Llanberis Lake Railway

Date of visit - 20/06/2024

As a nod to its industrial past Wales has a good selection of heritage train lines to choose from. Many of the old lines would have carried slate and other produce, while others like the Rhyl Miniature Railway, and the Snowdon Mountain Railway were made to carry passengers. The majority of these lines are situated towards the north of Wales and before coming away I had checked out many of the options.

Unfortunately, as already documented with the Snowdon Mountain Railway, some of these trips aren't cheap, particularly if you are a family group. Also, like the Snowdon Mountain Railway, I couldn't see many offers of disabled or carer discounts on tickets.

Quick rant here - I feel something should be done, on a legal footing, with regards pricing for disabled customers. It seems discriminatory to effectively force someone to pay twice if they HAVE to be accompanied by a carer, to access something with an entry fee. I believe, as a bare minimum there should be a 50/50 reduction in price between carer and disabled person, or just give the carer comes free that a lot of establishments offer. Without their carer many disabled people would not be able to attend or visit, so they and their carer shouldn't be financially "punished" to allow them to participate.

Rant over!

Our Little One quite likes a train ride, the sway and movement of the train goes a long way to meeting his sensory needs. He had enjoyed the Great Orme Tramway earlier in our stay, so we thought we could give the Llanberis Lake Railway a go. Price wise this was one of the cheaper train journeys I had found in North Wales. Again, there are no disabled discounts, but they do reasonable priced family tickets - the 4 of us travelling for less than £40. The round journey, if you don't get off at any of the scheduled stops, lasts around 60 minutes.

The journey is a little strange in as much as it doesn't officially start in Llanberis, but at the next stop up the line, Gilfach Ddu. This station used to be the terminus, but the line was extended into Llanberis itself in 2003, following the route of the old Mills Tramway. There is a large pay and display car park at Gilfach Ddu, which services the train, the National Slate museum and Padarn Country Park - there is free disabled parking here too. The train departs Gilfach Ddu to Llanberis, where it stops for the locomotive to be transferred to the other end of the train to pull it back towards Gilfach Ddu and then further on along the lakeside.

In our drive to be different we boarded the train at the Llanberis end of the line, as that was where we had parked our car for our failed attempt at Yr Wyddfa . Once off, the train then ran non-stop to the other end of the line at Penllyn. There is no platform here, so the advice is to stay on board for the return journey.

Once again the locomotive has to be transferred to the the other end of the train to pull it back along the lakeside, as can be seen in the video above.

The return journey takes you back towards Snowdon, the mountain becoming clearer the nearer you get to Llanberis. As mentioned previously there is the possibility to get off the train at Cei Llydan, where their is a picnic site. Unfortunately when we visited the picnic site was very overgrown and in desperate need of some TLC - some, with dogs got off here, to stretch their legs and walk their dogs. If you do get off here you can always catch a later train back to Llanberis, assuming you didn't come upline on the last train!

Again, as previously mentioned, the return journey takes about 60 minutes, if you don't break your journey. Our Little One was getting a bit restless towards the end of the run, so you would have to gauge for yourself if you needed to take a break to keep yours amused! 

On the return you have the option to stop off at the National Slate Museum, but as we had parked our car at Llanberis we stayed on the train during the stop at the slate museum, to continue on to Llanberis.

We made good use of the area, on the day, combining Snowdon, the Slate Museum and railway, which made it a good day out, all manageable by our group - well except Snowdon!

It should be noted that whilst the train company say their site and trains have wheelchair access they also advise to call ahead of a visit for further advice.

Folded pushchairs can be taken on board.