Gowerton railway station

Gowerton railway station (originally Gower Road and later Gowerton North) serves the village of Gowerton, Wales. It is located at street level at the end of Station Road in Gowerton 5 1⁄2 miles (8.9 km) west of Swansea. The station is unmanned but has a ticket machine, shelters on each platform and live train running information displays.

Gowerton
Welsh: Tre-gŵyr
Location
PlaceGowerton
Local authoritySwansea
Coordinates51.6487°N 4.0353°W / 51.6487; -4.0353
Grid referenceSS592964
Operations
Station codeGWN
Managed byTransport for Wales
Number of platforms2
DfT categoryF2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15 0.131 million
2015/16 0.143 million
2016/17 0.167 million
2017/18 0.174 million
2018/19 0.209 million
National Rail – UK railway stations
  • Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Gowerton from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

Background

Gowerton station was opened as Gower Road by the South Wales Railway on Tuesday 1 August 1854[1] It was later renamed Gowerton, following a request to the railway company by the parish vestry, and from 1950 became known as Gowerton North to distinguish it from the Gowerton South railway station which served the now closed Pontarddulais to Swansea Victoria section of the Heart of Wales line until 1964.[2]

History
Gowerton station in June 2006

The station originally had two platforms, sited on the section between Cockett station and Duffryn, but the track was singled in 1986 as an economy measure. Network Rail planned to re-double the section of railway through this station and re-instate the disused east-bound platform in May 2012. Work commenced in March 2013 and was completed a month later.[3][4]

This has increased the capacity of this section of line and allowed more trains to stop at this station.[5] The re-doubling work was completed in July 2013 with the disused platform brought back into use. This resulted in an additional 95 services stopping at Gowerton every week[6] and this has also helped to increase passenger usage at the station, which has risen by 2,100% since 1998.[7]

Services

Gowerton is served approximately every hour by Transport for Wales services heading westbound towards Llanelli, where they continue to either West Wales or to Shrewsbury via the Heart of Wales line; and eastbound towards Swansea, with many continuing further east to Cardiff Central, Hereford and Manchester Piccadilly.[8] The station was originally a request stop, but on 9 September 2013, it was no longer listed as one.

Preceding station National Rail Following station
Swansea   Transport for Wales
West Wales line		   Llanelli
Swansea   Transport for Wales
Heart of Wales line		   Llanelli

References
  1. Contemporary report in The Cambrian newspaper, cited by N.T. Wassell in magazine article "Gowerton North (Part One)", published by the Railway Club of Wales, circa 1986.
  2. Clinker's Register of Closed Passenger Stations and Goods Depots in England, Wales and Scotland, 1830-1977, AvonAngliA Publications, Bristol, 1978.
  3. South Wales Evening Post, May 2012
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 6 June 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2019.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. Network Rail Wales RUS Archived 7 June 2011 at the Wayback MachineNetwork Rail website; Retrieved 2008-06-25
  6. This is South Wales - Revamped Gowerton train station is on track to fine future
  7. Johnston, Howard (13 April 2016). "Regional News". Rail Magazine. No. 798. p. 25. ISSN 0953-4563.
  8. Table 128 & 129 National Rail timetable, December 2016
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