I grew up on Rev W Awdry railway stories and so did my children so we were really looking forward to the Snowdon Mountain Railway, it was one of the principle reasons for going to Llanberis to base ourselves.
I was not prepared to pay the full price of the tickets which was an eye-watering £25 for adults and £18 for chidren, because this did not give you the free-reign of the railway for the day it was for one trip only which I’m afraid I found so astonishingly expensive I preferred the normally unheard of step of getting up at 7am to catch the 9am train to receive the “Early Bird discount” which cost a mere (!) £43 for myself and the 2 kids. To start with when we arrived we had to stand out in the rain getting soaked whilst the coach sat empty at the platform, the children were pretty crestfallen to find it was a diesel and not a steam train – they don’t mention mountain diesels in the railway stories – even I was pretty disappointed, there’s something magical about those Swiss engines that are built on a wonk, the smell, the noise all the things you expect of the trip which we weren’t able to experience which was a real pity.
According to the management most people don’t care what takes them up whether steam or diesel, I’d like to know what they are basing these claims on as I doubt they are surveying many real people, however if they wished to stand by their spurious statistics then why do they not publicise which type of locomotive will be working in advance and people can then make their choices? I suspect it has more to do with the fact that the fuel costs are vastly different between steam and diesel, I saw something that said according to 1987 costs the diesel round trip cost £3.05 in fuel whilst the steam train was a little over £50. These costs are undoubtedly significant but when you consider that there are at least 40 people in each carriage and if you take £18 as the base rate that’s £720 per trip, which bearing in mind there are trips every half an hour between 9am and 4.30pm is £1440 per hour and therefore well over £10,000 per day. Now I know fuel is not the only cost and some trains in the off season are not full but when they’re making £10k per day I think they’ve enough surplus, bearing in mind the revenue from the various cafés and gift shops is in addition to that. I also suspect you’ll find that the Early Bird discount or skinflint bastard trains as they probably see it are deliberately all diesel-hauled. If it were a weather thing that would be a fair excuse but to see steam engines chugging up with their passengers as we were on the way down does make you feel pretty hard done by.
The carriage itself was basic, in fact the windscreen had a huge crack across the middle of it so photos through that were out of the question, it had hellishly uncomfortable seats, I’ve sat on 3rd Class wooden seats that gave me less arse-ache, and there’s barely anywhere to sit if there are 3 of you, which meant on the way back the children had to sit somewhere completely different to me. We couldn’t hear any of the commentary at all so we just got a droning noise with no discernable words the whole way up – there is no commentary on the way down, probably by this stage even the SMR have given up the pretence that they are trying to provide a service. The carriage windows got steamed up so quickly that in the breaks in the cloud no-one could see anything anyway and the train only stopped at the now disused stations. The stations themselves are all boarded up so it doesn’t feel like a railway more a grudging shuffle of people to the top and down again just to have fleeced them of their money.
You don’t get a certificate for your £43, that costs extra, you don’t even get to send postcards from the Summit with a special stamp unless you pay extra 25p per card, and beware you don’t run out of time before you can write them because that 30mins goes pretty quick, just enough time really to get up to the top, take a few photos, use the loo (one of the only things that was free so you might as well enjoy it.) and get to your train, otherwise you fall foul of the “Friendly notice” which is literally stuck up everywhere telling you that if you miss your train down the railway is not obliged to take you down and it’s a 2 hour walk. When I say this notice is everywhere you’d struggle to find any area more than 2 ft sq. that didn’t have it at least once and perhaps multiple times. It doesn’t come across as friendly but then neither does much of the railway.
The trains aren’t to blame, nor are the drivers who are nice fellas but this whole thing is run for profit, not by enthusiasts as most of these sorts of things are, this is what happens when the money men get it and suck all the life out of endeavours. What I find so sad is that these are feats of engineering built by men of vision and when raped by the bankers to squeeze every last fiscal drop they are robbed of their very soul. You don’t get clusters of people hanging around the station chatting and taking photos, little boys gawping at the engines whilst their (grand)fathers stand with glazed nostalgic looks in their eyes, no on the SMR you’re practically herded out into the overpriced gift shop, I’m surprised the platform doesn’t recede after 5 minutes, it all leaves a really sour taste in your mouth. I had to explain to the children that we couldn’t go on again to get one of the steam locos because we’d have to pay again and it would be £61 which I couldn’t afford and bloody wouldn’t have wanted to.
