Rob_Knight

Hi Ray, I can't speak for Gareth but for me it is that I look at this railway whenever I open my bedroom curtains. Thats it. I have never worked on any other railway. Thanks Robert

Hi TomJ I used to work for an EasyJet company and your description of objectives isn't totally correct. You will agree that the number of air passengers today is soaring (sorry for the pun) so although I agree the budget airlines did initially take travel from the established airlines what they really did was attract a whole new generation of fliers so now the amount of airmiles flown is massively in excess of the miles flown when they started. What we can take from this is actually we are not just "competing" from the same people but actually we are attracting new passengers. British Airways carry more passengers now than they did when Easyjet started. I honestly believe the number of passengers all the great railways see will increase, not just because of the BFTR but all the quality railways we see today. Thanks Robert

Hi ForestPines, I love the FR and the regular walk I have with my dog is from Blaenau, my home, to Tan-y-Bwlch and back home on the train (neither me or the dog are fit enough to walk back) and I praise them for the success they have in BF and I most certainly don't see it as a desert. In fact the reason I live in Blaenau is because of that super railway. There are many options for the facilities we need and Network Rail are very helpful towards us on this but for the foreseeable future we want to focus on line clearance. We do welcome your feedback Thanks

I am not sure but I guess they have redecorated the pub you stayed at - you should come back to see and whilst you are here we would appreciate some help to rid the line of the forest that has grown!

Hi Ray, I often wonder how Stelios was thinking when he started EasyJet to fight the likes of BA, no-one gave him a chance but now EasyJet s bigger than BA; if you go to Llandudno Junction you will see all the car garages right next to each other so you could argue that experience tells us that putting all similar "services" close to each other is actually a good thing. Like you I don't know if we are at saturation point but I agree there must be one. Regarding USP's; I would like to believe we could tempt people out of Llandudno for the day to travel on the Conwy Valley line to Blaenau and the BFTR to Traws to enjoy the new facilities Antur Stiniog are building; or maybe we could persuade Shearings to drop their customers off in Porthmadog as they do now to travel on the FR but instead of picking their passengers up in Blaenau they meet them in Traws after they have travelled on the FR and the BFTR. I also wonder if we could run a restaurant car (I work a lot in Magog, Canada and there is a great restaurant train there), maybe picking up in Betws and and travelling to Traws and back - duck a l'orange on the way and profiteroles on the way back and plenty of time for wine. Of course these are dreams; the reality was yesterday sitting in my digger and trying to scrape all the growth away. So I guess if we don't try we certainly will fail - so we are trying Robert P.s. Can you send a photo of the hat you will be eating - wouldn't want you cheating!

Good evening ladies and gentlemen; I am the Robert Knight mentioned in some of the posts on this site and I would like to take this opportunity to update you on our progress. On the 28th of this month we will have an EGM where a committee of the society will be elected; you are all welcome to attend and vote and all I ask is that you join the society. www.bftr.co.uk for more details. Many of you reading this will have been a part of a brand new venture so you will know that we don't have all the answers to the questions you have raised but we do have a lot of answers. We don't have a huge amount of money yet and please, if any of you do have a spare £250K, come and talk to us. By the end of January we will have an official society committee to compliment the official railway company directors and I am preparing a presentation that will explain exactly how the two organisations will work in harmony with each other. The volunteers we have cover all aspects of the skills that any society needs but we would love to have more skills so please offer to help us. Network Rail are supporting us but of course in 2017 we must work with legal departments, health and safety, environmental protection that maybe in the 1960's weren't so high on the agenda. We will achieve the standards we need to and we will prosper. It is too early, unfortunately, to talk about where the stations will be; we need all our focus on raising money (society) and line clearance (company). I live in Blaenau Ffestiniog, I agree it does rain a lot but I also know that the residents of Blaenau would love this to be successful; they have seen how well Antur Stiniog have done and anything that brings people into Blaenau will be welcome. Maybe new business will start to service the new tourists. Some of you have described yourselves as nay-sayers; well if you believe the saying that there is no such thing as bad publicity then you cant be. There will be problems in this project; sometimes it will feel like we are taking two steps forward and three back but you can help us change that. Come along to the volunteer weekends, join the society (£20 per annum) and you will be helping make a difference and one day the BFTR will be as good as the WHR or the FR and you can say that, in part, that you helped build a successful railway. Thank you Robert