{"id":4556,"date":"2013-07-19T13:02:24","date_gmt":"2013-07-19T12:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=4556"},"modified":"2013-07-19T13:02:24","modified_gmt":"2013-07-19T12:02:24","slug":"swansea-mumbles-tramway-to-re-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=4556","title":{"rendered":"Swansea & Mumbles tramway to re-open?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In one of the most unexpected and bizarre news items to appear on British Trams Online<\/em> in recent memory, outline proposals have been revealed for a possible revival of the legendary Swansea & Mumbles Railway system, which closed in 1960. Heritage Railway<\/em> magazine has confirmed early suggestions for the popular line to re-open with at least two organisations expressing serious interest in the idea.<\/p>\n

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The Amman Valley Railway Society\u00a0(which is a registered charity as well as a social enterprise company)\u00a0have put forward a scheme to create a heritage railway scheme along the former tramway route, and it is reported that\u00a0the appropriate licencing\u00a0to re-open it has already been issued by Network Rail. The group has recently met with South Wales West Assembly Member Byron Davies to discuss an even more ambitious idea: the creation of a light rail network around Swansea Bay, which would take in the old Mumbles line, at an estimated cost of some \u00a3235 million. Further expansions to Swansea Airport and the Gower peninsula amongst others may also be considered.<\/p>\n

The next stage will be to place a planning application and consult local residents to gain a better understanding of their views on the scheme, although Mr Davies believes that a favourable response is likely as it would potentially offer a much better transport network for commuters who regularly travel into Swansea. He claims that the area is “plagued by poor but expensive public transport provision” and that a light rail system could “unlock the economic potential of these old industrial areas”. Davies added that foreign investment is a distinct possibility, and that if the development goes ahead, he will be keen to retain access to the bay promenade for pedestrians and cyclists.<\/p>\n

Such a development is likely to be greatly welcomed by transport enthusiasts, as the Swansea & Mumbles tramway is fondly remembered by many even today. It held the record as the longest-running railway ever and utilised a huge variety of different forms of traction over its lengthy existence. No complete tramcars survive from the system, although one end of Swansea & Mumbles 7<\/strong> is preserved locally. If a heritage angle could be incorporated into a future redevelopment of the former tramway, wouldn’t it great if this could form the basis of a reconstruction of one of these trams… or is that asking too much!?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In one of the most unexpected and bizarre news items to appear on British Trams Online in recent memory, outline proposals have been revealed for a possible revival of the legendary Swansea & Mumbles Railway system, which closed in 1960. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4556"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4556"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4557,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4556\/revisions\/4557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}