Yes I know I had done the maths beforehand, I knew what the price was and the fact that we only got 30 mins at the top, I could have found out they might run diesel or steam, there are always get-out clauses, so one could say I in fact contributed to this situation that allows these bastards to rip more people off each year by knowing these facts and still paying up, but what I find sticks in the craw so much is the way we were so blatantly used, it is the very zenith of using children to prise you from your money, and then the SMR has the temerity to claim that it is Wales’ favourite family attraction, well I’m sorry but that’s just bollocks from many of the reviews I’ve seen and I wish to try to do my bit to redress the balance a little and if I can stop one family parting with their money then I will have put my words to good use.
I offer this advice to anyone considering such a holiday, do go to Llanberis which is a really nice place but take your kids (or your inner train spotter) on the Llanberis Lake Railway which cost us around £12, the ride is nice and the drivers are superb, a far nicer activity and much more worthy of the money. It’s exactly like the Skarloey and Rheneas part of the railway stories and has a load of history of slate mining surrounding it. Go to the National Slate museum which the railways runs past and is free and wonderfully rich and entertaining, have ice creams at Giorgio’s and fry-ups at Pete’s Eats and Pizza and a pint in the evening for these are all the sorts of things that holidays are made of and not only will your children have happy memories but you won’t be sporting a bank statement with a galling entry for the Snowdon Mountain Railway and all the exploitative capitalistic claptrap that it stands for. You will feel better for it, trust me, I don’t wish you to have to find out why.
I tried writing a complaint but as yet still no response, and I don’t expect to get one either because they give off the very strong impression that once they’ve taken your cash they really couldn’t give a toss. On a different note I wrote an email to the Lake railway thanking them for being so pleasant to the children and they wrote back within 24 hours delighted I had taken the time and thanking me for doing so.
Song Of The Day ~ The Doobie Brothers – Long Train Running
Try the Isle of Man – you can buy tickets for all three railways at a reasonable price or separately if you wish.
Or, if you want to go further afield, the Cevennes steam train is a wonderful little ride for €11 each – with two hours for lunch before the ride back.
Sorry your train ride was such a disappointment. Some years ago, Scott and I took the Empire Builder (great name, no?) west from Minnesota to Montana. 20-some hours straight on a train was not nearly as romantic as the movies make it seem.
Walk up it the next time instead of being lazy enough to get a train
My wife and I were planning a trip to the area specifically to ride on the train but after reading your review we’ve decided to give it a miss. It is a shame but perhaps the only way to improve things is to make these rip off merchants realise that they’re losing money.
Could not believe the price demanded, wanted to take my wife and two grandchildren on it, luckily looked it up on the website first. Would have been morally blackmailed if I had walked up to the ticket office for tickets with the children, would have had to cough up about £125.00! Am telling all my friends about the racket and advising them not to go.
Hi Steve
Thanks for passing that on and I’m sorry (if sadly not surprised) that you experienced a similar sort of situation to me with the railway. I think it is important realistically to ensure people do know about it, perhaps in the small ripples effect we might manage to get the message filtered back one day. I won’t hold my breath but I will hold on to my cash! Hope you went across the road to the other one though, well worth it.
Baron
Thank you!
I am taking my first trip to snowdon with my son and was about to fork out and pay for the expensive taxi key prices for the snowdon railway when I stumbled on your review.
Needless to say I’ve gone with your suggestion of the lake railway and it’s cost us £10 instead of £60 that snowdon railway wanted to charge!!
Fingers crossed for lovely weather and a nice time 🙂
Hi Becky, well if the upshot of it all is that you have a nice time on the lake railway and avoid being ripped of by the charlatans across the road then my review was worthwhile. I’d suggest letting the lake people know that you’re coming on recommendation, they are very nice there and will be dead pleased. The cost differential gives you money left over for a really good lunch and one of the fabulous Italian style ice creams you can get in Llanberis. Enjoy!
