Tourism in North Wales

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for International Relations and Welsh Language – in the Senedd at 2:46 pm on 18 March 2020.

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Photo of Mark Isherwood Mark Isherwood Conservative 2:46, 18 March 2020

I recently had the pleasure of revisiting Llangollen Railway's major engineering project at Corwen central station, which will have a massive impact on boosting tourism in the region, to see first-hand the progress they had made. I'm always amazed and massively impressed by what a group of volunteers with an average age of 68, working on a part-time basis, are able to achieve. 

A year ago, speaking here, I called for a Welsh Government statement on support for our standard-gauge heritage railways. We know and applaud the fact that the Welsh Government support narrow-gauge heritage railways, but wanted to see how this massive volunteering effort could be taken forward, not only delivering heritage projects, but offering much for tourism and broader economies in areas, often, that need much stimulus. How, therefore, do you respond to the question or point raised with me during my recent visit that we need the Welsh Government to move on from looking at this in terms of separate narrow and standard-gauge heritage railways and join up the heritage railways sector both in north Wales and across Wales as a win-win for tourism and local economies? And, of course, given your opening comments, this is even more critical in the current environment.