Ammanford railway station

Ammanford National Rail
Welsh: Rhydaman
Location
Place Ammanford
Local authority Carmarthenshire
Coordinates 51°47′42″N 3°59′45″W / 51.7951°N 3.9959°W / 51.7951; -3.9959Coordinates: 51°47′42″N 3°59′45″W / 51.7951°N 3.9959°W / 51.7951; -3.9959
Grid reference SN623126
Operations
Station code AMF
Managed by Arriva Trains Wales
Number of platforms 1
DfT category F2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2012/13 Increase 20,412
2013/14 Decrease 19,912
2014/15 Increase 20,238
2015/16 Decrease 18,968
2016/17 Increase 19,428
History
Original company Llanelly Railway
Pre-grouping London and North Western Railway
Post-grouping London, Midland and Scottish Railway
6 May 1841 Opened as Duffryn
1 July 1889 Renamed Tirydail
September 1960 Renamed Ammanford and Tirydail
6 September 1965 Renamed Ammanford and Tirydail Halt
5 May 1969 Renamed Ammanford and Tirydail
7 May 1973 Renamed Ammanford
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Ammanford from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal
From the crossing, 1994

Ammanford railway station serves the town of Ammanford in Carmarthenshire, Wales. Situated 12 miles (19 km) north of Swansea on today's Heart of Wales Line, the station was first opened in 1841 as a temporary terminus of the Llanelly Railway's line to Llandeilo (and branch to Cross Hands), making it one of the country's earliest railway stations.

Originally called Duffryn,[1] and then Tirydail, the station underwent a number of subsequent name changes (see the panel on the right) before being renamed Ammanford and Tirydail in 1960 following the closure in 1958 of Ammanford station on the Amman Valley branch railway. In 1973 Ammanford and Tirydail was renamed yet again: this time to plain Ammanford.

The station stands at street level about 800 m (870 yd) northwest of Ammanford town centre on Station Road (formerly Dyffryn Road). Old Ordnance Survey maps show that at some point between 1891 and 1906 the passenger platform was moved from the north to the south side of the Dyffryn Road level crossing.[2] As with most of the stations on the Heart of Wales Line, the original rather elegant station buildings and signal box have been demolished and now the only structures are a platform and shelter.

History

Opened by the Llanelly Railway on 6 May 1841, the station was taken over jointly by the Great Western Railway and London and North Western Railway in 1873. It became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway as a result of the Grouping of 1923. The station then passed, upon nationalisation of the railways in 1948, to the Western Region of British Railways. Under British Rail sectorisation from the 1980s until railway privatisation, Ammanford station was served by Regional Railways.

The station appears several times and is mentioned by name in the 1951 Festival of Britain film, David. It also had a passing loop until 1966, but this was removed when the line's signalling was simplified and many of the intermediate signal boxes closed.

Facilities

Amenities at the station are basic (despite it being one of the largest towns served on the route), with no ticket provision of any kind (these must be bought on the train or prior to travel). As well as the aforementioned shelter and a bicycle rack, there is a customer help point at the station entrance and a digital CIS display to provide real-time train running information.[3] Northbound trains must stop here in order for the train crew to activate the controls for the half-barrier level crossing,[4] but for southbound trains it is a request stop.[5]

Services

All trains serving the station are operated by Arriva Trains Wales. There are four trains a day to Shrewsbury northbound from Monday to Saturday (plus a fifth to Llandovery) and five southbound to Llanelli and Swansea (the first train in each direction does not run on Saturdays); two services each way call on Sundays.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Railway Stations Pantyffynnon to Llandeilo on the Town of Ammanford website
  2. ↑ Old Maps Archived 30 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ↑ Ammanford station facilities National Rail Enquiries
  4. ↑ Ammanford railway station (2014) Thompson, Nigel Geograph.org.uk; Retrieved 24 July 2017
  5. 1 2 GB eNRT May 2017 Edition, Table 129 (Network Rail)
  • Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199.
  • Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 978-0-906899-99-1. OCLC 228266687.
  • Station on navigable O.S. map. Station due north of Pantyffynnon.
Preceding station National Rail Following station
Pantyffynnon   Arriva Trains Wales
Heart of Wales Line		   Llandybie
  Historical railways  
Parcyrhun Halt   London and North Western Railway
Shrewsbury to Llanelli Line		   Llandybie
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