Or you could ride the 10.00 am Welsh Highland Railway from Caernarfon to Porthmadog and back for less money and more scenery, eating food cooked on the train as you go. It will take most of the day, but you will ride behind very special, gigantic steam engines which the railway builds for itself. Most of the train crews are volunteers, and very helpful.
Excellent tip Bob, thanks for that, I’m glad people are giving their experiences of other places, hopefully people will go to and enjoy them, maybe one day the people at SMR might realise that customer service is important. (as well as being able to ride a train with your children without having to take a mortgage out!)
You knew everything beforehand. Why didn’t you simply walk?
Thank you for commenting Mal, unfortunately you don’t seem to have actually read my review, hence your rather ill-placed comment. Had you done so you would find out that I was there with 2 young children, who themselves wanted to go up the railway described in the Rev W Awdry books. Furthermore we did not know everything beforehand as you claim, for example that the train would be a diesel or that the car was not built with the facility to withstand rain, or that you cannot hear the commentary, or that you only get about 15 minutes at the summit.
If you did use the railway and enjoyed your experience then lucky you, a great many of us did not.
Thanks for the info, i’m off to wales in August, and was considering the train up Snowdon as walking up is out (my wife is disabled). I will now take a journey on the Llanberis Lake Railway instead.
Hi Slartibartfast (great name, how are the Fjords?!)
Hope you have a really good time up there, lovely part of the world. The Lake railway is well worth it and if memory serves is pretty good on access should that be a concern.
Glad I stumbled upon this. We were thinking of taking a trip on Snowdon Mountain Railway having done the The Llanberis Lake Railway. Sounds a very grim experience, especially as it would cost the four of us £120. Think it’s another trip on The Llanberis Lake Railway then, which is excellent and a fraction of the price.
Hi Andy, glad I could help and very glad the Lake railway gets more deserved custom (we went on it twice too!)
Call me old-fashioned but I found the use of the F-word in the intro enough reason not to read any further. Being a parent and grand-parent I live in dismay for the future of our society when foul language, spoken and written, is now the accepted standard. Rant over
Tony you are perfectly entitled to your opinion and I have no problem with that. My ire was such that I wished to make a statement that shocked and caused the rip off railway some inconvenience. I notice the profanity did not put you off from commenting :). Personally I think colourful language is perfectly acceptable in the right context, were I not to be able to distinguish from the times when it is or isn’t acceptable to do so then there would indeed be grounds to fear.
For want of a better word, you Sir must be a fucking retard. (correct wording in this context).
I’m planning a trip on SMR tomorrow morning, and I have used information freely available that informs me the Early Bird (bastard skinflint service) is ALWAYS A DIESEL.
The steam trains carry a premium tariff.
Return trains MUST be used after the 30 minute stop…..otherwise everyman and his dog would hang around at the top all day expecting to fit on the last train down…..
The weather can be ‘unpredictable’…..yes, you’re going to be at 3500 feet, so dont be surprised if it’s cloudy/ misty/ cold/ Wet.
This Sir is the real world. Not a fucking fantasy world of smiley-faced plastic trains in a studio.
Did you complain that Ringo Starr wasn’t sat at the front doing a running commentary?
You Sir, for want of my not wishing to spend all day listing negative adjectives with which to describe you, are an offensive cockwomble. I shall refrain from attending to your grammatical idiosyncrasies for to do so would appear to be the literary equivalent of shooting fish in a barrel. You have either failed to notice or failed to look at the fact that my review was done in 2010 when I can assure you with impunity that there was no such warning as to the engines which pulled the train – hence the email response from the SMR which I cited. Had you read that section you would clearly have seen that, shall we call that myopic – again, fish in a barrel Sir! Perhaps the SMR has begun to listen to criticism…?
I am perfectly aware that some form of procedure must be in place for the return journey, how might that be accomplished, hmm let me see, perhaps by using the same method as that which is used for the way up, namely booking.
I am unable to determine whether indeed Ringo Starr was doing the commentary on the train since I could neither hear said commentary nor see beyond the row in which I was sat. Something that might have been clearer to you had you read what I had written. (Of course I would have preferred Johnny Morris to be frank but he would have had more dignity than to be involved with such a debacle). Quite why you appear solely to associate the stories with a television program that came decades after the books to which I was referring and where the world was far less asinine is beyond me. If my preference on customer service was the “fucking fantasy world” as you put it how is it possible that no more than several hundred yards from the SMR they appear perfectly able to achieve it at the Lake Railway, or is that too sedentary for you, then for that matter the double mainline track Great Central Railway in Leicestershire, the North York Moors or the numerous others run superbly and efficiently by enthusiasts for a fraction of the cost? Some of these exist in Wales so it isn’t as if there are not examples from which to learn.
