Excitement in the twin towns

The weather today has been foul and I've been feeling a bit under it. I certainly wasn't inspired by this week's Challenge topic, excitement. BUT, some news just released has caused quite a stir in our little community.

Fishguard, and the adjacent small town of Goodwick, (combined population 5000) have long had a rail link with England, London in particular, to serve passengers on the ferry to Ireland, and, a century ago, on transatlantic liners too. Now, two trains remain, in the middle of the day and the middle of the night, for outgoing and incoming travellers.

The timing of these trains means that they are no use to local people who want to spend a day shopping in our nearest big towns, Carmarthen (an hour away) and Swansea (1½ hours), nor for those wanting an evening out, nor for students to take courses there. Bus services are too slow and complex so essentially it means that unless you have a car and can afford the petrol, these destinations are inaccessible to us, especially to the young, the old and the poor.

For years now, a dedicated group has devoted time and energy to putting pressure on 'the powers that be', collecting data and doing research to show that extra rail links would be feasible and remunerative. Two school students did a film project to support the campaign. Now, suddenly, after many rejections and refusals, it has been announced that Fishguard and Goodwick are to get 5 new rail links per day to Carmarthen, connecting with onward trains!

It's hard to convey how significant this is to those of you who have perhaps never heard of where I live, or how remote and economically depressed it is. The natural beauty of West Wales means that tourism is our only industry so these new transport links should help people to travel in as well as out.

To mark this news I resolved to get a blip of the dilapidated old station, closed over 50 years. (Trains now carry on another quarter of a mile to the ferry terminal itself.) It may be too much to expect that the station will be re-opened as part of the new initiative but it's exciting to think of passengers alighting on this platform once again, after their days or evenings out.

The remaining structure is here is just a battered shell, embraced by ivy, buddleia and weeds (see it LARGE) but note the chimney: the waiting room had an open fire in traditional railway station fashion!