Welshpool railway station

Welshpool National Rail
Welsh: Y Trallwng
Location
Place Welshpool
Local authority Powys
Grid reference SJ229072
Operations
Station code WLP
Managed by Transport for Wales
Number of platforms 2
DfT category F1
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2012/13 Increase 117,254
2013/14 Increase 122,446
2014/15 Increase 133,744
2015/16 Increase 157,646
2016/17 Increase 170,648
History
14 August 1860 opened
18 May 1992[1] Original station closed and new station opened on track realignment.
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Welshpool from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Welshpool railway station on the Cambrian Line in Powys, mid-Wales, serves the town of Welshpool (Welsh: Y Trallwng).

History

G.J. Churchward designed GWR 4300 Class 2-6-0 No. 7309 exits the locomotive depot at Welshpool in 1957

Built by the Oswestry and Newtown Railway, the original station opened on 14 August 1860.[1] The line was initially operated by the London and North Western Railway before being absorbed by the Cambrian Railways, which became part of the Great Western Railway at the grouping which came into effect on 1 January 1923.

Midland Counties Dairy bought and operated the creamery at Cilcewydd. A siding from the station gave access for milk trains to the creamery.

About 100 metres north of the station were exchange sidings with the narrow gauge Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway which opened for freight traffic in 1903 and closed in 1956 with a separate station serving passenger traffic until 1931. By 2017 the only remains are part of the cattle dock which has mixed gauge track embedded into concrete track bed. All other remains of this station and the site of the railway were obliterated by the construction of the new A483 road.

Present

The present Welshpool station

There was some severe rationalisation of services under the Beeching Axe in the 1960s, with the old Cambrian main line to Whitchurch via Oswestry closed to passengers in January 1965 and most local stations towards Aberystwyth following suit later that year. Two of the four platforms at the old station were later taken out of use.[1] Subsequent development of the A483 road Welshpool bypass (opened in July 1993)[2] required the railway line to be shifted to the south. To enable this the original station was closed, and a new single island platform constructed by British Rail south of it, to allow realignment in May 1992.

The replacement station platform is reached by a pedestrian bridge crossing both the railway and the A483, with long uncovered inclines to the north and stepped access from the south. There are no facilities beyond a small shelter, bench seating, passenger information displays and a customer help point (though the National Rail Enquiries station page does have directions to a local travel agent with National Rail ticketing facilities).[3] The original station building can still be seen across the road, and has been converted into a mill shop and café.

The passing loop was later extended to 2.5 miles (4.0 km) to allow for an hourly train service, and to reduce the impact of delays on the line.

The station was used by HM Queen Elizabeth II when she came on an official visit to the town on 28 April 2010. She arrived and departed on the Royal Train.

Services

Trains run from here westwards to Machynlleth and then either Aberystwyth or Pwllheli via Barmouth (most trains convey a portion for both routes) and eastwards to Shrewsbury & Birmingham International. There is a basic two-hourly service each way - on weekdays & Saturdays with additional hourly Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth services until mid morning & again during late afternoon and early evenings. On Sundays there is a two-hourly service on the Shrewsbury - Aberystwyth axis, but only a limited service along the coast to/from Pwllheli (three in summer and one in winter).[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Disused Stations - Welshpool (1st Site)
  2. ↑ Hansard
  3. ↑ Welshpool station facilities National Rail Enquiries
  4. ↑ GB eNRT May 2017 Edition, Table 76 (Network Rail)

Further reading

  • Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2008). Shrewsbury to Newtown. Middleton Press. pp. 64–77. ISBN 9781906008291. OCLC 228374968.
Preceding station National Rail Following station
Shrewsbury   Transport for Wales
Cambrian Line		   Newtown
Disused railways
Buttington
Line open, station closed		   Great Western Railway
Oswestry and Newtown Railway		   Forden
Line open, station closed

Coordinates: 52°39′27″N 3°08′24″W / 52.657469°N 3.139947°W / 52.657469; -3.139947

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