As to the weather well unsurprisingly not only did I anticipate dodgy weather I looked on the weather forecast to check. Hence I was surprised that with such frequent and obvious climactic conditions the SMR appeared unable to find a method of tackling any of the factors these may cause to the passengers.
You appear not to tackle the conditions in the carriage, you appear not to tackle the other comments by people with similar experiences either on my blog or the vast hoards beyond. Why might this be Sir, perhaps because you appear not to have even taken your fucking trip yet and are therefore passing judgement on a review of something for which you are unable to substantiate your opinion!
I tire of your smug, self-satisfied idiocy now, I sincerely hope one of the mountain rams takes understandable umbrage at your presence tomorrow and butts you whence you came.
Haha….obviously still a bee in your bonnet 4 years down the line (pun intended).
I did indeed read and digest your whole post, just not that bothered to trouble myself making too many inane references whilst responding via a mobile-phone keypad.
……..Alas no ram did butt my buttocks from whence I came yesterday, or anywhere else for that matter.
A great day was had by all, great weather too.
Granted, it’s daylight robbery for what it is, but it serves more purpose than the pleasure ride along the lake.
On another note, the £7 car-park opposite LLanberis station is a major rip-off, and not affiliated to the SMR. For the skinflints among us , there’s an adequate all day car-park just round the corner for the bargain price of just £4 🙂
And rather than get ripped off for food and drink, there’s a Londis mini-mart 200 metres down the road selling all manner of refreshments for a fraction of SMR prices.
If you would care to be Royally ripped off in style, the Welsh Mountain Railway departs from Caernarfon quayside, destination Porthmadog, for around £40 🙂 , after disembarking at said destination, you will be robbed once more for a similar amount up to Ffestiniog.
If you’re going with family, you’d better spend some time mentally psyching yourself up for the final bill 🙂
Rip-off Britain eh?!
And you wonder why folk go abroad for their holidays.
P.S. Don’t even get me started about accommodation in Caernarfon.
if you’re ever there , stick with Travelodge. It does what it says on the tin, with style.
Very helpful! Entertaining reading, well done. Thank you!
Wow glad I read this lot,we go next week there and was hoping for a ride on the steam train,but will now visit the other one.thanks for the insight.
Lucky escape, though the price alone is probably enough to put me off. Thanks for the info!
Thank you! We had planned a visit next week, we will now try the lake trip and have extra ice cream with the savings!!
Good plan, I’ll wager the joy of Giorgio’s will last you longer than you would get at the Summit! And you’ll still have enough for a slap up feast at Pete’s Eats!
We come to Wales nearly every year and every year we go on at least 4 or 5 railway journeys with our young boy. We have loved them all,
A couple of years ago we went on the Llanberis Lakeside Railway and visited the Slate Museum and they were both great and very affordable.
I am currently sat in our holiday home typing this as tomorrow we were going to take a ride on the SMR —- and then I saw the prices on the web site.
FFS my jaw dropped as it would have cost us nearly £75. £75 quid for a short train ride and then only 30 minutes at the top. We have been on odd stream railways where the cost has been questionable but SMR are utterly taking the pi$$. Well they have just lost our cash because we’d rather take the Lakeside Railway again than line some greedy bastards pocket. I’d have squirmed at £35 but would probably dug deep. BUT £75!!!!
Thank you for writing this and giving me the opportunity to vent spleen
Im a complete newbie. I went up the Llanberis path yesterday but was quite unable to get down. I am actually petrified of heights, quite unsafe, the only I hope I had was my friends telling me about the train down. Yes, they painted the picture as it being almost like a stroll in the park with hills. In my naivity I went. By the time I got to the top, my legs gave in, could barely walk or step down and the trains said that single returns were fully booked.
Fortunately they managed to squeeze me on to a train, and the staff there are fantastic.
