Valley Lines – The People’s Railway: The Inside Story of a Train Business 1983-1993

As South Wales Passenger manager between 1983 and 1993, John Davies presided over a turbulent era in local railway management. In the face of substantial opposition from all sides he succeeded in transforming the Valley Lines operation into a rare railway success story. In Valley Lines – The People’s Railway: The Inside Story of a Train Business 1983-1993 John, in his own words, and those of Rhodri Clark, Transport Journalist of the Year 1995/6, reveals the inside story of his efforts to revitalise train services in the Cardiff Valleys.

Contents include:

Throwing out the baby with the bathwater. The Valley Lines before 1983.
The Taff main line.
Swashbuckling Times. Tackling the problems of 1983.
The Merthyr Line.
The People’s Railway. The Marketing Revolution.
Cardiff and its Local Lines.
Running hard to stand still. How efficiency was improved.
The Rhondda Line.
Eight weeks on a knife edge. The 1987 timetable change.
The Rhymney Line.
Genies from a Bottle. New lines, new stations.
Sprinters in the Valleys.
Work with other Bodies.
The Aberdare Line.
Friends and Foes. The influence of other rail businesses.
The Penarth and Barry Lines.
Public transport under siege. Competitors on the roads.
The Maesteg Line.
It ain’t necessarily so. How the tide could be turned again.

A map of the Valley Lines, images of advertising material and the 1982-1995 Valley Lines Passenger statistics are also included.

Published 1996. 28 colour and 78 black & white. 96 pages.

Merthyr

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Valley Lines – The People’s Railway