North Wales Main Line

North Wales Coast Line
Overview
Owner	Network Rail
Locale	Anglesey Gwynedd Conwy Denbighshire Flintshire Cheshire
Termini	Crewe Holyhead
Stations	18
Service
Type	Heavy Rail
System	National Rail
Operator(s)	Transport for Wales Rail Virgin Trains
Rolling stock	Class 67 Class 150 "Sprinter" Class 153 "Super Sprinter" Class 158 "Express Sprinter" Class 175 "Coradia" Class 221 "SuperVoyagers"
History
Opened	1850
Technical
Line length	84.38 miles (135.80 km)
Number of tracks	Double track mostly except on Britannia Bridge between Bangor and Llanfair PG where it is single track
Character	Coastal
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Operating speed	90 mph (140 km/h) maximum
Route map

North Wales Main Line
Holyhead Stanley Embankment Valley A55 Rhosneigr Tŷ Croes Bodorgan Anglesey Central Railway to Amlwch Gaerwen Llanfairpwll Britannia Bridge over Menai Strait Britannia Bridge Bangor & Carnarvon Railway to Caernarvon Menai Bridge Bangor A5 Bethesda branch line Penrhyn Quarry Railway Port Penrhyn Aber Llanfairfechan Penmaenmawr Conway Marsh Conwy Conwy Railway Bridge over River Conwy Llandudno Deganwy Llandudno Junction A470 Conwy Valley line Mochdre & Pabo Colwyn Bay Old Colwyn Llysfaen Llandulas Abergele & Pensarn Foryd Vale of Clwyd Railway to Denbigh & Corwen Rhyl Dyserth branch line Prestatyn Talacre Mostyn Holywell Junction Holywell branch line Bagillt Flint Connah's Quay Shotton Borderlands line Queensferry A494 Sandycroft Mold Railway Saltney Ferry (Mold Railway services only) Wales England Shrewsbury–Chester line Dee Bridge over River Dee Roodee Viaduct Shropshire Union Canal Northgate Tunnel Wirral line Chester Chester–Warrington line Mid-Cheshire line Waverton Black Dog Whitchurch & Tattenhall Railway Tattenhall Road Beeston Castle and Tarporley Calveley Worleston West Coast Main Line Crewe–Manchester line Crewe Crewe–Derby line Welsh Marches line West Coast Main Line

The North Wales Coast Line (Welsh: Rheilffordd Arfordir Gogledd Cymru), also known as the North Wales Main Line, is the railway line from Crewe to Holyhead. Virgin Trains consider their services along it to be a spur of the West Coast Main Line.

In April 2006, Network Rail organised its maintenance and train control operations into "26 Routes". The main line through Crewe forms part of Route 18 (The West Coast Main Line). The North Wales Coast Line from Crewe (North Junction) to Chester and North Wales has been designated Route 22 (North Wales and Borders) and this includes the line to Chester from Acton Grange Junction, south of Warrington. The line from Shrewsbury to Chester via Wrexham is Route 14 (South and Central Wales and Borders) (until Saltney Junction).

The line is not currently electrified, so Virgin Trains, the current operator of the InterCity West Coast franchise, currently uses its diesel Super Voyagers, which they have done since December 2007, on routes to Holyhead. There are no official plans to electrify the line, but both the Welsh government and former Chancellor George Osborne have indicated that there is a strong case for electrification in the future.

The line contains several notable engineering structures, namely Conwy railway bridge across the River Conwy, and Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait.

History

The first section from Crewe to Chester was built by the Chester and Crewe Railway and absorbed by the Grand Junction Railway shortly before opening in 1840. The remainder was built between 1844 and 1850 by the Chester and Holyhead Railway Company as the route of the Irish Mail services to Dublin. The line was later incorporated in the London and North Western Railway. Between Chester and Saltney Junction, the line was, from the start, used by trains of the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway later to be incorporated in the Great Western Railway.

So important was the line in the 19th and early 20th centuries to passenger, mail and freight traffic between Britain and Ireland that the world's first experimental and operational water troughs were installed at Mochdre between Colwyn Bay and Llandudno Junction. Their purpose was to enable steam engines (especially on the Irish Mail) to collect water without stopping. Later, considerable stretches of line between Chester and Colwyn Bay were quadrupled to increase line capacity but these sections have now been reduced to two tracks.

Main calling points

The main towns served by the route are listed below:

• Crewe
• Chester
  • Line diverges to serve Wrexham, Shrewsbury and Cardiff (via the Shrewsbury to Chester Line - Route 14)
  • Wirral Line diverges to serve Birkenhead and Liverpool - Route 21 (Merseyrail)
• Shotton
  • The Borderlands Line (part of Route 22) from Wrexham to Bidston crosses at Shotton with interchange facilities.
• Flint
• Prestatyn
• Rhyl
• Abergele
• Colwyn Bay
• Llandudno Junction
  • Lines diverge to serve Blaenau Ffestiniog (via the Conwy Valley Line) and Llandudno
• Conwy
• Penmaenmawr
• Llanfairfechan
• Bangor
• Llanfairpwll
  • Line diverges to Amlwch (Anglesey Central Railway, disused)
• Bodorgan
• Ty Croes
• Rhosneigr
• Valley
  • Freight from Wylfa nuclear power station is loaded at a depot in Valley
• Holyhead

Services

Principal through passenger services are London Euston to Holyhead, Bangor, Chester and Wrexham General operated by Virgin Trains (West Coast) and Crewe to Holyhead, Cardiff to Holyhead and Manchester to Llandudno currently operated by Transport for Wales Rail (who replaced Arriva Trains Wales). A revised timetable has operated since December 2005 incorporating a new service to and from Cardiff Central every two hours. The line still provides the UK railway part of the through passenger service to Dublin using fast car ferries from Holyhead to Dublin Port.

Future

North Wales Coast Line between Chester and Saltney, showing the two tracks over the River Dee. The path of the other two tracks which were removed can also be seen.

The Welsh Government would like the line to be electrified, especially if Crewe becomes a rail hub due to HS2 in 2026. Chancellor George Osborne said in July 2015 that there was a "really strong case" for electrification of the line. The Electrification Task Force said that the Chester to Crewe line was a Tier 2 priority for being electrified in the CP6 period (2019-2024). A £50 million signalling upgrade programme is currently being carried out between Shotton and Colwyn Bay, which will see modular colour lights supervised from the South Wales Rail Operating Centre in Cardiff replace the manual signal boxes and mixture of semaphore and older colour lights currently in use, in March 2018.

Further reading

Template:Attached KML/North Wales Coast Line

KML is from Wikidata

• Allen, David (18 June – 1 July 1997). "Sun, sea, sand...and semaphores". RAIL. No. 307. EMAP Apex Publications. pp. 40–45. ISSN 0953-4563. OCLC 49953699.