Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways National Rail Heritage Award
Tabled 8 December 2025 by Liz Saville Roberts
That this House congratulates the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways on receiving the Network Rail Award for Best Overall Entry at the National Rail Heritage Awards for the redevelopment of the historic Boston Lodge Works near Porthmadog; notes that Boston Lodge, dating back almost 200 years, is recognised as the world’s oldest railway engineering works, unique for having built steam locomotives in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries; commends the £5 million redevelopment project, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Ffestiniog Railway Society and the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railway Trust, which conserved and restored listed buildings while creating modern facilities to secure the site’s future; further notes that the project successfully balanced heritage and operational needs, and will allow public access to the workshops from 2026; and celebrates the railway’s continuing contribution to heritage engineering, tourism, and the cultural identity of Gwynedd and Wales, including its role in the UNESCO-designated Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales World Heritage Site.