TfW rebuff bid to reinstate Welsh name for Cambrian Line station

Dale Spridgeon

A bid to reinstate the Welsh name for a railway station on the Cambrian Coast line looks set to fail as it would be too expensive.

Locals in the Welsh speaking Gwynedd community of Llanbedr have long fought for their station to be returned to its historic name of Halt Talwrn Bach.

Transport for Wales says making the change would be too costly but they have agreed to include a reference to the old name in smaller letters on the planned new sign for Llanbedr station.

The rural stop lies on the Cambrian Coast line which runs between Aberystwyth and Pwllheli.

Cardigan Bay

Starting in Shrewsbury the line, which eventually follows the curve of Cardigan Bay, connects the Welsh coast with the Midlands and the rest of the UK.

Councillor Gwynfor Owen had spoken on behalf of Llanbedr Community Council asking about the “possibility” of restoring the Welsh name – “Halt Talwrn Bach” – for the official station sign.

The matter came up again at a meeting of the Cambrian Coast Railway Liaison Committee, on Friday (March 28).

A representative from Transport for Wales Gail Jones was describing the latest station improvements.

These included work to the noticeboard, refreshing poster cases, alterations to meet Transport for Wales branding, fencing as well as paint and repairs to the existing shelter and its leaking roof.

A new shelter had been procured but a survey had found that the old foundations were “incapable” of supporting the new building due to corroded steel beams and defective block piers, Gail Jones had reported.

New sign 

Amid the repairs, a new white station sign was proposed with large black letters reading ‘Llanbedr’ and with smaller letters to the right hand side reading: “Dewch oddi ar y tren yma ar gyfer Talwrn Bach” – translated underneath to read ‘Get off here for Talwrn Bach’.”

“We were asked about having a sign with the old station name Talwrn Bach but as I have said before we are not able to do that,” she told the meeting.

Showing images of the new sign she said if all was “OK” the purchase order could be raised and the sign ordered.

“Changing the sign would be such a huge and expensive task, it’s all the computer networks and everything that would have to be changed, it would run into so much money to do that,” she said.

There had been no funding earmarked for the project but she said the engagement team would pay for it and that translation and brand guidelines were currently being checked.

In the absence of Councillor Gwynfor Owen, Morfydd Lloyd was given permission to speak on behalf of the Llanbedr Community Council saying it was “better than nothing”.

She would have to take the information back to the Llanbedr Community Council to its next meeting on Thursday.

“The sign is large there with room to put Talwrn Bach down as it was in the 1970s/80s,” she said.

Important

Keeping the status of the name was “important, so that it would not be completely disregarded or forgotten,” she said.

“We knew it would be difficult, because the pamphlets and all the promotional material had already got Llanbedr on them” she added.

Speaking after the meeting she said: “It was always called ‘Halt Talwrn Bach’ and it is still known by that name by the locals.

“We knew it would be a lot of expense to change it and we didn’t expect them to change everything. We just wanted “Talwrn Bach” to be more prominent.

“It is not mentioned at all at the moment, so as I said in the meeting I suppose it is better than nothing. It’s just a shame to lose these old Welsh names, it was always named for the farm there.

“We want our children and grandchildren to still recognise these old names and it is nice for visitors to know them too.

“A lot use the train to come here, we have one of the biggest campsites in Europe here, Shell Island, known as Mochras.”