Blaenau Ffestiniog - Transport

Transport

The main access route to Blaenau Ffestiniog is via the A470 road which runs from the north to the south of Wales. The A496 runs south from the town down to the coastal resort of Barmouth. The A487, which runs West to East, feeds the Llŷn Peninsula into the A487 (which runs from Bangor through Caernarfon and into Porthmadog, which in turn connects with the north-south A470. Immediately to the north of the town the A470 climbs steeply to the Crimea Pass and meets the A5 at Betws-y-Coed, towards Wrexham and Shrewsbury. In the opposite direction you can follow the A470 to Dolgellau, then on to its eventual end in Caerdydd / Cardiff.

Blaenau Ffestiniog railway station on the site of the former Great Western station serves as a combined station for the Ffestiniog Railway and the Conwy Valley Line, their previous stations being no longer in use. The Conwy Valley Line runs to the North Wales coast at Llandudno Junction with links to Chester, Holyhead/Caergybi(Welsh), Manchester and the rest of the UK.

At various times the town has been the terminus for four independent railway lines, each with its own station or stations:

• the Ffestiniog Railway
• the Festiniog and Blaenau Railway
• the Conwy Valley Line of the London and North Western Railway, and
• the Bala Ffestiniog Line of the Great Western Railway.