However, I think that we may also need to secure an official long-term asperation for a more-frequent service (long term being sometime in the next franchise probably) in order to ensure the SDL is maintained fully to its current standards.

Is that not realistic?

P.S. I don’t think I ever suggested we should ask for a ticket office, a parcels office or a fire, at Fishguard & Goodwick station.

It’s great to see part of the old Lampeter, Aberayron and New Quay Light Railway finding a railway use again. Well done all!

Over the next few years we will see electrification of the Great western Main line with all those wonderful Brunelian structures like Maidenhead bridge over the Thames , Sydney Gardens in Bath and Box Tunnel. We need to avoid all this grade 1 listed / conservation status stuff which will simply push up costs and delay completion of the electrification project.

Nice as the replacement building is at Goodwick the cold facts are that there is presently no use for the building, and lack of a suitable use is what condemned the old structure to ruin. I am pleased enough with the structure and really do hope that a suitable use can be found for it as soon as possible, but while we do need to avoid the wanton destruction of structures as witnessed in the 1960s across the UK we also have to be realistic in what is possible. The replacement building had to be entirely on PCC land, it does not form part of the station, although it does provide a wonderful background, and adds something to the station yard! Building regulations have moved on considerably since 1899 so building a replica wasn’t possible, what the contractors have achieved certainly captures the spirit of the original which was the point, although what it would never do is to be an exact replica of a 1950s station building with a roaring waiting room fire, with a parcels office and a ticket office that some seem to crave.

Could I suggest that anyone who wants to see the railways of this country preserved as a museum piece head off to Bronwydd Arms and the Gwili Railway and help to support those who are trying to show the railways as they were in that era.

The point about the Swansea District line (SDL) is valid, but again if we are not realistic in our aims we will get nowhere. The aim at present has to be:
a) maintaining the route as a through passenger line,
b) getting a morning Eastbound and evening peak Westbound service to use the line as a way of getting a faster Carmarthen (& Pembrokeshire- i.e Milford) to Cardiff commuter service. The days when the SDL’s main use was for London to Fishguard boat trains, Ocean liner specials, and Summer Saturday Holiday trains to Tenby and South Pembrokeshire are long gone, but building up a case for a West Wales version of Von Ieuan’s Express from Holyhead to Cardiff is certainly achievable, although a 175 2 car set is probably more realistic than a loco-hauled set in this case.

In the medium term, hopefully after the electrification sparks effect increases passenger travel on the South wales Main Line, we could then push for a Morriston Parkway type station to tap the demand for Swansea Valley area to Cardiff journeys, with an hourly or better service, although getting SWWITCH interested in promoting travel opportunities to Cardiff could be difficult.

Any talk of 2 hourly Fishguard to Cardiff express service at this stage will simply result in the promoters being treated as unrealistic; one of the big lessons learned about the Fishguard trains and Goodwick station campaigns is that we were realistic in our expectations; if we hadn’t been thus we’d still have just the 2 trains a day! Hatti Woakes is correct in what she said to camera on Wales Today on Monday evening – focus on what is achievable, or be condemned to campaign in vain!

However, whenever I momentarily forget these huge benefits, I can’t help thinking that we have an almost-soulless modern station, not the one with historic character I had hoped Goodwick would have eventually (eventually being around the end of the trial rail service period, which was the earliest I dared hope they would replace the demolished station building).

Of course even the modern station we have gained is very much better than no station at all. The only concern here really is that the conservation area rules have failed to ensure the character of the area was maintained. We need much more effective regulations for preserving built heritage and the appearance of areas. That is a whole separate issue from public transport services of course, so this probably isn’t the right place for discussing this further (and there are far more important, and relevant, challenges ahead).

Speaking of more important challenges, Swansea Jack has mentioned on the WNXX forum the Gowerton redoubling works are to be carried out as a 2 week big bang closure over Easter 2013, with West Wales services being diverted via the Swansea District line. That clearly sets the deadline by which we have to ensure the future of the SDL is secured. The other major challenge is integrating the various public transport modes we now have in north Pembs.

At the reopening on Monday, I thought more about how to use the buildings. I like the idea, posted by Bulleid Pacific on ‘Goodwick Station: The final works’ for the main building to contain a museum. It would appear the public toilets in the Ocean Lab building (and the building next door) are both going to be lost under the marina development, so I suggest relocating these into the main building at FGW also. So the main building would have toilets, and a museum. Having the public toilets relocated there means someone will be coming round every so often to maintain them, and while they are at it they can keep an eye on a basic waiting room inside the brick shed. The brick shed could be locked by the guard on the evening FGH to Carmarthen service, and unlocked by the guard on the first Carmarthen to Fishguard service in the morning.

If it is free, and they issue tickets, that could be one way of boosting passenger numbers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPKx4zIZIRM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5_PoA5S3n0