Welshpool railway station

For the railway station in Western Australia, see Welshpool railway station, Perth. For former station in Victoria, Australia, see Welshpool railway station, Victoria.

Welshpool railway station is a railway station on the Cambrian Line in Powys, mid-Wales. It was first opened in August 1860, but the current station was opened in May 1992 to allow for track re-alignment, the same day that the original closed, and is a short distance from the original. The station serves the town of Welshpool (Welsh: Y Trallwng), as well as its surroundings.

Welshpool Welsh: Y Trallwng
General information
Location	Welshpool, Powys Wales
Coordinates	52.657469°N 3.139947°W / 52.657469; -3.139947
Grid reference	SJ229072
Managed by	Transport for Wales
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	WLP
Classification	DfT category F1
Key dates
14 August 1860	opened
18 May 1992	Original station closed and new station opened on track realignment.
Passengers
2019/20	165,724
2020/21	33,782
2021/22	98,128
2022/23	140,554
2023/24	155,906
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

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 & Newtown Railway, the original station opened on 14 August 1860. The line was initially operated by the London & 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 & 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 cuts 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. Subsequent development of the A483 road Welshpool bypass (opened in July 1993) 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 ticket vending machine, 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). The original station building can still be seen across the road, and has been converted into a 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.

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).

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Newtown		Transport for Wales Cambrian Line		Shrewsbury
	Historical railways
Forden Line open, station closed		Cambrian Railways Oswestry & Newtown Railway		Buttington Line open, station closed
Terminus		GWR and LNWR joint Shrewsbury and Welshpool Railway
	Heritage railways
Walking connection with Welshpool Raven Square on the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway

Further reading

• Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (2008). Shrewsbury to Newtown. Middleton Press. pp. 64–77. ISBN 9781906008291. OCLC 228374968.

External links

Media related to Welshpool railway station at Wikimedia Commons

• Train times and station information for Welshpool railway station from National Rail