However I think it must be said for anyone daring to venture up Snowdon, it is not a stroll in the park, it can be treacherous, dangerous on even the most simplest of paths. I have no idea how rigid their system is, whether they will get people stranded at the top who, though not an emergency, feel unable to walk down. Take precautions. Be careful. Don’t leave it to chance. If you don’t know whether you can get down, don’t go up. Yes, this will probably mean less tourism. But don’t take unnecessary risks. If you’re scared of heights, have any kind of knee difficulty, not used to walking long distances, DON’T DO IT!
Simon , well done getting up the mountain, but your fitness level needed work first. Try walking up smaller hills and gradually build up to the mountains.
Your head for heights will gradually get better. Most mountain walks have established paths some don’t.
Do the ground work first and just get out there, as for the train ride goes, its long overdue a shake up…
Most people working on it are nice and friendly . The price is steep..seats bad but it’s got the monopoly , thus the only option for non walkers.
And they wouldn’t leave you stranded at the top. I heard of someone like yourself too tired and penny light coming down on the train for nothing.
Don’t let this put you off it gets easier..
Thanks, W’re currently staying on Anglesey, came online to look at booking tickets, saw your review (first page on Google!) and now shan’t bother. Lake railway it is 🙂
Thanks for your comment Andy, glad to know I’m back on the 1st search page of Google 🙂
I’m glad too that I was able to save you from the exorbitant outlay of the SMR and I hope the Lake Railway lived up to the billing.
Thank you for writing this,we were thinking of going up in the train as we are pensioners (with poorly legs) & would have two small grandsons with us. The cost of 130.00 for us and their mum out is off to start with,but your comments have cemented our decision not to do this.
We will definitely try the lakeside train instead!!
Such a shame that the people in charge have to put profit ahead of any thing else.
30 each, and it is not even going to the top! I am not parting with my cash for that. I will try your recommended lake railway instead. Thank you
This is the funniest thing I’ve read in forever. Tragically I already bought tickets up to the summit, we’re going to walk down. I cannot believe I am visiting from COLORADO and going to see a mountain. And you better believe I am going to find many, many ways to use “offensive cockwomble” in my speech. Thanks for this review!
Hi Paula
Thanks for taking the time to comment. I’m glad you enjoyed the review and please do give ‘cockwomble’ the wider proliferation it richly deserves, alas I am but also conduit to it rather than originator. Taking someone from Colorado to a a mountain is what we would refer to as bring coals to Newcastle though since all the mines shut that analogy is somewhat moot! I do hope you enjoy your trip, I have no desire to piss on anyone’s parade, I just want people to know so that maybe one day the gobshites at the SMR might learn.
Excellent, I sincerely hope you enjoyed it and the rest of your trip.
This is the sort of thing that really makes my blood boil, it is just the sort of excursion that grandparents should be able to take their grandchildren on but for that sort of money there are so many things I think just as interesting but far better value, you can do almost every other attraction in the area altogether for less money than that, and have something left for lunch! I hope you had an enjoyable trip.
Nobody forced you to use the train. Perhaps you want cheap tickets to help them go bust! Ever wondered why it still operates? I counted 7 employees maintaining the track on my trip and was well aware of the engine type by using the simple expedient of my eyes!
The staff were approachable and friendly, the passengers to! If anyone see’s a miserable git in the corner when they go up that would be you!
I’m not quite sure why you feel I would be wanting tickets cheaper than the cost of running the railway but you’re entitled to your opinion, misguided though it is on that count. I did very rough estimates on the cost as you will have seen and if the money paid to ordinary working staff is a large proportion of that cost then I would be delighted and quite happy to cite it in here, please do furnish me with any figures you have. I certainly never denigrated actual staff, in fact the only mention I made was of the drivers who were indeed friendly to us.
As to being well aware what the engine type is that’s a bit disingenuous since you have to book in advance and therefore have no prior knowledge as to the locomotive.(not in the years ago when I wrote this article anyway – I am led to believe they are now forced to concede the 1st train is a diesel).
So in order to better validate your comment I’d be grateful if you’d tell me what the weather was like when you went up, how much in advance you had booked your ticket and if the train stated whether it was steam- or diesel-hauled. Finally did you know specifically that the people working on the line were employees or might they have been volunteers, which a lot of railways use?
