Heart of Wales Line
The Heart of Wales Line ( Welsh: Rheilffordd Calon Cymru ) is a railway line running from Craven Arms in Shropshire to Llanelli in South Wales. As the name implies, it passes through the heart of Wales. Are some rural centers, including some formerly renowned spas such as Llandrindod Wells on the track. In Builth Road railway station, 3.3 km from the town of Builth Wells crossed the line before the former Mid- Wales Railway, which was closed in the 1960s.
The line was opened in sections 1861-1868 of various railway companies, behind each of which the London and North Western Railway was. As part of the so-called Beeching Axe of 1962, the track was intended to close. The fact that they remained nevertheless obtained was partly due to the fact that they had significant freight among other things to the steel mills in Bynea. Secondly, they ran through six constituencies that were fought between the two British parties, so that the Labour government of Harold Wilson they derogation from this decommissioning. Today, goods traffic on the line instead of only when other routes are blocked.
The track is completely single track, except for a short section at the southern end, which is shared with the Swansea District Line. Crossing opportunities are there in Llandeilo, Llandovery, Llanwrtyd, Llandrindod and Knighton. After two years, only two of the crossing tracks were in operation and the other three were used as spare parts, and October 2010 were all five modernized and put back into operation.
In 1987, there were on the track near Llandeilo a train wreck, as the Glanrhyd Bridge collapsed after heavy flooding and a morning train northbound crashed into the Towy. Four people died in the disaster killed. The future of the track was then uncertain, but political forces of all camp campaigned for its survival.
Today on the track four pairs of trains run from Mondays to Saturdays and two on Sundays. Used diesel railcars of series 150 and 153, the latter being criticized for their unreliability, space is limited and poor views. The route currently has a travel time of about 4 hours to the longest train routes of these two series.