Cardiff Bay railway station

Coordinates: 51°28′02″N 3°09′59″W / 51.4671°N 3.1665°W / 51.4671; -3.1665

Cardiff Bay National Rail
Welsh: Bae Caerdydd
Cardiff Bay railway station
Location
Place Cardiff Bay
Local authority Cardiff
Grid reference ST190748
Operations
Station code CDB
Managed by Transport for Wales
Number of platforms 1
DfT category F1
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2012/13 Increase 0.869 million
2013/14 Increase 1.019 million
2014/15 Increase 1.144 million
2015/16 Increase 1.191 million
2016/17 Increase 1.242 million
History
9 October 1840 Line opened
December 1844 Station opened as Cardiff Bute Dock
1845 Renamed Cardiff Docks
1 July 1924 Renamed Cardiff Bute Road
26 September 1994 Renamed Cardiff Bay
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Cardiff Bay from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Cardiff Bay railway station (Welsh: Bae Caerdydd), formerly Cardiff Bute Road, is a station serving the Cardiff Bay and Butetown areas of Cardiff, Wales. It is the southern terminus of the Butetown Branch Line 1 mile (1.5 km) south of Cardiff Queen Street.

Only one platform is now in use. The station building remains disused and is boarded up. The station building lies on Bute Street, although the rest of the station remains visible from the nearby Lloyd George Avenue. For various reasons, including it being the origin of the first steam-powered passenger train service in Wales, the station is a Grade II* listed building.[1]

The station is within walking distance of the Senedd and the Wales Millennium Centre

Passenger services are provided by Transport for Wales.

History

Cardiff Bay railway station

The line to the docks was opened on 9 October 1840 but the station was not mentioned in Bradshaw's railway timetables until December 1844. It was opened as "Cardiff Bute Dock" but the name was changed to "Cardiff Docks" in 1845 by the Taff Vale Railway (engineer: Isambard Kingdom Brunel). The station building was the head office of the TVR until 1862. After this it also housed the consulates of the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal and Brazil, with separate flag poles provided for each nation.

It was renamed "Cardiff Bute Road" by the Great Western Railway on 1 July 1924 and given its present name in 1994.[2]

Sir Gomer operating steam train rides along the length of the platform in the early 1990s

The building was restored in the 1980s and served for a time as a railway museum under the auspices of the National Museums and Galleries of Wales and the Butetown Historical Railway Society (which in 1997 relocated its activities to the Vale of Glamorgan Railway).[3]

In August 2017, plans to build an office and apartment block next to a Grade II-listed former railway station in Cardiff have been approved. The plans include renovating and converting the derelict building and link it to a new four-storey building. The new building would house 10 flats, offices and a cafe. The Victorian Society said the Bute Street station was one of the oldest and most significant railway structures in Wales and last year appeared on its list of the 10 most endangered buildings. It said it supported a sensitive restoration scheme but the current proposal would cause a "high degree of harm to the building and its setting".[4]

Services

The Class 121 single-unit "bubble car"

There is a shuttle service between Cardiff Queen Street and Cardiff Bay every 12 minutes Monday to Saturdays (between 0630 and 2330) and every 12 minutes on Sundays (between 1100 and 1630) using a Class 153 "Super Sprinter". The service was formerly operated by a Class 121 "bubble car", but this was withdrawn in June 2013.

Preceding station National Rail Following station
Cardiff Queen Street   Transport for Wales
Butetown Branch Line
   Terminus

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://cadwpublic-api.azurewebsites.net/reports/listedbuilding/FullReport?lang=en&id=13963
  2. ↑ Quick, Michael (2009). Railway Passenger Stations in Great Britain - A Chronology. Railway & Canal Historical Society. ISBN 9780901461575.
  3. ↑ Hutton, John (2006). The Taff Vale Railway, vol. 1. Silver Link. ISBN 9781857942491.
  4. ↑ Cardiff Bay Station revamp and extension plan approved https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-40953047
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