As to your rather flat joke I’m sorry to piss on your parade there but I think it’s pretty clear that you ain’t gonna see me going up there again mate, but I suspect you’ll find plenty of miserable gits and if you don’t see them in the carriage just look through the visitors book, or the Trip Advisor reviews. You’ll find several hundreds that felt the same as me and they were just the ones who bothered to write something I’m sure there were plenty who were too incandescent to even put into words their feelings!
Thanks for stopping by!
Sounds like you had a bad experience! I’ve been with my kids and absolutely loved it!! You do have to check the weather first obviously. We went on a perfectly clear day. We knew it was diesel not steam as it does state that in the price guide 🙂 We’re looking forward to going again this summer in fact when back in Wales (weather permitting!) It really is the most spectacular scenery at the summit. Definitely NOT to be missed!
Red Barron is a born complainer without the vocabulary to be taken seriously. Who, with the Witt to cross the road unsupervised, would expect the children’s story to be reenact end just for them?
Yeah ahem, perhaps if criticising someone’s vocabulary it mightn’t be a bad idea to check your own contribution, I’m going to be somewhat presumptuous in order to give you the benefit of the doubt by supposing that English is not your first language. That doesn’t excuse spelling the name of the blog owner wrong though which is either careless or rude. Still if you can point me to the area where I expect the Fat Controller to be present at the station then I’ll take it all back!
I’m glad you all had a good time Chris, perhaps the labelling of the trains is something they have paid some heed to, they certainly never used to. I hope everyone who takes their children enjoys it, it was the SMR’s failure to do basic things leading to my children having what I felt was an unnecessary and unjustified poor experience that had prompted me to write.
Totally unfair review (imo). You can’t compare the Lake Railway to the Snowdon one, the only similarity is the traind have wheels.
The SMR has ALWAYS been expensive, even in the 1950’s….I agree it would have been nicer to travel behind steam, but that’s what you get if you are a skinflint.
If you want to see Paul M’cCartney you pay over £100..it’s supply and demand.
Yes, the carriages are basic, but that’s part of the charm, cushions? They’re for softies.
To sum up, MTFU and get your wallet out.
🙂
Well obviously you are fully entitled to your opinion, imo it’s bollocks of course but… (sic)
“only similarity is the trains have wheels” – hmm well er, ok, so the fact that they are steam train-based tourist attractions in the small town of Llanberis in North Wales is of little significance… I felt that when you have a going concern literally the other side of the road where the atmosphere and treatment of passengers is more friendly rather than latent consumerist the comparison is valid.
As for “MTFU and get your wallet out” clearly you’ve a better rate of disposable income than this single parent with 2 kids and what a lucky world therefore is yours. I think shelling out the sort of money that is a week’s groceries for the cheaper of the two train prices scarcely qualifies for Scrooge-like critique. You’ll see if you read it that my objection to the diesel side was principally that it was not specified that this would be the case when buying the ticket. Had been so then I would have had the ability to tell my children in advance to prevent the understandable disappointment when this was made clear upon arrival. To take your supply and demand scenario a step further this is more the Sale Of Goods Act 1979 and assorted provisions of what constitutes agreed merchantable quality.
Having travelled on heritage railways across the country and state-owned railways across the world I can assure you I do not expect royal opulence when I am travelling, however when an audio commentary is being provided as part of the package I would expect it to be done in a way that people could hear, or what is the point of it existing? Would this have been any better with the steam engine, who knows – I think we would have cared a whole lot less.
(PS I don’t want to see Paul McCartney and I sure as hell ain’t paying over £100 for any gig with a man who is keen to highlight the plight of the starving people of the world from his comfortable ivory tower!)
Firstly, thanks for replying to my post…obviously imy comments were made tongue in cheek.
I do sympathise with your personal pedicament, however feel duty bound to mention that the SMR website clearly states in the essential information:-
Early Bird Prices
Book for our 9.00am departure and receive a great discount. Tickets are sold subject to availability and must be pre-booked in advance. The Early Bird departure will be a traditional diesel service.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this blog, stumbled upon and loitered in whilst trying to find the Welsh Highland Railway website http://festrail.co.uk/ which runs Caernarfon-Porthmadog. WHR seems expensive at nearly £40 return but includes 1 accompanied child and is a wonderful varied route, over 2 hours each way. Clear skies are nt essential to enjoy this. As a North Wales resident, one can buy a card at £15 per 5 years allowing 66% discounted standard fares.
