committee and hope that they will appreciate our comments and suggestions regarding the regeneration of central Anglesey by re-opening the Anglesey line. A railway to the future of Anglesey!

Yours sincerely
Ifor Wyn Humphreys
(Director on behalf of Anglesey Central Railway)