Hi Pinstar, thanks for stumbling by and both loitering and commenting. Thanks also for the information which I am certain the other readers of the blog will make good note of and perhaps pay the WHR a visit, I had also heard it was costly but an enjoyable run.
TOTAL RIP OFF THE SOONER THEY GO BUST THE BETTER
As I said last year Fred…
“As to being well aware what the engine type is that’s a bit disingenuous since you have to book in advance and therefore have no prior knowledge as to the locomotive.(not in the years ago when I wrote this article anyway – I am led to believe they are now forced to concede the 1st train is a diesel).”
Perhaps enough of us complained as to at least change that little thing. Had it been in place when I went I would have had far less reason for complaint and they would have had a much easier time of responding to my complaint rather than the assertion that most people don’t mind what engine they have, something which is clearly false.
Well, I confess I’d sooner see them under new (and better) management, I think the railway has the ability to be both going concern and good value for money. There are many other heritage railways doing a good job of it and I’m sure are not precious about saying how they do so. I’d be sorry to see the trains and operational staff suffer for policies that are clearly taken at management level.
Nice one at least it’s not just me that thought that pants round my ankles felt improper.
Hi Andy – nice turn of phrase and no it wasn’t just you 🙂
Hi Red, enjoyed your blog. Things you say make sense. Shame really that even after 7 years since you wrote this nothing much has changed at the SMR. £101.50 for a family return ticket ??! Upss,. sorry such a thing as a family ticket does not even exist!! You can buy adult or child fare and the age of a child makes no difference either?!. I was hoping I will be able to get better price for tickets when a family of 2 adults and 2 small children travel but no – SMR does not care. When I went there by myself back in April I paid £32 adult fare. Good thing this is not the only mountain you can visit here. I know the scenery is beautiful as you go up but…. it is really too pricy for a family day out. And yes, you are right, you need to be quick at the top, train cannot be missed!!
We went up yesterday. Yes it was eye-wateringly expensive. However, it is a long haul – takes an hour to get up. You can see that this is an extreme railway journey with special track for the incline and the engine working hard for each haul. Each trip required two people to man it and it was just one carriage per train. The coaches had been upgraded since we last went to give outstanding vision of the spectacular scenery. Of course it was expensive but worth every penny. Everyone should go on this journey at least once in their lifetime.
2017, price is £29.00 per adult.I agree with all that the comments with the Red Barons posting nothing but a money thing they do not give a dam they have your money so put up with it.
I have been on the railway which I enjoyed yes it is expensive but you have to consider how much it takes for the upkeep of this wonderful experience. People also have to be paid and the track and walking areas have to be looked after. I have also walked up and down, maybe this rude foul mouthed man would prefer to do that. He could then spend a few hours cursing to his hearts content without anyone having to listen to him or read his terrible comments. I intend to go up again this year with my grandson and we are looking forward to it.
I have used this railway with my kids, when we walked up the Llanberis path but my younger son was too tired to walk back down. They kindly found some space for us and I was very grateful to pay £48 for three singles.
it occurred to me after reading your blog that the revenue opportunity for the SMR must be quite limited. They run about 16 trains per day for, say, 5 months of the year. As far as I am aware, the trains have only one carriage and seat a maximum of about 50 people. Putting these numbers together, I estimate their revenue to be about £23k per day during peak season.
The SMR is run by Heritage Attractions Ltd, whose most recent accounts can be viewed for free at Companies House:
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/03741747/filing-history
For the most recent year on record, their total revenue was about £13.5 million, resulting in £1.5 million profit. This was sourced from eight attractions; the SMR is not separately itemised. They employed 213 people who were paid, on average, about £22k each. Directors were remunerated separately by the holding company.
I don’t think SMR is the gouging operation you imagined them to be. My prize for that goes to the privatised water companies, which have been shown to make excess profits of over £1 billion from overcharging on a utility that is a basic human necessity. Oh and they pay no tax, whereas Heritage Attractions paid £150k last year.
A good read …thanks